- Captured Boko
Haram commander, combatants relive life in Sambisa, other Boko Haram
strongholds
- How Nigerian
Army de-radicalises terror suspects
Joseph David hushed boys to sleep with bullets in Sambisa. He shot hot
lead into their parents in Baga. He watched blood drip through their perforated
innards, to soak the
sands and scorched earth of Borno. David a.k.a Ibrahim Al Hajar, abducted
peasant girls and housewives too.
At 22, the commander of the dreaded terrorist sect, Boko Haram,
forcibly married two Chibok girls: Precious a.k.a Faridah and
Elizabeth a.k.a Amina,soon after their abduction from home and his marriage to
his first bride, who is also named Faridah, from Madagali.
David has killed people. Thus at 25, three
years after he took command of Boko Haram’s 150-man guerrilla unit, he has lost
grasp of his body count. But he remembers the peasant families he dismembered.
He remembers the husbands, wives, beloved sons and daughters that he ‘wasted’
in cold blood. David remembers too, the soldiers he ambushed and killed in
furious glee.
In the wake of his bloody exploits, David
seeks redemption. He fights a desperate battle every day, against demons no one
can see. “I want everybody to forgive me and forget because I did it
mistakenly. It is not my fault. They forced me…I am sorry for my past. I am
sorry for what I did. I am a Christian. I did not intend to do these things but
they forced me. I did it to save my life. That is why I say I am sorry,” he
said, urging his victims to ‘forgive and forget.’
I want
everybody to forgive me and forget because I did it mistakenly. It is not my
fault. They forced me…I am sorry for my past. I am sorry for what I did. I am a
Christian. I did not intend to do these things but they forced me. I did it to
save my life. That is why I say I am sorry
Can his victims ever forgive and forget? Most
of them are dead; very few people survived David and his rampaging horde. From
Baga to Bama, Patawe to Pita, Monguno to Sambisa, David left a bloody trail as
a fearless slayer. But how did the unassuming youth from Mubi, Adamawa State,
mutate into a terror of Nigeria’s northeast?
“I was kidnapped,” he said; “The people that
kidnapped me named me Ibrahim Al Hajar. They (Boko Haram) kidnapped me
three years ago in Mubi (Adamawa). I was 22 years old. They took me to Sambisa
Forest.”
In Sambisa Forest, David’s abductors
indoctrinated him with spiritual texts regarded as Boko Haram’s holy grail.
This was the prerequisite for training him to use guns and other weaponry. Thus
after three months of brainwashing, Joseph was renamed Ibrahim Al Hajar.
Afterwards, he was transferred to Shababu
Ummah. “That is where they train people to use guns. I spent almost four months
there, learning to use machine guns and other weapons of war. After that, I
passed out (graduated),” he said.
For his first assignment, he was given a Hilux
truck with an Antiaircraft (AA) machine gun. He was assigned to lead ambushes
against Nigeria’s Military Joint Task Force (MJTF). David led his squad on
several successful missions, ambushing the JTF and halting military onslaught
against Boko Haram in Sambisa. Then he got caught.
“Before I was caught, I went on a mission to
Patawe. I went to Gwoza. In 2015, I attacked Babangida (a town) and there was a
time that the Nigeria Army attacked Sambisa Forest, so they permitted me to
walk over them. So I did…That was the time Buhari defeated Goodluck Jonathan.”
David regrets many things: “You know, the
lives of people that I have wasted. At the end, I don’t know how it will be…on
the last day of judgment. And I regret because I was a student before Boko
Haram kidnapped me.
“I was schooling at SPY. That is, State
Polytechnic, Yola. I was studying Criminal Law…I want to say sorry because
these things that I did, I did them to save my life. If I didn’t do them, they
may think I am trying to bring problem within them. So, I did those things
smartly and logically, till the time that God provided way for
me to escape,” he said.
