No fewer than 75 Boko Haram militants were killed on Wednesday by local hunters in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State, who recaptured the local government headquarters from the hand of the insurgents. Maiha Local Government headquarters fell in the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents in an intense gun battle with the Nigerian troops on Monday.
According to a local resident of Maiha who spoke to reporters in Yola, the hunters mobilized after they were told that the insurgents had killed a Nigeria lieutenant colonel. He said some of the insurgents were killed with bows and arrows. Investigations revealed that there is a fear of reprisal by the insurgents, as thousands of residents of Maiha were allegedly trooping to Yola, the capital of the state.
However, over 20,000 local hunters in Adamawa State are mobilizing forces to team up with the Nigerian troops to liberate some captured local government areas of the state from the hand of the insurgents. Meanwhile, the Muslim community in Adamawa State has distanced itself and their religion from the activities of Boko Haram who had declared seven captured local government areas of the state as Islamic state. The Muslim leaders said that propaganda being peddled by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamist group that some of its activities were meant to promote Islamic faith was untrue.
The Muslim leaders made their stand know in an interactive session with a team of USAID officials led by its Mission Director, Mike Harvey. The Muslim Ummah, led by its state chairman, but represented by Uztaz Dauda Muhammad Bello, described the propaganda of the Boko Haram Islamist extremist as unfortunate and at variance with Islamic teachings. The cleric disabused the mindsa of Nigerians that Islamic faith promotes killings of non Muslims and destruction of their hard-earned properties in the name of promoting Islam or propagating Jihad. Bello maintained that Islam means peace and concerned about promotion of peace among the Muslims and non Muslims. Bello declared: “Islam does not encourage compulsion by its faithful as being propagated by the Boko Haram insurgents.”
Also speaking at the occasion, Uztaz Saidu Bobboi, who is the Public Relations Officer of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, declared that “the Muslim Ummah are totally against the activities being perpetrated by the Boko Haram Islamist extremists.” The leader of USAID Mission, Mr Mike Harvey, sympathized with Nigerians for the unpalatable situation they found themselves occasioned by the activities of the insurgents in the North eastern part of the country. Harvey’s was accompanied by the members of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) community, led by its President, Professor Margee Ensign, who distributed relief materials donated by the USAID team to communities ravaged by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
