1,250 Trapped Mafa Residents Relocated to Maiduguri
Over 1,250 trapped residents of Mafa Local Government Area in Borno State were yesterday relocated to the state capital, Maiduguri, by the local government officials in conjunction with the Nigerian military.
In an interview with journalists in Maiduguri, the Chairman of Mafa Local Government Area, Alhaji Maina Lawan, said this became imperative in order to allow the Nigerian troops the freedom to engage the insurgents in the area.
Lawan said: “With the security cover by the Nigerian troops, we visited Mafa town to assess the extent of damage caused by the Boko Haram insurgents. During our visit, we discovered that the government structures, residential houses and other buildings we thought to have been completely razed down, were not as much as we thought earlier when we were taking refuge in Maiduguri metropolis.
He added: “We also evacuated over 1,000 people who were trapped in the Mafa town while fleeing from their villages, and we now designated a camp for them in Maiduguri.”
A military source told THISDAY that the evacuated residents would only be allowed back to their homelands when the mop up of the area is completed and the area freed from the stranglehold of the insurgents with the reclaiming of the MaiduguriDikwa axis.
The chairman of Nganzai Local Government Area, Mallam Gana Badu, also visited the reclaimed Gajiram town, headquarters of the Nganzai council.
After the visit, he expressed shock at the destruction of government structures and residential houses.
He appealed to the federal and state governments to quickly come to the aid of Boko Haram victims in the area.