Maryamu Bala |
Sixty-seven
year-old Maryamu Bala of Madagali, Adamawa state, who managed to escape from
the Boko Haram terror camp told Daily Times in an interview
that she knows where
the militants are keeping dozens of abducted girls kidnapped from a secondary
school in Borno last year.
Narrating her
ordeal in the hands of the terrorists, she says: "my son, I saw devils, I
saw cannibals and people who can do anything in the name of religion. My first
three weeks in that camp also opened my eyes to the fact that the place is for
training recruits as foot soldiers. We saw helicopters dropping things in
cartons; heavy objects were always being unloaded using the captured victims
under very hash instructions.”
“people every
day going into the other part of the building amidst tight security. Some of
the people resembled Arabs with long hairs, while some are pure white coming
around having series of meetings.
“A girl who
is one of the maids confided in me, ‘Mama, you see the other side of the camp
is where Abubakar Shekau and top commandants are living. There are many girls
of our age there, even me, they don’t allow me to go there’.
“When that
young girl said that to me, I quickly remembered the story of the abducted Chibok
girls. Though I did not see them, my spirit told me they are in that camp.”
“They gave us
Muslim veils and told us we were no longer Christians. They taught me to be
meditating on a portion of the Koran daily… It surprised me so much that their
kind of Islam is different with the one I know many of my relations are
practicing in Madagali. They taught us to be worshiping at periods different
from those I used to see my people observing when they are to pray. At times,
East is not a compulsory direction of worship.”
“In the
night, a man I never met walked up to where we were sleeping and told us, ‘I
saw you crying yesterday and it touched my heart. I was kidnapped just like you
for more than four years. But don’t worry, I will help you to escape —you and
your daughter this night.”
“My brother,
we trekked in that evil forest until my strength failed me. When that man
noticed I no longer had strength, he backed me. We trekked close to 30km till
we got to a fenced place… from where the man said goodbye and we trekked for
five days to reach Yola Adamawa State.” she said.
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