According
to them, he has not handled the Boko Haram conflict well and has been complicit
in the group’s growth over the years. Some say his complicity lies in his
neglect of the north-east.
One of the truck drivers identified as Mr Abubakar said: “President Jonathan is just as
guilty as those Boko Haram killers because he has chopped off all the money to
repair the roads.
“The killings are too much and
have been going on for too long.
“President Jonathan is not
doing anything. We hope he will leave – we want change.”
All the
truck drivers also expressed anger over the postponement of the February 14
presidential elections by six weeks.Some of the Nigerian truck drivers who have
survived a journey through Boko Haram territory open up about their ordeal.
Most of those in the group drive tankers of petrol, diesel or kerosene to and
from Maiduguri, the city at the heart of the Islamist insurgency in the
north-east and the capital of Borno state.
Gathered at the Ogere Trailer
Park, about 50km (30 miles) north of Lagos, they say they have all been
affected by the six-year conflict.
Most of them say they have lost
relatives, wives and children have been kidnapped and their homes destroyed by
the insurgency.
Speaking
about their perils as truck drivers plying the Lagos-Maiduguri route, Abubakar
and his colleagues said it takes two and a half days when a tanker is empty and
four and a half days when full. Aside the dangers of Boko Haram, there are so
many potholes on the roads.
“Ten
of my colleagues who ply this route have been killed in the last three weeks.
The militants stopped them and cut off their heads with an electric chainsaw
and burned the trucks.
“Boko Haram is usually only
interested in commandeering smaller vehicles, sometimes the fighters will take
the lorries, but most of the time they burn them,” Mr
Abubakar said.
According
to another truck driver, if a driver looks ‘powerful’, the insurgents may
kidnap him and conscript him to be a fighter but if you are looking weak, they
will definitely kill you.
“If
you reach Damaturu by five in the afternoon, you dare not continue on the final
leg to Maiduguri,” he said, explaining that a driver may not manage
the last 130km before the sun sets, when they would be most vulnerable to
attack.
Recounting
his own ordeal with the sect, driver Trap Bukar said he was in the town of Bama
when it was captured by Boko Haram last September.
“It
started early in the morning. Suddenly they came. There was shooting, in my
presence I saw four people go down; the soldiers fled. I could tell you many
unhappy tales,” he said with tears in his eyes.
According to Kullima Ali, 18, who
has been a motor boy for four years, it is very difficult to tell the militants
from soldiers, as they dress in camouflage, with only their eyes visible.
He explained that he is now his
family’s only bread winner as the insurgents killed his two brothers and burned
their house in Maiduguri in January 2013. He now has only his mother and
sister.
In recent times, Nigerian troops have been
successful in reclaiming several townspreviously seized by the
insurgents.
After
scores of attack on neigbhbouring countries, Nigeria’s neighbors decided to
form a multinational army to confront Boko Haram, pledging to help Nigeria
defeat the extremists.
No comments:
Post a Comment