THE UNTOLD STORY OF INSURGENTS ATTACKS IN POTISKUM: MY EXPERIENCED

Usman bawa
Jul 23, 2017 · 7 min read

#NOTANOTHERNIGERIAN

Potiskum town is a local government in Yobe State, Nigeria on the A3 highway at 11o 43’N 11o04 E coordinates. It has an area of 559 square kilometers (216 sq.) and a population of 205,876 at the 2006 census. Potiskum has been a thriving trade hegemony in Yobe state because of this strategic position as Centre of commerce, learning, spiritual and cultural revival. Till date, the town is second to none in Yobe state when it comes to business activities because people from neighboring Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe States, as well as numerous others from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Central African Republic have stakes in the biggest cattle market in sub-Saharan African which is also situated in Potiskum. It has also one of the largest grain/millet market in the region, it was estimated 2008 to sell 500 bags of grain on market day. The millet market is the largest in North-east Nigeria, Most products are transported to other parts of the country and neighboring countries.

Even though Potiskum was not the spiritual headquarters of the insurgent group Boko haram, we had experienced our own share of the devastating attacks from the insurgent group Boko Haram. I could still remember before the lunch of their 2009 onslaught in Maiduguri, a lots of their members from Potiskum and its environment sold out their properties including houses, cars, and commercial vehicles, plots of lands to raise fund for the upcoming Jihad. It has become clear to everyone in the town that they are planning an attack against the state, but nobody took them serious because to every reasonable thinking person it was just an empty threat and an impossible mission to fight the state. Some weeks before the lunch of their first attack, most of their members from Potiskum and its environment came all the way from Maiduguri to seek forgiveness from their parents, relatives and to settle any debt they had and they also informed their parents that they were going for Jihad. We all witnessed these build up in their preparation to lunch attacks against the state they described as infidels and a constitution they called Haram. In July 2009, they lunched their first attacks in Maiduguri against the Nigerian state their targets were mainly the security agents and government formations. Similar on same day in Potiskum they attacked the Potiskum central Police station and the divisional headquarters of the police, and burned the station at night. However there was no attacks on civilians than and other properties, the situation was completely calm down and the insurgents were all killed in an open face to face battle with the army in the outskirt of the town. We were glad and celebrated their defeat both in Maiduguri and Potiskum and we all sympathized with them for attempting to take up arms against the state. After this incidents we thought it was over for the group and we never for once thought of another attack on Potiskum by this group, however to our own biggest surprised the group resurfaced with different forms of more deadly sophisticated attacks. Potiskum continued to be the main targets of this group with new deadly attacks on not only government security agents or formations but every government’s employee including school teachers, Doctors and retired paramilitary officers. These attacks continued in Potiskum, they began killing Islamic scholars who were outspoken against their ideology. They succeeded in building fears in the mind of the residents, none of us would dare speak against their ideology or reports them to the authorities for the fear of being killed at night. They organized their attacks and killed every target they wants at will, things got worse in town as every residents is living under constant fear of being the next target. Schools were not safe, markets place were also targeted, motor parks, mosques and churches no place was safe at that time. On 2nd May 2012, a gang armed with explosives and assault rifles stormed the fenced cattle market in Potiskum and killed hundreds of men and animals. The gang threw several explosives and shot indiscriminately, as well as set the market on fire, no fewer than 102 traders were killed with dozens others injured. Livestock were also not spared the horror, as scores were burnt to death. The attack left properties worth billions of naira destroyed. Many cows tied to sticks were burnt to death, and their owners killed. This led to a public demonstration by the residents, as hundreds of people were on the streets demonstrating against this inhumane brutal callous act by the group and the lack of intervention by the military which were stationed adjacent to the market. Residents were left hopeless as neither the military could protect them from these attacks. On Thursday October, 21 2012 we witnessed another series of coordinated attacks that have left at least 31 people dead and many buildings and properties burnt by the Boko Haram in a three days operation. Civilians, serving and retired police men, a popular politician retired comptroller of custom and his son a medical Doctor were among the victims. Following these attacks the town was completely kept under security lockdown for 24 hours and all residents had to stay indoors for fear of new attacks. This was the worse experienced I had during the insurgent war in Potiskum, markets, shops were closed and we had to utilized the little food stuffs in the house, because nobody knew when the 24 hour curfew will be lifted. The curfew was lifted on Sunday morning, and hundreds of residents including my self-fled the town for fear of further attacks. Hundreds of residents especially those living in the outskirt of the town had fled to restive places leaving their belongings, those with personal cars stuffed their personal belongings into their vehicles and left, while others took commercial buses, taxis out of the town. The town became deserted, business activities collapsed and more than 60 percent of the residents have fled, the general hospital was only providing skeletal services as more than half of their staffs had also fled.

