Borno recovers, buries 81 B’Haram victims

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The Bama Local Government Area of Borno State has retrieved and buried the corpses of 81 victims of the Boko Haram killings, which were dumped by the insurgents in the Yadzaram River after the terrorists captured Bama town on September 1, 2014.

Speaking with journalists on Thursday, the Chairman of Bama LGA, Alhaji Ali Gujja, said the remains, which were mainly skeletons, were buried on Thursday by the council officials.

Gujja added that the skeletons were exhumed along the river beds by volunteers and some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force.

Addressing newsmen in Bama during the burial, Gujja explained that the corpses could not be retrieved from the flowing river immediately after the killings because of insecurity in Bama.

He said the corpses were floating on the river for so long while some laid on the river beds for over a year.

The LG chairman stated that some volunteers and members of CJTF exhumed the remains of the 81 victims.

He lamented that the insurgents dumped several bodies of residents in two cement wells in three wards of Bama.

Gujja said the affected wells had been sealed up while their environs had been fumigated to prevent further outbreak of air and water-borne diseases in the town.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency has unfolded plans to take relief materials to newly liberated towns of the state.

The North-East Zonal Coordinator of the agency, Alhaji Mohammed Kanar, said this on Wednesday during the distribution of relief materials to internally displaced persons in Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno State.

Kanar added, “We are moving to Bama, Gwoza, Askira-Uba, Marte and Baga local government areas to distribute relief materials to liberated people in the areas.”

The team from NEMA, who were cheered on arrival at Dikwa by thousands of elated residents that lined the streets to welcome them, erected camps in the town.

Kanar, while addressing the internally displaced persons, promised that as soon as final clearance was received from the military, rehabilitation of structures destroyed by the insurgents would be carried out to enable the displaced persons to return to their homes.

He said this was the second time the agency would be distributing relief items to people of Dikwa in recent time.

On the entourage of NEMA to Dikwa were other stakeholders in emergency management, including UNICEF and local government health workers, who erected tents, immunised children, and administered drugs to those requiring medical attention.

Source: Punch