A fact-finding panel set up by Governor Kashim Shettima to investigate media claim of mass abduction of women in the aftermath of November 28 attack on Bam-Buratai, a remote village in Biu local government area of Borno State, has submitted its report.
In the report, the panel confirmed abduction of a family of six but insisted it was not a mass abduction as reported in a section of the media.
According to the Media Aide to Governor Shettima, Isa Gusau, the committee was unsure whether the family was actually abducted considering the fact the infants were amongst them while it may be unlikely for insurgents to abduct infants.
The committee found out that the insurgents invaded the community at about 10 p.m of November 28, shooting sporadically following which they killed some residents and set the village on fires.
Local and international media had reported a large scale abduction of girls by insurgents in the village. However, the Borno State Government, in quick reaction constituted a 7-member fact-finding committee to unearth the abduction claim as widely reported in the media within three days.
The committee, led by member representing Biu State Constituency in Borno House of Assembly, Aliyu Kachalla, said it ascertained that family members of one of the villagers, named Pidigum Mohammed Pindar were those missing. “They include Mrs. Gambo Pidigum and Mrs. Hamsatu Pidigum, the first and second wives respectively,” the committee said in a report obtained by newsmen in Maiduguri.
Those discovered to have been abducted, according to the committee, were children of the Pidigum family.
They are: Hauwa’u Pidigum, “an 8 years old Primary 3 schoolgirl, Abdullahi Pidigum, 2 years 6 months old boy, Ummi Pidigum, a year and 6 months old girl and Rabi Pidigum, a 6-month-old girl.
“There is no information about the whereabouts of the abducted members as at the time of compiling the report.
