Life inside Boko Haram victims’ camp in Lagos

An overpowering stench pervades the camp which partly sits on a dumpsite tucked in Happy Home Avenue in Kirikiri town, a coastal community in Apapa area of Lagos. The camp is home to hundreds of victims of Boko Haram who fled Northeast Nigeria for the relative safety being experienced down south. But not many people know about its existence.

The terrorist group, Boko Haram, has been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in the troubled region after declaring war against the government.

Ironically, the condition of the camp stands in total contrast to the name of the avenue. Its squalor paints a stark picture of a life of gloom, neglect, poverty and hopelessness for the Internally Displaced Persons.

Stories of deaths of loved ones are rife here with a general deep sense of loss. Everyone has a story to tell and has similarly lost at least a loved one, either to death or separation.

For many of them, life is a cruel journey. And since about 80 per cent of the IDPs at the camp are from Adamawa State, their journeys to Lagos were also long and laborious.

It was 6pm and dark clouds had just settled on the camp, threatening rain.

‘I watched my brother die’

One of the IDPs, Kashim Samaila, 15, starred glumly at the sky with an appealing look. Samaila sleeps out in the open and the daunting prospect of spending another night in the rain frightens him.

The shacks in the camp are built partly of wood and partly of sack clothes, many of which were donated by nearby companies and other benefactors. But they are largely inadequate to cater for the growing population in the camp.

Samaila said he has to tuck his hands inside his clothes in the night to stand a chance against the biting cold wind; although, he often has to bring them out to swat mosquitoes coming at him.

“No one will buy drugs for me if I have malaria; I’m the only one in my family here,” he said.

Samaila lost his younger brother about a year ago and has lost contact with his other family members since then.

He and his brother, Sodiq, fled their village, Sabongari Hyambula, to the Mandara mountains after a Boko Haram attack. While climbing the highland, Sodiq’s legs slipped and he fell to his death. He was only seven years old.

Samaila left Sodiq behind knowing there was nothing he could do to help. When he returned home the following day, Samaila met his village in ruins; their house was gone and there was no sign of his parents and other siblings.

“Boko Haram had burnt all the houses. I cried and cried, particularly for Sodiq but there was nothing I could do. Everyone was running for their lives,” he said.

From there, Samaila followed a group of other victims to Yola, Adamawa State capital, where he was assisted with some money to join some of the victims who were on their way to Lagos.

His consolation though is that his other family members may be alive after a relative told him that he sighted them in Yola.

He is however desperate to forget the image of his dead brother but sadly, it’s one he will have to live with for the rest of his life.

“I still wake up at night thinking about him,” Samaila told our correspondent.

There are many children with similar experiences in the camp. Many of them do not speak English, so our correspondent had to rely on some of the adults to help with translation in the course of the interviews.

The children’s schooling has stopped since they moved to Lagos and they were seen running around the camp. Some of them were seen washing motorcycles in the camp for money.

‘Boko Haram killed my father’

For Musa Hamman, 10, who received news of his father’s death three days earlier, the pains are still fresh.

Hamman has been in the camp for about six months in the care of his uncle, Waziri Ismail. Hamman was also separated from his family in Adamawa State, ended up in Yola, where he was assisted with some cash to get him to Lagos, where he met Ismail, who had also fled the troubled state.

So it was at the camp that news of the killing of Hamman’s father reached them. He was reportedly killed by Boko Haram, who stopped the vehicle he was travelling in and shot the occupants.

“He (Hamman) has not been eating well since we heard the news. He has been crying since that time. I’ve been taking care of him in the camp with the little money I make from okada business (commercial motorcycling). We believe that his mother, who is my sister, is still alive in Adamawa State,” Ismail told our correspondent.

Seven-year-old Dali Sunday and two of his siblings, Abubakar, 12 and Solomon, 10, have been in the camp for about a year. They have been in the care of their uncle, Luka Takava, since arriving in the camp.

Sunday said he cannot forget the last time he saw his father. They were at home in Gubla, a village in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, when sounds of heavy gunshots rang in the community.

He said, “I saw armed Boko Haram members lying on the road in a shooting position. They faced the community and were shooting ceaselessly. Everyone was running for their lives. A soldier in uniform came to beg my father for civilian clothes, which my father gave to him.

“He changed into the clothes and wrapped his gun with a piece of cloth. He was the one that my father asked us to follow to Mildu (another community). We saw a corpse on the road while we were trying to escape the attack. It was on the way that the soldier threw his gun inside a river.

