The case of lacking youngsters in Borno Situation has sparked community outcry, following a stressful video of a tender boy confessing to present process army coaching in a jungle along dozens of alternative youngsters.
Some citizens who spoke with The PUNCH on Sunday recounted the hardship in their lacking family members and expressed the worry that the arise in kid disappearance instances within the circumstance is also related to rebel recruitment efforts.
The advance comes because the #BringBackOurGirls motion renewed requires the Nigerian executive to shed the findings of the fact-finding committee at the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls’ capture.
With 78 women nonetheless unaccounted for greater than a decade then, the gang recommended transparency and responsibility within the seek for the ones nonetheless lacking.
A video of a boy, round 10 years aging, confessing to present process palms coaching along side roughly 30 alternative yet-to-be-identified youngsters in a jungle close to Ajiri in Mafa Native Govt Segment of Borno Situation, went viral on social media on the weekend.
The video, posted by means of Zagazola Makama on X and reportedly recorded on January 22, 2025, captured the boy demonstrating his wisdom of dealing with firearms.
He confessed that he and alternative youngsters of matching year had been receiving army drills deep within the jungle.
“They are training us on weapons handling. Ali Shehu, Umar, Alhaji, and Malam Oro are the ones training us. We are at least 20 to 30. We are all young boys; some are bigger than me, while I am older than some of them,” the boy said.
To backup his claims, the kid used to be passed an AK-47 rifle, which he expertly stripped and reassembled with near-perfect precision.
He additionally unloaded and reloaded a copy, showing an alarming stage of talent in dealing with the weapon.
Talking with The PUNCH on Sunday, one of the vital citizens lamented the expanding fee of lacking youngsters within the circumstance, an incidence they alleged may well be attached with the trending video.
One of the vital citizens and a mom of 2 in Mafa, a location akin to the Ajiri jungle allegedly stated to be the tenting branch for the youngsters, Aisha Ali, showed the disappearance of her six-year-old kid for over 3 years with out hint.
“Around February 2022, my last born, Mustapha went missing. At the time, he was just six years old. It was during the late evening. All of a sudden, his whereabouts could not be traced, the last thing I remembered was seeing him eating while I was going to a friend’s place around 3 pm.”
She added, “Upon my return, I learnt he stepped out. We searched and searched. Just like a joke, we could not find him again. In fact, we just concluded he is dead because his whereabouts remain a mystery we can’t explain.”
Some other resident in Maiduguri, the circumstance capital, Muhammad Mamman, expressed worry as he narrated a up to date revel in.
“Around early last year, my brother lost his child, not that the baby girl died. She was just four years or so at the time. She just went missing. We immediately announced on the radio, yet she was nowhere to be found to date. Either dead or alive, we can’t explain,” he stated.
To corroborate those reports, an announcer in one of the vital customery radio stations in Borno Situation, who pleaded to not be recognized as a result of he used to be now not authorized to talk at the subject, stated in two weeks, no less than one announcement on a lacking kid could be made.
“We have always announced cases of missing children. I can say at least we see such cases once every two weeks. This is alarming,” he stated.
Alternative citizens who spoke with The PUNCH known as at the executive for fast motion, by means of combing the situation woodlands for lacking youngsters.
“With that video, security agencies must rise to the task. These places are not unknown. It may and may not, but we can’t continue to hear cases of missing children on local radio and a boy came out to say that he and others have been camped in a forest receiving training, yet the government will be comfortable,” Umar Abdulrahman, a resident stated.
When contacted, the circumstance police command stated there have been no less than one reported case of lacking youngsters each era within the circumstance.
In an interview, the spokesperson of the command, Nahum Daso, stated many such instances have been resolved within the age with a couple of nonetheless ongoing.
“Sure, there have at all times been instances of lacking youngsters. In mixture, we will be able to say no less than one in keeping with era.
“Incessantly, we do get the youngsters again. I don’t have the wave statistics with me, however we have now reunited many lacking youngsters with their households.
“Most times when children get missing like that, the suspicion has always been that they have been kidnapped or for other reasons. However, compared to other places, the cases recorded here are very low,” he stated.
Reacting to the video, Daso brushed aside the recency of the claims, pronouncing the employment of the use of youngsters as foundation squaddies used to be within the age.
“You know, some of these clips are mostly old ones. From us, we don’t have any threat in regards to maybe children being used as child soldiers, but it used to be in the past. For over a decade, we have not recorded any cases like that,” he stated.
Additionally reacting, the Particular Abettor to the Governor on Safety, Brig Gen Abdullahi Sabi Ishaq (retd.), stated such operations had been in most cases perpetrated by means of participants of the Islamic Situation of West Africa.
“What you noticed on that video isn’t a part of the identified actions of Boko Haram. That’s the trademark of ISWAP.
“They shoot little almajiri youngsters who’re struggling and malnourished, get them to the bush, feed them and deal them ahead of coaching and turning them into warring parties.
“Does that boy look malnourished? No. It is the evidence of good living they are having there,” he stated.
When requested how the circumstance executive would cope with the claims by means of the suspect that alternative youngsters had been nonetheless present process coaching, he stated, “, the warfare remains to be on and the circumstance is the use of the non-kinetic fashion date the military is sporting out operations.
“We will have to recognize that the military is doing its highest. Then again, I will have to let you know that something the military is critically taking into account is the problem of collateral injury.
“If the Wind Drive visits those places and detonates bombs, taking into account the negligible youngsters there, the entire of Nigeria will arise and say that they’ve burned youngsters. So those are one of the vital demanding situations.
“As for us, we rely on the army for this type of operation. Our Civilian Joint Task Force cannot handle it, especially as it concerns ISWAP. We relied more on military strength,” he added.
Highlighting the demanding situations to tackling the rebellion, he stated the utility of conventional forms in combating the insurgency used to be a significant setback.
“War is no longer fought as it was in the olden days. There is a need for technology that will prevent the soldiers from moving about in the bushes with legs and vehicles, to minimise casualties,” he added.
In a commentary issued on Sunday and signed by means of its spokesperson, Jeff Okoroafor, the #BringBackOurGirls motion criticised successive governments for withholding the file at the kidnapped Chibok women.
“The #BringBackOurGirls motion needs to remind President Bola Tinubu’s management of its constitutional responsibility to offer protection to all voters.
“To this impact, the management has an obligation to handover an account of the situation of the rescue of the extra Chibok women to their households and the Nigerian folk.
“We reiterate the usefulness of bringing closure for the households of the extra 78 lacking college youngsters.
“Critically, the Tinubu administration has, like their predecessors, failed to release the Sabo fact-finding committee report, despite our movement’s request including through an FoI process,” the commentary learn.
The crowd recalled that at the evening of April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls had been kidnapped by means of terrorists from Govt Secondary College, Chibok, in Borno Situation.
Following world outrage and mounting force, then-President Goodluck Jonathan arrange the Sabo committee on Might 6, 2014, to analyze the incident.
The committee’s file, submitted on June 20, 2014, showed the kidnapping, noting that date 57 women escaped, 219 remained lacking on the date.
Greater than a decade then, BBOG reported that 141 of the in the beginning lacking women had regained liberty, with many resuming their training.
It, on the other hand, stated 78 women remained unaccounted for, with issues that some will have been assimilated into terrorist enclaves.
Okoroafor additionally recommended voters to tie the BBOG to call for complete community disclosure of the tragedy and shed of all investigations carried out into the kidnapping of the Chibok women on April 14, 2014.