“You
know, the lives of people that I have wasted. At the end, I don’t know how it
will be…on the last day of judgment. And I regret because I was a student
before Boko Haram kidnapped me. I was schooling at SPY. That is, State
Polytechnic, Yola. I was studying Criminal Law…I want to say sorry because
these things that I did, I did them to save my life.
Life as Boko Haram Commander
Being a Boko Haram Commander attracted several
perks. David enjoyed a great deal of respect and modest wealth. He had his own
army, numbering 150 to 250 men. He also received at least N500, 000 every month
for his upkeep and that of his soldiers. The money was disbursed to him and
fellow senior officers in Nigerian currency and sometimes, it was disbursed to
them in foreign currencies: Euro, Dollars or Riyal.
With such liquid cash at his disposal, David
was rich enough to marry three wives. Thus in one year, he forcibly married
three abducted teenagers; his first wife, Faridah, was kidnapped from Madagali
and the other two, Precious a.k.a Faridah and Elizabeth a.k.a Amina, were
abducted from Chibok. His first wife, he revealed, was pregnant at the time of
his arrest by the Nigeria Army.
Didn’t he feel sorry for them? Didn’t he ever
imagine that they could be his sisters and thus cringe from marrying them? To
these, he responds: “I felt sorry for them but I treated them well. Due to my
position, I had some wealth, shelter and other things. So, I took care of them.
Because they were Christians and I was a Christian too, I treated them well.”
Did they love him? “They loved me too much,”
he enthused.
David’s wives are still in Sambisa and he
believes they will still see him ‘By God’s grace.”
Frosty relationship with Shekau
“Shekau captured my wives. He took the two
Chibok girls from me because I treated them well. He said he did not trust me.
He said, one day, I would run with them back to Nigeria,” said David. According
to him, his frosty relationship with Shekau was caused by moles in his unit who
fed unpalatable information about him to the Boko Haram leader. David said
because he didn’t maltreat his wives like the other officers, his actions
became suspect to his soldiers and peers.
David is sure that his wives and Boko Haram
leadership know that he is still alive. “They will know because of the
information that goes around and they have computers and other digital gear,”
he said.
David met with Shekau at the completion of
each stage of his training in weapon handling. For instance, Shekau hosted him
and gave him a Hilux truck with Anti-aircraft (AA) machine gun immediately he
completed his first training. He also fought alongside Shekau against the
military in Pita in a bloody gunfight that led to deaths on both sides.
Is Shekau a good leader?
Shekau is not a good leader due to what he is
doing. His Muslim brothers are blaming him. He spoiled the religion of Muslims.
So, he is not a good person. If you look at the people and widows that he has
taken as slaves, he is not taking good care of them. People are dying,
especially the small children. He is not taking care of them – David.
The 25-year-old dreams of pursuing a career in
Criminology. He also dreams of reuniting with his siblings and parents in Yola,
Adamawa.
Boko Haram’s dangerous use of minors
Over the years, Boko Haram has
constituted a security challenge to Nigeria. Since its birth in 2009, the group
has expanded its operational tactics to include the use of suicide bombers –
mainly underage girls – and forcible recruitment of underage boys as combatants
to execute its terrorist attacks.
Boko Haram’s modus operandi (MO) includes the abduction of
underage girls and boys and even adults to feed its badly devastated militant
army. Abductees or hostages of the terrorist group oftentimes harden into
stone-cold killers on the watch of the group’s leadership.
One such victim is Yau Damina, 14. The teenager was abducted from Potiskum by Boko Haram and taken to an unknown destination several months ago. Damina spent five months in Boko Haram’s terror camps, training to become a combatant soldier. And he became a stone-cold killer. In five months, Damina developed deadly skills. For instance, he killed five men in the blink of an eye, because they disrespected and killed his team leader.
“I killed them because they killed my team leader,” he said. In retrospect, Damina feels bad over what he’d done. He said he wishes he hadn’t joined Boko Haram. Damina has no hobbies. He has no dreams. And he has no hopes for the future. He is simply content living in military detention. Yau was arrested while attending a wedding at his grandfather’s village in Potiskum.
