Marriage proposal Massacre: Suitor mistaken for Muslim, friends, murdered in Borrong
The Periscope literati featuring Mohammed Ismail, FIBDFM
*Adamawa: gory experience in the Southern Senatorial Zone
Location: Lamorde
There was a national assignment some months previously, the engaged who converged in, took off from Yola to the place of primary assignment. It was not any near a convention, concurrently to convert to a professed faith for critical thinkers to catastrophically catapult by combating contracted conspiracy cocooned in, as could be conceived, it was conveniently convened to concretise the concept of community development as a social responsibility, by empowerment scheme, initiated to be executed by a lawmaker representing the constituency, the town, I am being told, is called “Lamorde,” constitutes a part.
The officiating contractors, were as multi-sex as plural in religious beliefs, freely practiced individually. The pragmatic programme extended up to sunset daily. The faithfuls who observed five times daily devotion, asked from the natives, a worshipping place other than for Sundays lone service. They were said to be technically ignored.
“Anywhere that is kept clean can be used for a devotion anyway,” the faithfuls resolutely resigned their resolution, resonly.
Water for ablution was sufficient as for purification and drinking was not any issue. The officiating contractors were well prepared against being parasitic on a community they went and were with the intent or tasked to empower; to develop certain capacity.
It was time for an obligatory prayer, which would be observed congregationally. A call to prayer must have to be obediently made by a volunteer adhan. The community could not recall when last in their very land they heard a call to prayer rather loudly.
“Who’s this with the so discomfort a noise to our eardrums again? We thought we are done and to good with it,” One of the ignored natives. exclaimed.
One of the officiating empowerment assigned members revealed their experience to the Periscope, for its mood of the moment. He would be brooding over the existing but underreported, if reported experience, because even in Brooklyn, there were Muslims. Jump that.
Location: Borrong
Murder Windowed scores of women, orphaned 59 – District head of Kubo
It was an amazing experience, the journey to, using canoe or boat sharing with the swimming snakes, to cross the river between, getting to Borrong from Demsa, either, for service or visit, or trade and/or to woo a lady. With initiative for revenue generation and political will, other than farming, the area could have been good for tourism. This dream is however murdered by the jobless natives without attitude, with machetes that challenged, peace, love for unity and mutual coexistence.
The enviable edifice for a Mosque in Borrong could only fit the analogy articulated by an artist, a Romantic poet as a “ruined cottage.”
Jason Lulos the analysand, would point out that “The Ruined Cottage” is one of Willam Wordsworth’s bleakest poems, even William Blake would admit. The poet personae encountered an old man near the ruined cottage. He narrated a tale about a woman called Margaret who faced hardship in her entire life. Some of her troubles included poor harvests, harsh winters, the death of a child, and losing her husband in war. The physical deterioration of the cottage, paralleled the deterioration of Margaret’s life over that time.
It was sufficient for the tagged “once upon a time settlers to suffer with nostalgia; how the Mosque was formally put to use keeping the spirit of devotion and tying the professed faithfuls with the rope of peace and unity. Now, no more, other than there was a Mosque and there were Muslims as much as there were the unsuspecting suitor and his friends whose lifeless bodies were drowned in the other side of river Benue passing through Borrong, infested with snakes, having been murdered while the suitor called Luka, was being mistaken for a Muslim.
Luka, unlike Porphyro in John Keats’ Romantic poem “The eve of St. Agnes,” was not aware that he would be unwelcome, his linkman, unlike Porphyro’s “old beldame, even though weak in body and in soul,” played the conspiracy of silence against him for kill as much as Luka’s supposed fiancée, unlike Porphyro’s Madeline, would not submit to due rites for her Luka to be able to cross the chambers that held “barbarian hordes,
Hyena foemen, and hot-blooded lords,
Whose very dogs would execrations howl
Against his lineage.”
And unlike Porphyro, the unsuspecting Luka was not aware that “not one breast affords
Him any mercy, in that mansion foul,
Save one old beldame, weak in body and in soul…” Who in the side of Luka, was not to be either his linkman or his fiancee or her parents as Mohammed Ismail’s investigation would reveal thus:
The somnolent town of Kubo Kanakuru in Shani local government area of Borno State was thrown into mourning and grief penultimate Tuesday, June 18, 2019, when 8 of its youths, who went to Borrong in Demsa local government area of Adamawa State on a mission to marry a daughter of the soil were bloodily murdered.
