Recently, I was about to leave my house for an assignment when a group of six people approached me. Four of them were elderly and I could recognize them and in fact called one by name. The other two appeared unfamiliar, but later discovered we were all together as victims in a boat of mishap 20 years back.
“Can I help you”, I asked. One of them replied in pidgin language “Oga Victor, you no know us again?” Before I could respond, another one said, “No bi you be our chairman of the committee of victims of February, 18, 2006 Sectarian riot in Maiduguri? I nodded my head and replied in the affirmative. Then, they told me that a few days back, they discussed among themselves the issue and in particular the compensation the then administration of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff pledged to the victims of the riot.
While admitting before me that some of the affected victims have died, some relocated, they added that a substantial number of the victims both indigenes and non-indigenes, are still around.
They claimed that they learnt some of the victims of a particular sect have been paid and wondered why they have been forgotten for years.
They asked questions, some I responded, others I couldn’t. I reminded them of all efforts by the committee of the affected victims to the concerned authorities to honour their pledge of compensation as well as pleas by prominent Nigerians on their behalf to no avail.
To keep their hope alive, I pleaded with them to keep their fingers crossed and pray to God for intervention.
As they left, I felt sorrowful for the victims of this dastardly and unprovoked attack. Above all, I am convinced that the Maiduguri Black Saturday will not let go unless appeased.
The day will not just go. The memories are always there. They are memories of sadness, memories of misgivings, memories of injustice, and memories of man inhumanity to man and memories of promises made and promises broken.
February, 18, 2006, will not just go. It was the day Borno State of Nigeria re-enacted or replayed the “Sharpeville Massacre” of the notorious regime of apartheid South Africa.
It was the day a very dark cloud of smoke accompanied by dead silence hung over the city of Maiduguri. It was the smoke of the burning of bodies of our innocent brothers, sisters, children, husbands, wives, churches, homes, stores, cars and other valuable property.
It was the day when in a twinkle of the eye Maiduguri recorded an unprecedented number of orphans, widows, widowers and hundreds became refugees in various parts of Maiduguri with no place to lay their heads and nothing to eat.
It was a black Saturday indeed especially for the Christian Community of Maiduguri metropolis and the entire Christian Community in Borno State and indeed the sane minds.
The black Saturday will not just go, because the blood of the innocent souls that perished has constituted a nightmare to the authors, sponsors and mentors of this bloody carnival and the murderers who murdered the innocent sleep “will sleep no more.”
This black Saturday has refused to go and raised more questions than answers especially with the refusal by the authorities to compensate the innocent victims of the unprovoked attack as pledged.
Talking of the dark clouds of silence that hung on Maiduguri on the black Saturday reminds one of the visit of Pope Benedict VI in May 2006 to Auschwitz.
This place (Auschwitz) is a concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War where millions of Jews were gassed to death by the Nazis in Germany.
In an emotion laden speech, Pope Benedict declared “To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man is always impossible. In a place like this, words fail, in the end, there can only be a dead silence, a silence which in itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?” How many questions arose in this place? Constantly, the question comes up: where was God in those days? Why was He silent? How could He permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”
The reaction of the Pope is indeed a tailor made for the Maiduguri black Saturday, a day the man’s modicum of sense was overrun by instincts, emotions and thereafter ran berserk.
February 18, 2006, remained a different interpretation to different people. To many outside Borno State, it was a normal day that started well and ended well. But to the people of Borno State especially, the inhabitants of Maiduguri, the state capital, it was a day of comedy to some, it was a day of tragedy to some, it was a day of triumph to some, it was a day of misfortunes to some, to some it was day of defeat and to some it was a day heaven came crumbling.
“Eighteen years after this heinous crime on the innocent ones, the victims are still waiting for the compensation promised”
To us, the victims of February 18, 2006, it was a day of baptism by fire and a day the satan was let loose to wreak havoc.
When our Muslim brothers in Maiduguri decided to hold a lecture on the life of Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) and peaceful demonstration against the defaming cartoon against the great prophet emanating from Denmark on February 18, 2006, no one raised eyebrow as the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria at both national and state levels had earlier condemned such inciting cartoon.
