This morning I woke up by myself – no rude gunshots or
harsh bomb blasts woke me up. I was not so lucky on Friday
morning though..
I hate campus hostels so I live off campus very close to one
of the school’s numerous gates. But because the campus is
relatively safe, has more power supply and not subjected to
the 9-6 curfew imposed on Maiduguri, I usually end up
sleeping at a friend’s who lives with his mum in the staff
quarters. Well, Thursday night came and network was really
terrible over there so I decided to sleep at my place instead
to see if the network will be better since I had some 360nobs
job to do. I and my roommate Blaq walked home. By 6
o’clock the next morning, the alarm on my pebble smart
watch vibrated me awake. Since I didn’t have any lecture, I
out off the alarm continued sleeping. Checked the watch
again and it was quarter past seven. About five minutes
later, I heard a gunshot. It’s a normal occurrence over here
in Maiduguri so I paid it no mind. A few seconds later, there
was a burst of gunfire. I asked Blaq if he heard that just to
be sure. We got a continuous sound of gunfire in response.
We sprang up and started throwing clothes on. Blaq
suggested we get into the campus, I thought it was an
unnecessary risk since we will have to cross a major road
for us to get into the campus. Our only neighbour who
happens to be a young lady with a baby ran out of the house
with her sister and four others screaming at the top of their
heads for everyone to run out of the area. Turns out the
Boko Haram guys were coming through a dried out river
behind our house. I and Blaq said a short word of prayer to
God to direct us and then we headed out to the gate of our
compound. We met our other friends who thankfully were as
cool headed as us and we were trying to decide what course
of action to take. Yeah, meanwhile we could hear bombs
exploding – it was like on the fourth explosion by now – not
like I bothered to count though.
We decided to go out to the road to see what’s happening.
We saw thousands of youth – the ones called the civilian jtf
– on the road in front of our house brandishing all sorts of
weapons waiting for Boko Haram members to come.
Weapons from stuff you see in ancient medieval movies like
iron spikes, spears, mean ass,ugly swords to common tools
like hammers, axes and shovels. There were all sorts of
weapons though.
And different ages – pre teenagers to adults in their 30s. We
foolishly sat down by the roadside watching the civilian jtf
motivate themselves with chants, scraping their weapons on
the tarred road as they drove in cars teeming with their
members. They did all the macho shit they could do to get
their blood boiling. I moved closer to them and picked up
some of their conversation and from what I gathered, it
seems some Boko haram members one of the army bases
known as Giwa Barracks. It was said that the insurgent
came in full force but the soldiers were prepared for them so
they scattered them. Some said that more of the bad guys
were still coming in however. Did I mention that not once did
the gun fire stop? It was still raging but we were not certain
where from. It was an on and off thing. One guy mentioned
he saw about three of them at that same dried up river
shooting their assault rifles. I moved on from him and asked
someone what was happening. He responded that it was
Boko Haram trying to get into town. I was like so what’s it
gonna be? He confidently boasted that if they were coming
in, it will have to be through the road we were on and by God
they will not get through them. I hailed the fella and moved
back to my friends.
We chilled around those ruffians for a long while with some
soldiers around. Later on, a number of them came with a
bloodied fellow in their midst being beaten and brutalized.
From their shouts, it seems he was a Boko Haram member.
When the multitude that saw them coming they started
jubilating and running towards their comrades to lynch the
dude. One of them holding a heavy machete ran forward and
hit the captive on the head with the edge of the machete. The
dude sank from the brute force but he was still dragged on
while being beaten till he was eventually handed over to the
soldiers nearby. A fighter jet came on the scene doing some
fancy maneuvers. I saw it dip at an area behind our house
and then it rose again. Immediately there was heavy black
smoke around that area. Another jet showed up and they
started firing at the ground from a distance. Those shots
were very far away though, thankfully.
One of our neighbours came back from school and told us a
bomb exploded near s lecture hall. We refused to believe him
because we just couldn’t live with that possibility – school
has always been safe from all the attacks that have ever
occurred. We asked him how it was like and his details were
scketchy so we teased him and made fun of him concluding
that fear made him make up stories. We also got calls that a
girl was hit in the hostel from a stray bullet; one other girl
said her roommate dodged a bulled – we had a field day
with that one too and cracked jokes at the newly discovered
bullet-dodging power. .As usual, I decided not to believe
anything till I could confirm it for myself.
By noon, the jet was done and the gun fire eventually
ceased. I and my friends went back into the compound and
started preparing to eat our first meal of the day.
After eating, I drove into school and I confirmed that indeed a
girl had been hit by a stray bullet. I will later come to hear
that she passed away from the injury. Also, a guy was also
hit by a stray bullet while in the hostel and he gave up the
ghost too. I and a few friends drove to the lecture hall that
my neighbour claimed a bomb had exploded at and though
there was no bomb blast there as we earlier said (mostly in
jest) there was an explosion of sorts there which we
concluded must have been from a Rocket Propelled Grenade.
There was a small hole in front of the class while the glass
windows all around the front of the building were in pieces.
Also, shrapnel seemed to have penetrated through the metal
doors of the lecture hall while the walls of the class had so
many marks. It is a miracle people did not die from that one
alon
e.
It seemed that there were a lot of such damage of that sort
all over the campus. A friend shared a picture where such a
weapon tore through the fence of their compound. The most
sensible rumour concerning that was that the insurgents
were firing those weapons at the fighter jets and some of
them that missed the target found their way onto the
campus. I still cannot make sense of the stray bullets that
travelled so far to kill those two students though since no
shot was fired from within the campus.
I talked to my mum later on and found that the battle was
bad in the area near our family house. Seems that when the
Boko Haram members attacked the barracks and failed, they
tried to escape into that area and they were being gunned
down by the soldiers. Therefore, the area surrounding the
house was littered with dead bodies. My mum and cousins
had to go somewhere else to live the rest of the day.
All in all, it could have been far worse. But the military really
did well. The presence of the civilian JTF was also helpful
despite their wild, brutal, uncouth ways. They hacked a lot
of Boko Haram members to death on the spot even within
the campus. But we rather have the youth of the town in that
way rather than cowering in hiding whenever our city is
under attack. The upside of this most recent experience is
that the casualty suffered by the good guys was so low that
everyone is optimistic that maybe we are reaching the end of
this crisis in Maiduguri… Time will tell
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