On that fateful Tuesday when the youths in their prime, breaking ethono-religious sentiments, set out to visit Borrong, in search of a life partner for one of their own called Luka Yakubu, no one among them nurtured the fear that the journey would be riddled with hitches let alone end up in disaster and bloodbath.
However, as fate would have it, out of the nine people who embarked on the trip, only one of them returned home alive to tell the gory story worse than the journey of the Magi, of how the remaining eight member-friends, including the suitor, all perished to the trip.
Recounting his ordeal, Al-Hassan Umar, aka Danladi 24, the only survivor, said the incident happened when they escorted one of their Borrong.
Danladi noted that before the fateful trip, Luka Yakubu a member of local hunters association, has tasked his friend, a fellow local hunter in Borrong who to inform the head of hunters in Borrong of their mission into their territory because they intended to come to Borrong fully kitted as hunters, perhaps to impress the fiancée with her parents. Perhaps to intimidate local suitors or perhaps it was the tradition.
Danladi noted that as arranged, all the other eight members of the entourage who were members of the hunters association, came out fully kitted bearing their rifles noting that out of the nine men, he was the only one non member of the hunters association.
Betrayal sets in
Danladi noted that to their eternal dismay, their linkman failed to communicate the suitor with reasons for the mission to Borrong community especially, to the leader of Borrong hunters association; the precarious security situation in the area, resulted to the residents growing suspicious of suitor-visitors, leading the people to surround them for mob action.
“Before our journey to Borrong, Luka has been communicating with a linkman whom he told to relay our proposed visit to the chairman of the local hunters of Borrong. In fact, he used my phone to call his linkman.
“But to our dismay, the linkman refused to communicate to the appropriate authority, our intention. Therefore, when the local people saw us, they became suspicious that the gift we brought, which included Kolanuts and other items were but an invitation for war.
“Our linkman tried to explain the situation, but the irate people refused to be pacified, making the atmosphere to be redolent and charged with tension.
“While the melee lasted, some residents informed the police about the fracas in the town and the police quickly came to the scene and took us to their station.
“The leader of our entourage was left behind because his motorcycle had a flat tyre, which he gave to vulcanizer to fix.
“The police later asked us to produce our leader and they were told that the leader was left behind to fix his punctured motorcycle tyre. I was then asked to call him to the police station,” Danladi said.
He noted that it was at that time the danger they were in even became palpable as the atmosphere later became pensive and charged as residents who seemed not to be satisfied with the efforts of the police toward resolving the issue in their interest, began protests saying the police must release us to face jungle justice.
“The residents staged massive protests demanding our release to face jungle justice. They said if we were released, we would remobilise to launch a fresh attack on them anytime soon.
“They vowed to kill all of us and dump our corpses into the river. As the protests became violent, the police fired teargas canisters to disperse the crowd but despite that, the residents remained defiant and undaunted. They even accused the police of siding with us.
“The teargas being fired by the police made me uncomfortable and I decided to tactically and stealthily move out of the place and since I was not to be identified, no one seemed to pay attention on me. All eyes were on the fully kitted hunters.
“After I left the station, I went to where the motorcycle with flat tyre was being fixed and sat waiting.
“While I was there pretending to be part of the crowd, I heard them accusing Luka Yusuf of conniving with Fulani and Muslims to attack them by bringing war kola. They said if we were allowed to escape, we would come back after few days to launch assault on them.
“As they were talking, a native came running towards us and announced that one of the hunters was murdered and thrown into the river. One of the natives said the hunter who was killed was a Christian he was so familiar with. At that point all of them exclaimed, Jesus! Our brother has been killed,” he added.
Danladi noted that while thinking of what to do, another native rushed and told them that another hunter was murdered, adding that soldiers and mobile police have been drafted to the area and were on their way to Borrong.
