GREAT STRIDES IN OUR WAR AGAINST TERROR : 'Civilian JTF' Smoke Out Boko Haram Members From Hideouts In Maiduguri

In what appears to be a determined effort to smoke out the remaining Boko Haram elements from their hideouts in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, some youths in the town have organised themselves into vigilante groups to begin a house-to-house search for the insurgents and hand them over to security operatives.

Operating under the aegis of Civilian JTF, the youth vigilante groups who now act as whistle blowers and informants to the security operatives go from street to street and house to house with machetes, iron bars and wooden batons in their bid to smoke out the remnants of the insurgents from their hiding places and thereafter handing them over to the  military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno, Operation Restore Order.

Justifying their action, the youths, whose ages range from 15 and 30 years, said they were left with no choice than join in the manhunt of the insurgents for bringing untold hardship to residents of the town thus putting their own future in jeopardy.

“We are tired of this and we want to put an end to it. Since the soldiers don't really know who the Boko Haram members are, then we who live with them and know them have no option than to help fish them out,” a leader of the group who spoke on condition of anonymity to select journalists said.

THEWILL gathered that the  vigilante groups started with the youths  in Hausari ward of Maiduguri, a notorious den of the insurgents, with those in Gwange ward and Bolori area joining the vigilante later. 

 A member of the group, Isa Musa, said,  "We are into this to salvage our people from the Boko Haram who had killed our people, security operatives and destroyed our economy. We are not afraid of them because we are doing a just cause and God is by our side."

Maintaining that all what they require is prayers from their people, a leader of one of the groups, Abubakar Malum,  said   their will and the support of everyone in the town was enough to keep them going.

“All we want is prayers from the people and their cooperation; we are working together with the JTF soldiers. We want government to assist us with more weapons like cutlasses, iron batons and axes.

 "We have lost count of how many Boko Haram we have caught and handed over to the soldiers and we are going after more of them. We have caught one recently and when he was investigated, the security operatives found huge amount of money in his bank account," Musa added.