How Immigration officials prevented Ambazonian soldiers from wiping out our village: Taraba residents

By MAGAJI HUNKUYI

Residents of Manga, a Taraba community which shares boundary with Cameroon, have narrated the role played by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service during the invasion by Ambazonian militia.

Daily Trust had reported how the militia from the neighbouring country broke into the village last week, killing the monarch and some of his subjects.

When the committee the Taraba state government set up to look into the issue visited the community on Saturday, Abubakar Manga, spokesman of the village, said 13 people, including three children, were killed, while 20 others are missing.

He said if not for the fact that immigration officials were on ground at the time of the attack, the entire community would have been wiped out.

He told the committee that Ambazonian militia crossed the river and invaded the community through the mountains site at about 6am on Tuesday.

Manga disclosed that the Ambazonian militia first attacked the house of the village head and killed him.
He said the immigration officials responded with fire and the attackers withdrew immediately.

Manga also stated that the immigration officials rescued some people that fell into the river.

He said lack of mobile network in the village worsened the situation because they could not make distress calls.

On why the Ambazonian militia attack the community, the spokesperson said:

“They are our kinsmen; we speak the same language. So when they ran to us we had no option than to give them refuge and that is our only offence.”

Also speaking, the chief of Kashibila, Mallam Zakari Musa, lack of communication and presence of army in most of the border areas put inhabitants at risk of attack by both Ambazonian militia and Cameroonian soldiers.

He said during late Abacha regime all border communities were manned by soldiers and other security agents which prevented aggression from neighbouring Cameroon.

He commended Governor Darius Ishaku and Takum Army Battalion for the deployment of soldiers in Manga.

” We urge President Buhari to revive the deployment of soldiers to man all border communities to secure the country’s international borders,” he said.

The state commissioner of information, Danjuma Adamu, told the affected community that the governor was concerned about their safety. (Daily Trust)