Widows in Borno on Monday appealed to members of the Boko Haram sect to take advantage of the proposed Federal Government amnesty programme and drop their arms.
A cross-section of the widows affected by the activities of the sect made the appeal in a recent interview monitored in Maiduguri.
Hajiya Yagunsu Umar, a mother of five, who lost her husband in 2011, said that the Boko Haram violent campaign had negatively affected women in the state.
“My husband was killed in September 2011 shortly after returning from the mosque in the evening in Gwange, Layin Tanki, Maiduguri. I had to move to my brother’s house in Ruwan-Zafi,” Umar said.
She added that her brother was also killed two weeks after she moved into his house.
“My brother Alhaji Modu Ibrahim, a big-time groundnut oil dealer, was also shot at his shop in Gamboru market. Most pathetic is the fact that the entire business crumbled few days after his death following a fire disaster at the market,” Umar said.
She said that she resorted to begging to feed her family as the economy of the state had been ruined by the crisis.
“I started frying bean cake (Akara) at the Post Office area but the business crumbled after a bomb blast last February,”
Another widow, Malama Falmata Ibrahim, corroborating Umar’s claim, lamented the negative impact of the Boko Haram crisis on her family and appealed to members of the sect to embrace the planned amnesty and initiate talks with the government.
Malama Hassana Aliyu, also a widow, who lost her husband in 2010, called on the sect to eschew anger and embrace peace and dialogue with the government.
Another widow, Madam Caro Mamza, also urged the government not to relent on its already ongoing effort at resolving the Boko Haram menace.(NAN)
When it started,the northern elites kept quiet…now it has grown beyond control…for the sake of peace,they should stop