By Martins Tachio

On a quiet night in febuary 2017, Ada was startled out of sleep by distant shouts of ‘fire, fire, fire please help’, as she tried to figure out where the persistent shouts were coming from, she was again jolted by sounds of intense and sustained gun shots that sounded even closer!

She made to hide inside her wardrobe, but as she jumped out of bed…she kicked the side stool she had sat on bed to eat dinner with 4 hours earlier, In pain she crawled into the wardrobe as her shin begun bleeding ceaselessly.

More gunshots rented the air as the shouts ‘fire, fire’ started fading out.

About seventy meters from Ada’s one room apartment was a church building belonging to the Lutheran Church of Nigeria. It had been attacked on first site by the gunmen on entering Azinda town where they splashed gasoline and quickly set it ablaze!

The local pastor and his family of five in the adjoining pastor’s lodge in the church compound were all roasted alive… the blaze was still raging full force when the Invaders started going door to door demanding for money, laptops, phones, women and in some cases the holy Koran.

Ada was listening to the various noises outside of her small apartment, the more she listened, the more scared she became.

She had zero chance of survival unless she did not come face to face with the marauding hoodlums.

Buried inside the closet, she could hear chants of ‘Alahu Akbar! Alahu Akbar!’ as doors are kicked open or rammed with timber logs. Home occupants were screaming in agony from a distance!!!

She pulled herself together, picked up her phone and tried to call the divisional police officer (DPO) of the local police post, whom she was familiar with… Assistant Superintendent of Police Kelvin Musa, the phone rang out until on the fourth attempt when ASP Musa picked up the call and sounded extremely terrified!!! He said ‘Ada what is the problem’? Before he could complete his sentence, she had started whispering back at him ‘sir, some people are in our area burning down houses and breaking doors, please send your men to come over and help us’…. Musa’s response was shocking as he responded ‘We cannot come as our police post is on fire and many of my men are missing please bear with us, I will see you tomorrow’… the line clicked and went Dead.

Ada started sobbing alone in her hiding, lamenting what had become of her lovely country Nigeria and Azinda town, a place she chose to stay shortly after her national youth service Corp.

She was young, beautiful and single. She sobbed and said a silent prayer to the God of heaven!

The attackers had just murdered a man, his wife and her cousin who came visiting from the village that same evening… and moved a block farther from Ada’s residence.

More chants of ‘Alahu Akbar’ pierced through the air of the grim night again and again, next stop was a small compound built of mud, inside the living room was no flooring…the door was flimsy, so the armed men kicked it open just to be confronted by a leper and his equally leprous wife and their 3 year old daughter.

When the Invaders observed that the occupants of the house were perpetually ill people, they demanded from them to bring out their copy of the Koran! When the leprous couple could not do so, the turbaned attackers just shot them dead leaving the 3yr old daughter crying on the mud ground the house was built on!

The gunmen’s next stop was Mr Bisade’s house, where he lived with his wife, children and dependents. Bisade’s family ran a thriving grinding Mill in the community, so when the men came, they ransacked the household for money, collected every dime they could get; although Bisade was a Muslim, they tied him up and slaughtered him like a ram, shot his wife on the leg and left with two adult daughters and a boy.

Next was Mr Josiah Garba, a police constable whose house was just a few feet away. He was off duty so was at home, his family lives in Gombe…on entering his house their flashlights noticed a police calendar on the wall and freshly ironed uniforms, without a word they shot him dead instantly.

The armed men went round many houses in Azinda, killing, stealing and abducting young men and women! Ada was well awake when the jihadist’s ‘Alahu Akbar’ chants began interchanging with the early morning cock crows!

Meanwhile as the ‘Godsent’ killings was going on, signals were sent to the nearby Nigerian military base on the fringes of Azinda around 1.30am, but as at 4.45am, the soldiers were yet to receive command from Abuja to proceed to the troubled spot! In that same murderous night, on another side of town, ASP Kelvin Musa was seized and slaughtered on a slab!

As Ada hid in overwhelming fear for her life for hours, she suddenly felt the town go quiet… no more gun shots and no more chants of ‘Alahu Akbars’. Only the sounds of early morning cold breeze.

She limped out of the closet to see the first lights of day break.

She braved outside of her residence to meet other community members that had survived the night of horrendous slaughter… everyone looked on in horrified silence as all began to go round to see what happened to friends or relations.

Instantly, everyone headed the direction of the district head’s (local chief) house. There, the chief was slaughtered along with six of his guards! The palace was completely incinerated! Only the ruins were there.

Just a few houses were lucky to evade intrusion. Goats and various livestock were carted away. Dogs were shot dead; headless bodies of dead men littered every street corner and footpath!

In-patients at the local hospital were attacked with some butchered all together!

By the time Ada and the other surviving men in the community had gone round, each and every one was forlorn and depressed. She continued to cry like an orphaned child as she walked back to her apartment.

A few minutes past 6am, sirens blared, and a military motorcade drove into Azinda.

As it is common in the north east and all insurgents held territories in northern Nigeria, the army hardly goes on offensive, they remain defensive!

With a mega phone, the Nigerian troops called everyone out. Ada had already made up her mind to leave town as soon as day break, so she’d packed just her clothes and credentials.

The army evacuated the wounded and guided the much traumatized inhabitants of Azinda to the nearest internally displaced people’s camp about a 100 kilometers away from the community.

The state government on its part was to begin arrangements for Mass burials for the headless bodies that could be found.

At the IDP camp, Ada spent the night and next day left for Oturkpo, Benue State, to reunite with her parents and siblings… from there she will think and decide what next to do in Nigeria that is at war, while its political and military leaders live in denial… they know, but they are watching it through rose colored eye glasses!

Boko Haram has waged war on the Nigerian state since 2011, the murderous group’s intention is to establish an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria because it believes the country’s political and economic fortune has been hijacked by a very corrupt northern cabal over the years…the group, Boko Haram is making uncurtailed progress in its mission.

This is a work of fiction but…

Martins Tachio is a multi-media journalist based in Abuja Nigeria and a good governance enthusiast.
martins.tachio@gmail.com