As Nigerians elsewhere celebrate Nigeria’s 55-year independence anniversary, residents of Kirchinga, in Adamawa state, are marking the day in anguish following the attack on the village by Boko Haram terrorists, slitting the throats of five residents of the area in an early morning attack.
The village is the hometown of former acting governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
Kirchinga, a village in Madagali Local Government of Adamawa state, which shares border with the dreaded Sambisa forest, was one of the areas once annexed by Boko Haram insurgents last year.
It was however later cleared of terrorists after Boko Haram was routed by Nigerian troops in a counter insurgency operation.
A fleeing resident of the village, Ahmad Musa, in a telephone interview, said the insurgents struck the village at about 12:30am on Thursday and started firing sporadic shots while razing down buildings, making residents to flee into nearby bushes.
The resident said the insurgents slaughtered five trapped people, including three women and two men.
” We are now in deep sorrow,” Mr. Musa lamented.
According to him, the insurgents had a field day for many hours as they operated unchallenged due to complete absence of security personnel in the area.
Another resident of the area, John Apagwu, accused the government of leaving them to their own fate, corroborating Mr. Musa’s account that there was complete absence of security personnel in the area.
“We want the government to deploy more security personnel for us because as Nigerians the government owes us a duty to protect us,” Mr. Apagwu said.
“The fact that our area share borders with Sambisa forest and Cameroon republic should have been enough reason why government must deploy security personnel to protect us. If the government does not take proactive measures to stem the ugly insurrection of insurgents into our domain, they will kill all of us.”
Mr. Apagwu added that already, people were fleeing the area en mass to Madagali for fear of their lives as they anticipated more attacks from the Boko Haram insurgents following the absence of security personnel in the area.
Confirming the incident, the member representing Michika/Madagali Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Adamu Kamale, blamed the Federal Government for the wanton destruction of lives and properties.
Mr. Kamale accused the government of paying lip service to the security of the people of the area.
He noted that while other parts of Nigeria were in celebration mood over Nigeria’s independence anniversary, his people were mourning the wanton massacre of their loved ones.
“We need more security personnel as our villages share borders with Sambisa forest,” the lawmaker said.
“The federal government has been doing nothing in the past four months to secure our people as security is degenerating by the day. The security personnel are even compounding our predicaments as what they are saying on the pages of newspapers is contrary to was is happening on ground,” Mr. Kamale added.
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