“Because of the information that soldiers and mobile police were on their way, people started dispersing but my major obstacle was that being a first-time visitor, I lacked the compass. I couldn’t find my way out of the barbarity as a community.
“In the midst of fear and confusion, came a seeming pastor with his seeming follower. I couldn’t find the way out of the suffocating with insanity and saturated with the tension community that the military and other security services were going they to restore peace.
“The seeming pastor with the seeming devoted follower described the routes for me. After I mounted my motorcycle, the pastor told me to alight so that we could offer the in Jesus name prayers, thinking that I was a Christian.
“I alighted and closed my eyes in line with how Christians observed their prayers. After that, the pastor assured me that I would reach my destination in peace in God’s name.
“Immediately I entered Kubo Kanakuru town, some people accosted me and asked about what happened and I said nothing thinking that the news has not gotten to the people.
“But when I went deeper into the town, I saw people wearing long and gloomy faces discussing in groups. I then realised that the incident has been relayed to the people.
“That informed my decision to go to the palace of the district head to tell him the fate that befell my friends and co-travelers to Borrong.
In a chat with our reporter who was at his palace to get first-hand information about the incident, the acting district head of Kubo Kanakuru, Malam Musa Lawal said the killing of 8 members of the community left in its trail 59 orphans.
Lawal called on the authorities to ensure that the children are adequately catered for in the areas of education and general welfare to ensure they lived a fruitful life.
Lawal also called on the authorities to ensure that justice was done by fishing out those involved in the spate of killings, noting that only justice could guarantee peaceful coexistence in our communities.
Lawal thanked the deputy governor of Borno State, the chairman national hunters association and other numerous individuals and groups who paid condolence and sympathy visits, thanking the state government for the early relief package it brought to the people.
Lawal said immediately after the incident, he forwarded a report to the emirate council and the emirate council forwarded the report to the local government and from there to the state government, which informed the visit of the deputy governor to the town.
Borno State government working to ensure justice for slain youth – Lawmaker
Meanwhile, the member representing Shani State constituency, Ibrahim Musa Inuwa Kubo has disclosed to our reporter via phone chat that he was on the same page with the state government to ensure that justice prevailed and to ensure that perpetrators were brought to book.
Kubo said since the incident, the state government especially, the governor, deputy governor, himself and the chairman of the local government did not rest as they worked round the clock to ensure the culprits were brought to justice, culminating in the arrest of 5 suspects so far.
“So far five suspects including the Sarkin Kasuwa and the head of hunters who insisted that our youths must be killed even after confirming the authenticity of their mission in Borrong from the parents of the lady are in detention.
“I spoke with Adamawa state commissioner of police who confirmed such arrests. I spoke with the local government chairman of Shani who is also deeply involved in the matter and together, we are not resting on our oars to see that justice is done to the victims,” he said.
Widows cry for help
The massacre, which left in its wake several widows and 59 orphans has compounded the woes of the women some of whom were left with several children to cater for amidst dwindling fortunes.
Further investigation by our reporter revealed that the slain men left behind a harem of widows as some of them were married to between two to three wives.
The widows urged the state and the federal governments to empower them and help to educate the orphans so that they could become useful members of the society.
I leave killers of my husband to God – Luka Yakubu’s wife
The woman whose husband was at the center of the event, Magdaline Luka said she has left the killers of her husband to God.
But she called on authorities to come to the rescue of her four children, noting that she would find it difficult to raise four children on her own.
Similarly, the two brothers of Luka urged the authorities to come to the rescue of the orphans “who are currently in a dilemma.”
Names of slain youths
Danladi gave the names of the slain youths as Ibrahim Iro, Adamu Yellow, Usman Van-dam, Dan Jaki, and Dokta Kubo.
Others are: Luka Yakubu, Alhassan Jalo, Ishaku Dandodo.
Adamawa police confirms arrest
Meanwhile, the Adamawa State police command has confirmed the arrest of some suspects in relation to the Borrong incident.
The command’s image maker, DSP Sulaiman Nguroje in a phone chat told our reporter that arrests have been made in relation to the Borrong killings, noting that the suspects were helping the police with investigation, adding that after investigation, the suspects would be charged to court.