The peaceful demonstration was expected to have taken off from Ramat Square, Maiduguri and translated into Shehu of Borno Palace and thereafter possibly terminated at the Government House. But this was not to be as consciously or unconsciously, the event was hijacked by a group acting its own script.
What followed is now history known to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
This group of insignificant elements with deep rooted prejudice and acting on strict directives of their devilish inspired sponsors or mentors unleashed on innocent souls an unprecedented holocaust.
And before the shout of Jack Robinson, the capital city of Borno State on February 18, 2006 was neck deep in inferno, bloodletting, man inhumanity to man, terrorism, looting, arson and to say the least barbarism. It was a grand design conspiracy, carefully thought, carefully planned, carefully mapped out, carefully directed and meticulously executed. The action was spontaneous and exact in all the areas affected. It was a well calculated and rehearsed plan whose execution was precise and straight on targets.
In the speed of a meteor, the arsonists and hoodlums spread their atrocities to most parts of the state capital killing, maiming, looting, setting churches, residential houses, shops/restaurants and hotels ablaze. The onslaughts were more pronounced and visible in areas like Ahmadu Bello Way (One of the commercial nerves of Maiduguri), Monday Market area, Customs area, Bulumkutu, Sabo Layi, Baga Road, Galadima, Ruwa Zafi, Bolori Layout, Mairi Village, Bama Road, Gamboru ward, Artillery area and Gidan Dambe.
Apart from the incalculable damage to property and valuables, the gruesome murder of innocent souls occurred in a residential compound popularly called “Window Gwoma-Sha-Biyu” located in Sabon Layi area of Gwange ward and the “Yellow House”, another large residential compound situated at Bolori Layout. In the “Yellow House ” for instance, Mallam Joseph M. Garba who hailed from the southern part of Borno State had seven souls burnt alive in a three bedroom bungalow he rented. The seven were locked up in one of the rooms by the arsonists, petrol poured on them and set on fire. Of the seven souls set ablaze, five were Mallam Garba’s children. The remaining two were children of neighbours who ironically ran into Garba’s house for safety they did not get. One of the two victims was a prospective student of University of Maiduguri who came to Maiduguri to complete her admission papers of the University.
Another tragic event was the loss of members of his family by Pastor Jonah Effiong. Pastor Effiong lost a wife and three children (two girls and a boy).
Similarly, Mr. James Obodo experienced the blood bath of the arsonists on the fateful day as four members of his family made up of a wife and three children were brutally murdered.
Besides, in Bulumkutu ward, the Reverend Father in charge of Saint Rita Catholic Church, Reverend Father Michael Gajere was brutally murdered and set ablaze by the irate mob. The list was by no means exhaustive.
Thus between 9:00am and 4:00pm of February, 18, 2006, the abiding philosophy of “Borno, Home of Peace and Hospitality” was shattered as the sleep of Maiduguri was murdered in the midst of unexplained silence from the security agencies especially, the police.
While the orgy of destruction was on for hours in various parts of the state capital, not a single policeman was visible in any of the trouble spots. This could not have been a coincidence.
There were conflicting figures of casualties from various sources. For example, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Borno State Chapter, 56 churches were destroyed, while residences, shops/restaurants, hotels and offices numbering about 100 were razed and about 50 souls perished.
However, according to the Chairman of the State Government High Powered Committee of Inquiry into the incident, Ambassador Ahmad Baba Jidda, the Secretary to the Borno State Government, “35 residences were destroyed, 52 churches were burnt down, 14 shops raised and vandalized, 7 hotels were also raised and 3 offices including a library were destroyed.”
Similarly, “21 persons were confirmed killed, 61 others sustained various injuries and were treated and discharged. 254 suspects were arrested during the mayhem; out of which 176 were released on bail and 76 have cases to answer.”
According to Ambassador Jidda, 16 memoranda were received from individuals and organizations.
The Jidda committee put the cost of property destroyed at N1, 447,145,735.00.
Eighteen years after this heinous crime on the innocent ones, the victims are still waiting for the compensation promised. To the victims of this orchestrated plot, it sounds or appears like a death or do I say a drum that will beat forever.
Izekor writes from Maiduguri.