Unlike Damina whose body count tally at five, Ali Mustapha, 17, killed 13 people during his time with Boko Haram. Mustapha revealed that he was forced to kill his victims in Chikungudu Forest, Kalabalge, where he was held in captivity for three years by the insurgents.
Mustapha was intercepted by security operatives while on espionage mission in Maiduguri. He was allegedly sent by his Commander, Umar, fromChikungudu Forest in Kalabalge.
Ali Mustapha told The Nation in an interview, that he was sent to spy and report on likely soft targets in Baga Road, Monday Market and Custom Market in Maiduguri, Borno capital.
“I was kidnapped in Marte by the insurgents; when they stormed the town in 2013, they took us away to Chikungudu Forest in Kalabalge council. I was held in captivity for three years at Chikungudu. Within the period, I have killed about 13 people in separate locations.
“First was at Chikungudu, where we were held hostage by Boko Haram. Whenever the insurgents returned from a mission, they would line up their hostages before us and ask us to kill them. They forced us to kill innocent people.
“They said they were testing us. The first time I killed, I killed five people. They told me, ‘Ali, you will kill five people today.’ I initially declined but when they threatened to kill me, I had no option but to kill the five people they brought before me. They later came with three other people and forced me to kill them.
“The second time I killed people was at a village called Burssari. While we were there, they brought another set of five people and asked me to kill them and instantly I did. I had no choice because they threatened to kill me if I didn’t kill them. Then we went back to Chikungudu where they held us. They also went to a town and came back with some people and told other victims like me to kill them which they did,” revealed Mustapha.
The 17-year-old was trained to couple and dismantle AK 47 rifles. “More than 500 children of my age, including younger ones, were conscripted as child soldiers in Chukungudu Forest in Kalabalge. Even kids younger than I am were trained to handle and shoot AK 47 rifles in the forest. There were girls too, who were trained to go on suicide bombing missions,” he said.
‘Children of pagans’
“Although they gave us some inscription written in Arabic to drink, I declined and threw mine away. We sometimes declined to do what they wanted us to do, so they nicknamed us children of pagans and spat on us and refused to give us food.
“At Chikungudu in Kalabalge. Our leader is Umar from Mamman Nur’s faction of Boko Haram. I have never seen him but they usually sent people to greet him and they always told us about how powerful he is.
“My father’s name is Mustapha and my mother’s name is Ya’zara. The last time I saw them was at Marte, when Boko Haram stormed our town and took us away,” said Ali.
Mustapha arrived in Maiduguri in company of two younger child soldiers, Muhammad and Ba’ana. While his beats were Baga Road, Monday Market and Custom Market, he did not know his accomplices’ beats in Maiduguri. He was arrested at the Bakassi IDP camp after refugees in the camp identified him as a member of Boko Haram. The 17-year-old’s parents were identified as IDPs taking refuge in the camp.
Abducted, forcibly conscripted from Cameroon
Muhammed Abubakar, 31, had a wife in Cameroon, Fatima, and a two-year old son, Hadji Muhammed. Two years ago, Abubakar was abducted in common hours, while he laboured to fend for his family. Life was hard but bearable for the 31-year-old until the rampaging hordes of Boko Haram struck his community on the outskirts of Cameroon. Abubakar was whisked to Sambisa Forest where he was forcibly recruited as soldier by Boko Haram. He lived in Sambisa for two years. During those years, he tried to escape thrice. At his third try, Boko Haram commanders lost patience with him. Thus they amputated his left leg and right hand. Then they set him free.
“Fool, you can escape now. You are of no use to us or anyone now,” they taunted him. Abubakar bled and writhed in his own blood for three days. It was a miracle that he lived. He was given no analgesic neither was he accorded the luxury of first aid treatment of his wounds. Thus at the risk of contracting life-threatening diseases, he clung desperately to life hoping for a miracle.
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