Over one thousand internally displaced persons, IDPs, from Baga town in northern Borno State returned home on Saturday where they were received by the State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum.
The returnees were given ten thousand naira (N10,000) and a bag of rice each to start life afresh.
The Governor, who was in Baga town on Friday, spent two nights with the returnees under heavy security watch to supervise preparations for safe resettlement in the commercial town, which was earlier occupied by militants.
Governor Zulum, while in Baga, advise the returnees to be law-abiding and to give support and cooperate with the security operatives in other to enjoy their protection and safety.
He assured them that government was not going to abandon them but will continue to ensure that they are well protected.
According to Zulum, the sum of N10,000 given to them, as well as bags of maize, beans and 3 litres of oil are a short term relief to enable them have an easy start with life.
Professor Zulum who joined the convoy to return to Maiduguri the state capital on Sunday reportedly had some set back when the insurgents again tried to stop his convoy but security operatives repelled them with no single casualty on government side.
It was gathered that the series of attempts and attacks on the governor’s convoy was a plan by the leadership of ISIS-linked ISWAP operating in pockets of territories in the fringes of the Lake Chad Basin to abduct the Borno State governor.
Report on Sunday said the terrorist leadership has instructed a joint unit of ISWAP commanders to launch a coordinated ambush on the returning convoy of the Borno state government, 50km away from Maiduguri, the state capital.
According to the report, the joint ISWAP units have been spotted gathering, with about 20 gun trucks in a location 1.5km away from Kukawa town.