“The soldier left us at Mildu after we saw our uncle (not Takava). Our uncle took us to our aunt in Milika (another community) but she rejected us. Then we met our other uncle (Takava) who brought us to Lagos.”

Takava said Sunday was in Primary 1 in their home state but has not attended any school since his relocation to Lagos.

The IDPs in the camp are made up of students, teachers and some other professionals, but many of them have been idle in Lagos where they previously had no ties. Trading and okada business are the drivers of the camp’s economy.

Some of the men who are commercial motorcyclists get to own motorcycles through a special arrangement termed as ‘hire purchase’ where they are required to pay N175,000 for a bike that costs N120,000 over a period of about four months. The children, some of who have no direct relations in the camp, in turn wash the bikes in exchange for some money to survive.

With that, the traders are able to get some patronage.

‘My family members are still missing’

For instance, Sunday Joseph, a 200 level English and Political Science student of Umar Ibn Ibrahim El-Kanemi College of Education, Science and Technology, Bama, Borno State, who has also fled to the camp, is now a commercial motorcyclist.

Joseph, 26, had one and a half years left to spend in school when Boko Haram struck on April 4, 2014, and the school has remained shut since then.

He said, “I was in the school hostel on that day when around 4am, we heard gunshots and bombings on the campus. Five students were killed in the attack; two of them, Musa and Zainab were my course mates.

“At least, half of the school structures were destroyed by Boko Haram. So, the Provost of the college shut down the school and asked everyone to leave because of the insecurity.”

However, Joseph didn’t have to be told to leave as news of the Provost’s directive met him on his way to Gubla, his hometown.

“First, we trekked from Bama to Gwoza Local Government Area, which is about 30 km because there were no vehicles on the roads. It was at Gwoza that I was able to get a vehicle to take me to Gubla for N1,000, four times the normal fare,” he recalled.

Three months later, while waiting for his school to resume normal activities, tragedy struck at Chakama, an adjoining village to Gubla. Forty-five persons were killed in the attack on a Catholic church in the community, including more than 10 of Joseph’s relations.

He said, “They came to Chakama and killed 45 people; I had 17 relations that were killed in the attack. I saw all the bodies and I was one of those who buried the bodies. They beheaded the men and put their heads on their chests. They wanted to spare the women but I understand the women that were killed were trying to defend their husbands.

“They blocked the church entrance and asked the worshippers to come out one after the other. Some of the worshippers managed to escape through the windows, including two of my relatives.”

Shortly after the attack on the church, Joseph said the terrorists attacked Gubla too, killing four persons. It was the incident that forced Joseph to completely flee the region.

He continued: “Two weeks later, they attacked Gubla with about 15 cars and many more motorcycles. They killed four fish sellers; Yisa Dinga, Simparara, Yohanna Madaki and Ambudama. They called them pagans; they don’t like non-Muslims. They would ask questions and know if one is a Muslim or not.

“They had a shoot-out with soldiers and many of us ran to the bush. We heard that a sergeant named Alli was killed along with a boy, who climbed a tree to escape the attack. One of them saw him and shot him.

“After that incident, we stopped sleeping in the village for about two months. We hid in the bush between 4pm and 6am and returned to the village in the morning. Usually, they (Boko Haram) attacked around 4am or between 7pm and 9pm. It was then that we started moving to states outside the region. Some went to Delta, some to Imo and I came to Lagos.”

As a student, Joseph had been in the business of selling motorcycles in his community and had therefore been to Lagos a few times to buy motorcycles for his customers in his community.

“Some of us escaped to Mildu in the bush, then we trekked to Michika and from there, I hitchhiked to Yola,” he said.

In the aftermath of the attack, Joseph realised he had been separated from his family members – his mother, four brothers and two sisters.

He said, “Later, I found one of my younger brothers, Ijakirayu, in Yola. So I took the risk to return to Mildu to look for my mother and others. But I was only able to find two brothers and one sister. Till now, I don’t know where three of my family members are.”

Joseph, who hopes to return to school someday when the crisis is over, says he eagerly follows news reports to track the whereabouts of his missing family members: mother, Cecilia, 42; sister, Jumai, 18; and brother, Danjuma, five.

One of Joseph’s two relatives who survived the Boko Haram attack on Chakawa church was Jacob Bulus, 23.

Bulus was attending a Sunday service with about 150 other members when the church was attacked by the insurgents.

He said, “When I heard gunshots, I lied down on the ground. After a while, I found an opening in the church building and I took off. Some of them followed me and I heard gunshots around me. I ran into the bush until I got to a sugarcane farm. The Boko Haram members that came were in camouflage but wore head ties.”