After a relative returned of peace in the town residents began returning home and I returned with my family from Abuja in the first week of December 2012. However on the 10th of December, 2012 we witnessed yet another deadly attack which started around 1 am and lasted throughout the night. 14 persons including the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Potiskum Mohammmed Garba were killed in that attack and a commercial bank Unity bank and some vehicles were burnt down. The relative peace we had never lasted long, as we continued to have attacks almost every week ranges from killings of individuals in their homes at night to suicide attacks. I decided to stay in the town despite the increasing rates of attacks under constant fear and dilemma, life was miserable and the only comforts one got was by prayer.

The attacks got worse again, on the 10 February 2013 gunmen suspected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram killed three Korean Doctors attached to the Potiskum general hospital. Earlier in September, 2012 there was massive and coordinated attacks on all telecommunication mast in Potiskum, all the telecommunication mast in the town were burnt down. The town was left without a single functional communication line, residents had to travel to Azare, Gombe and other neighboring to receive and make calls to their love ones. These series of attacks continued through 2013 to 2014, more so, on 3rd November, 2014 there was a major attack by a suicide bomber that blew his up in a Shia Muslim religious procession killing at least 30 people. Before residents recover from the shocked of this suicide attack, another suicide bomber apparently dressed in school uniform detonated explosives in a packed assembly meeting in Government Technical College Potiskum. Around 2,000 school students, some as young as 11 were waiting to hear the principal’s Monday morning address when the blast ripped through the crowd. At least 48 school students were killed in that attack and 79 wounded with severe degree of injuries. These attacks led to the closure of all schools in Potiskum by the Yobe State government and residents had to live with their children at home without going to school. Some privileged parents transferred their children to other states and the less privileged ones have to stay with their children at home, these further completely crippled all business and schooling activities in the town. Many of such attacks continued unabated, for instance on 11 January, 2015 four people were also killed and over 40 were injured at Kasuwar Jagwal GSM market after an attack by two female suicide bombers, one of whom appeared to be about 15 years old.

These frequent attacks by the insurgents in Potiskum has changed the lives of the residents of the town, the local economy collapsed as businesses and companies, commercial banks left. Incomes fell and schools closed and property values in the area suffered steep falls. Non indigenes in Potiskum who constituted the majority in commercial and trading activities were forced to flee, gaps were created in most cases and important goods required have to be booked in advance because they have to be sent in from either Kano, Lagos or Onitsha. This is because the Igbo traders that mostly sell these commodities have relocated to their places of origin or a more peaceful environment. There was near total collapsed of the banking sector in Potiskum, before the insurgent attacks there were 9 banks in the town but most of the banks were attacked and burnt while others closed operations for fear of attacks. The town was left with only one functional bank (First bank), which operates for only four to three hours a day. This was the life we lived under constant insurgent’s attacks that led to the total collapsed of social, economic, and educational activities in Potiskum. Let’s come together and counter violent extremism in our society, so that #NotAnotherNigerian should be killed or be displaced.

Seen of suicide attacks in GTSS Potiskum

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