“Government at all levels in Nigeria has diverted attention to COVID-19 and relegated the issue of insecurity to the background,” said Hassan Aliyu Yaulari, a 48-year-old civil servant in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The civil servant spoke to Washington Post in the wake of the brutal attacks on Faduma Kolomdi, a community in Gubio LGA of Borno State, where 81 people were killed on Tuesday.
Residents said that during the nearly two-hour attack, the insurgents had the time to preach to villagers before going on a killing spree.
Several villagers in Gubio local government area claimed to have informed the military about the impending attack, especially harassment from insurgents, but nothing was done until disaster struck. According to them, the insurgents would storm villagers, threaten villagers and take cattle.
A 37-year-old artisan, Umar Ashami, who lost his younger sister, said, “The Nigerian military was alerted that Boko Haram was sighted a day before the attack but nothing was done until they struck.”
However, military authorities in a Wednesday statement denied that it ignored warnings of impending attacks.
It blamed the attacks on “a few sleeper cells” of Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
As has become common after deadly attacks, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the military to increase pressure on the insurgents.
The president said soldiers must pursue the terrorists and make them pay for the terrible massacre.
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