Bulus’ elder brother, Luka; his wife, Ladi, and their two children have since been missing.

“I’ve been listening to the radio for news of our areas – Gubla, Chakawa and Mildu – but I’ve not been getting anything on them. But recently, I heard that soldiers have taken control of Gulak,” he said.

The camp has existed for over two years with an estimated population of 1,500, many of them Christians of Marghi tribe from Adamawa State. Saturday PUNCH learnt the camp’s location, also called Unity Park, is owned by the Nigerian Navy, which gave the IDPs permission to use the land with the support of Seriki Hausa of Amuwo Odofin, Alhaji Gambo Yau.

With the growing population in the camp, five to 10 persons cram into each shack with torn and dirty foams and cardboards. Some of the shacks built by naval officers attract a monthly rent of N4,000 each, irrespective of the number of occupants.

A few streets from the camp, on Abdullahi Street, another settlement for IDPs has formed. Since shacks are not allowed on the street, the IDPs sleep under trucks or by drainages in front of houses and shops, leaving themselves to the mercy of various weather elements.

Some of the IDPs who have motorcycles but with no shacks to sleep make use of their assets.

“Many of us sleep under trucks and on the street but I have okada so I sleep on it,” said Mohammed Yakubu, who stays at Abdulahi Street.

Thirty-two-year-old Bamaiyi Papka, better known as Barrister in the camp, is the Bulama-Maiungwa, otherwise known as leader of the IDPs. Papka was a registrar at Area Court, Grade 1, Mildu Madagali before the court was burnt by Boko Haram members along with other government offices in the area.

Papka and his family fled to Lagos in 2013 when Boko Haram attacks moved close to his home in Gubla, advancing from Gwoza, a border town in Borno close to Gubla in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Today, Papka and wife and four kids are in Lagos. He cooks the Marghi traditional meals and gets return from other IDPs he gives out motorcycles to use for commercial purposes.

Blaming his state government for neglecting them, Papka said it was unfair for any government to abandon its people. He insisted that his state government was aware of their existence but had chosen to do nothing to help them.

Papka described his biggest concern as the teeming children in the camp not attending school.

He said, “My people live in horrible conditions here, sleeping like dogs. Our state governor, Bala Ngilari, abandoned us here, even though we have been communicating with the government.

“We need his assistance here. We have small children who are without their parents and have stopped their education because there is no money. They wake up every day doing nothing.

“By the time there is improved security in Adamawa and we want to return, where is the money to go back? We’re not happy with our government at all. We have been at the mercy of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Lagos, the Navy and politicians of the ruling party in Lagos, who have been giving us bags of rice.”

Papka said the problem of Boko Haram was allowed to fester for too long in the Northeast.

Recalling his experience, he said, “We’re predominantly Christians in Madagali, although there were Muslim Fulani and Hausa migrants who came there to settle. Before the violence really started, we’d been seeing Boko Haram members in the area. They would move from Maiduguri to Bama to Gwoza and then pass Madagali because it’s close to Gwoza.

“They are known by their dressing – head ties, caps, long shirts and short trousers. They were also with guns anytime they passed. They moved with motorcycles and tricycles; only their leaders drove in pickup trucks. We might see their procession three times a week and they would be chanting Allahu Akbar. But they never attacked us at the time.

“Then they started attacking, killing and burning villages. They could start shooting sporadically and everyone would run including soldiers. The soldiers ran at the time because they could identify them. Some of them could decide to dress like other people. When they attacked, some people also used the opportunity to rob.”

Findings by Saturday PUNCH also showed that there are IDP camps in Ijora and Marine Beach areas of Lagos, which are predominantly populated by migrants from Borno State.

The Director of Public Affairs to the Adamawa State Governor, Mr. Chimeas Elisha, insisted that the state government was not aware of the existence of the camp.

He assured that the state government would send relief materials and initiate efforts to relocate the IDPs within the week.

Elisha also said the IDPs did not inform government about their plight, adding that they should have got in touch with the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency through the Lagos State equivalent of the agency.

He said, “We were not aware of this but now that we have been made aware of their situation, I can assure you that plans are in top gear to relocate them to Adamawa State.

“We have been in communication with our indigenes in other states, including the ones in Cameroon. So they should have informed us earlier.”

Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Lateef Ibirogba, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, said he was returning to Lagos from a trip and could not hear our correspondent clearly. He asked our correspondent to call him back later but he could not be reached as of the time of filing this report.

Efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency, South West zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, were futile as his telephone lines were not available.

• Additional reports by Umar Mohammed.

Life inside Boko Haram victims’ camp in Lagos