So, so sad! ...As Boko Haram kills 65-year-old woman, son and house help in night attack

EMEKA IBEMERE

When Ekenna Dike and his elder brother, Chika Dike, recently returned from their sojourns in Germany and England, respectively, neither had any inkling that they would never see or even relate to each other anymore.  Indeed, there was no premonition of sorts and even if there was any, they were not clairvoyant in any way to know that danger was lurking around the corner. 

On April 4, Ekenna arrived Nigeria, ahead of his brother, Chika.  But when they eventually returned to their family house in Maiduguri, Bornu State, it was a rousing welcome. Their mother’s joy new no bounds. Call her the happiest woman on earth that day and you would be right. And not a few expressed their joy seeing them again in blood and flesh. It was a warm re-union with their family and friends, especially because they had been away for 13 years.

They had come home so that they could relocate their aged mother to their home town in Orlu, Imo State. They had been worried sick about the wellbeing of their mother who was residing in the northern part of the country, especially because of the Boko Haram insurgence. Their aged mother had been staying in Maiduguri following the death of their father, a businessman, in 2008.

So, they had wanted to use the State of Emergency Rule imposed on the violent states in the north to visit home, thinking that some degree of normalcy had returned to the volatile area. But they were dead wrong.  

Curiously, in what appeared to be a calculated attempt to wipe out the Dikes, some suspected members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect invaded their home and unleashed terror on the helpless family. In the wake of the tragedy, Chika lost his life; his mother, Mrs. Teressa, and their house help, Amarachi, were allegedly taken away before they were dispatched in a very gruesome way.

Daily Newswatch gathered that their joy was literally punctured barely 24 hours after their arrival. The hoodlums suspected to be Boko Haram launched an offensive against them in their compound and took their 65- year-old woman, their house help and Chika to an unknown place and killed them.

Oh, Chika should have stayed in England! He shouldn’t have bothered to come home. But he did, unaware of the cruel fate that would befall him. But Ekenna is still alive, as he escaped death by sheer providence. He was said to have gone to visit his friend, Nwosu Nnabugo.

In a chat with Daily Newswatch, Nnabugo said they went out together because it had be a very long time they saw each other, so they decided to use that day to fraternize before the incident occurred.

Nnabugo also told Daily Newswatch that when they returned home early the following day to see the Dikes family, the entire apartment had gone on flames as there was no sign of life coming out from the house.

Shocked and bewildered, Nnabugo said he took Ekenna back to his own house, only to discover that the suspected Boko Haram had attacked their house the previous night.

Consequently, Ekenna took off to his ancestral home in Orlu, Imo State without anybody. It was gathered that he later moved to his friend’s house in Owerri, the State capital.

Few weeks later, he moved back to Borno State to see if he could get the whereabouts of his family, but was confronted with the shocking news that they were killed by Boko Haram.

Nnabugo said the goons who did the act knew the family very well and threatened to return to attack Ekenna anywhere they see him around.

 “The goons, who attacked the Dike’s house destroyed properties worth of millions of Naira, including personal belongings of Ekenna and his late elder brother. Their money, clothings and home effects were destroyed beyond recognition.”

Nnabugo disclosed that Ekenna went to Germany in 2001 and this year was the first time he had come home after 13 years, only to be confronted by the ugly incident.

 Narrating how Ekenna escaped the violent attack, he said that if not for the fact that he paid him a visit, he would have been killed in the process.

“It was a miraculous escape. God is wonderful! Look at how leaving his house that night saved his life. It is terrible and the attack was ungodly. Killing a family of three just like that is very unfortunate”, Nnabugo stated.

Nnabugo said they were able to discover that it was Boko Haram that killed Ekenna’s elder brother and his mother, when neighbours explained to them that on that fateful night, there was a loud cry and begging by the victims for the goons to spare their lives but that no help came to their way.

According to Nnabugo, the goons were shouting the name of Ekenna in Hausa language when they stormed the place, threatening to return next time to finish him.

Nnabugo further disclosed that Ekenna told him that he was leaving for Lagos to start life afresh since he had lost all his possessions.

“He is distraught because he has no other person to take care of him in life, having lost his elder brother, mother and their house help,” he said.

It will be recalled that the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State, during the weekend ,discovered a mass grave with remains of suspected Boko Haram victims. An assortment of weapons was also discovered in the grave.
In a statement by the JTF spokesman, Lt Col. Sagir Musa, the discovery followed the dislodgment of the sect from their main enclaves of Nganaram, Aljajeri and Faluja within Maiduguri metropolis.

The dislodgement was part of the taskforce's Operation Restore Order aimed at driving out members of Boko Haram.

“Decomposing corpses of those killed by the terrorists were also found in soak-away and mass graves of terrorists killed and taken away by them.

"The troops also discovered vast network mouse-holes linking compounds and underground tunnels as well as bunkers under houses," Musa said.

Amir was held responsible for the secret killing of a teacher and three students of Sanda Karami Secondary School at Ruwan Zafi in Maiduguri.

Musa said troops were still searching the area for more weapons, ammunition and mass graves. He appealed for more support and information from the members of the public on the activities of Boko Haram. "The fight against the terrorist group cannot be left to security agencies alone," Musa was quoted as saying.

It will also be recalled that Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District, recently lamented the continued killings of citizens by the terrorists group in the state, in spite of the proclamation of a state of emergency in the state.

Ndume, who spoke to Senate correspondents last week, acknowledged that the armed forces were doing their best, but certainly could not be in every part of the emergency area.

He, however, appealed to all Nigerians to rally round the Federal Government to fight the terrorists in order to restore peace to the area.

He said, “The group still razed the primary school, I attended in Gashua town over the weekend and shot dead a Reverend friend of mine. This is in spite of the state of emergency in the state. The problem of Boko Haram needs to be taken more seriously by all Nigerians because it is not the issue of Borno alone. There is no price that is too much for peace.”

On his relationship with the sect, Ndume said, “I’ve been convicted by the press, but I won’t comment further for fear of subjudice.

“The last 14 years of democracy in Nigeria has recorded very little dividends for the citizenry at all levels due to failure of governance in the land caused by series of factors, one of which is the subjective press that thrive on one-sided cum fictitious story reporting.

“For Nigeria to have concrete things on the ground to celebrate for practising democracy within the next two years, precisely by 2015, there must be change of altitude by the press in the mode of actually being the watch dog of the society, reporting things as they are, without any coloration.”

He also noted that his current ordeal over alleged sponsorship of Boko Haram was compounded by sensational reportage of the issue by the media.

He added that media reports had indicted him even before he was arraigned in the court of law.