Maiduguri, The Home Of Peace Now The City Of Fear

This story is about some normal village people. They lived in communal spirit and have great respect for their elders and community leaders.

They are law abiding and go about their business of buying and selling which is the main preoccupation of the people who often take their goods to sell in the city especially after harvests.
 
Even though they were being extorted by the police who manned numerous road blocks on their way to the city and collect illegal levies from them as well as from the drivers of commercial vehicles on which they travel, the trend was accepted as normal and was carried on until it has now come to a stage when the villagers felt that they are no longer safe.
 
A major incident in the city was stirred by some self acclaimed religious reformers that went out of hand. It happened when their members openly denounced the introduction of a policy compelling  motor cyclists to wear helmets.
 
Their open disregard to the law and refusal to comply with it was met with heavy handed approach since enforcing the law was met with stiff resistance through open confrontations with law enforcement agents, there was an incident that led to the death of a member of the self acclaimed religious reformists.
 
The religious sect members demanded for and obtained the corpse of their dead colleague and prepared for his burial. Their membership swelled as a result of the sympathy to their cause by commercial motor cycle owners who joined the sect members in solidarity and followed them to the burial.
 
Yet another major upheaval was created when they were confronted by joint military and police operatives who opened fire and killed some of the religious sect members who were accompanying the corpse of their member to the cemetery because they were riding on their motor cycles without helmet.
 
Since then on they vowed to defend themselves against further attacks by security men in the future and started preaching for violence and urging their followers to gather weapons and arm themselves. Their open call for self protection led to the arrest of their leaders who were released on bail. To show their strength they organised a mass reception to their released leaders. The massive turn out  that followed rattled the political class and the security operatives which underestimated the initial level of their followers.
 
Buoyed by the turnout the leadership of the sect decided and issued warnings to the authorities to stop any further arrest against them claiming that they were prepared to resist further arrests and fight back in future if it becomes necessary. They began organising exercises and combat trainings in the open as a proof of their preparedness.
 
Yet again the state authorities arrested and detained their followers in various detention centres, some in police stations, others taken to the prison in Maiduguri and other parts of the country.
 
In a coordinated attacks on police stations and prison yards where their members were held, they successfully launched an assault and released prisoners and took away their members.
 
What followed was a full scale war between the Nigerian state and the sect members. Initially, the military succeeded in suppressing the uprising and effectively  arresting the leadership of the sect and thousands of their followers. But there was an outcry against the open execution of the leadership of the sect members without trial.
 
Many armed security personnel exploited the situation and went about unleashing a reign of terror against innocent civilians in the community.
Citizens living in the area who are not sympathetic to the self acclaimed reformists and have nothing to do with the sect became targets were randomly arrested and shot at because they have common tribal and religious identity with the suspected sect members or have beard.
 
Villagers traveling to the city on business trips were cut out and many lost their lives and properties to men in uniform who suspect them as reinforcements deployed to back the sect members.
 
People continued to live in fear and find it difficult on who to trust. The local people started losing trust on the activities of the uniformed personnel who continued with their random search and executions of innocent civilians unabated.
 
The attacks by the security personnel that were deployed to contain the situation on innocent citizens who were also accused of  looting, committing robberies  and raping of their women cause them the loss of trust and made some residents to be sympathetic to those at the receiving end of their atrocities.
 
Young men who run the risk of being taken away on allegation of being members of the sect even though they were not start to toy with the idea of seeking for means to avenge the atrocities committed against their relations by the security agents by identifying with the sect members who cashed in on this opportunity to gain more recruits and further regroup and gain more grounds to carry on with their fight.
 
The result is that the previously peaceful and sleepy town of Maiduguri and its people were turned to become wild and violent. Borno and its neighbour Yobe have become a lawless state where only the fittest survive. Maiduguri which was acclaimed to be the home of peace has now become the City of Fear.
 
And when villagers suspect beyond doubt that those who robbed and killed them were uniformed security men and to their dismay realise that the military commanders continued to shield and protect their men and officers against arrest and prosecution for the crimes they commit against them, it is little wonder then that it is no longer at ease for the security personnel and their political masters who are at a loss on how to find solution to the monster they created even though it has become an avenue to further enrich themselves.