July 26, 2013
Borno youths who go hunting for suspected Boko Haram insurgents are said to have set ablaze a sect member in Dikwa, south east of Maiduguri yesterday.
Volunteer Vigilance Youths Group (VVYG) otherwise known as ‘Civilian JTF’ has been operating in Maiduguri and environs for quite some time now, tracking down and arresting suspecting sect members, and then hand them over to security forces.
Our correspondent gathered that members of the VVYG, which operate along Ngala road in Maiduguri, yesterday raced to Dikwa, once capital of Kanem Borno Empire, where they caught up with the suspect.
The vigilantes claimed the suspect had confessed that he alone had killed more than 70 people.
They said many of those killed were their loved ones and that they had, therefore, vowed to fish him out wherever he goes or enters.
One of the youths who participated in human bonfire said: “We left Maiduguri for Dikwa town purposely to fish out; that Boko haram member who killed our fathers and cousins and then fled to Dikwa town to hide. And when we reached the town, apart from him, we caught 19 other sect members who ran there to hide. We succeeded in bringing them back to Maiduguri, and then we suggested handing over the 19 suspects to the soldiers while our main target would remain with us for a special punishment he deserves because many of us were sorrowfully aggrieved with him; he killed many people in our area when they (Boko Haram members) were strong, and we couldn’t do anything then. But now he has entered his victims’ hands. When we decided to burn him, we just bathed him in fuel and set him on fire to die in presence of all the orphans and widows whom he had caused to suffer. So, what we did to him is minor compared to the evil he did to all of us. Though some of us have even suggested punishments worst than burning but the majority of us emphasised on setting him ablaze, that was why we agreed to just burn the evil Boko Haram sect member who killed our loved ones.
“Why don’t we pity him? No, When he had been coming, shooting people to death, why hadn’t he pited them? Those Boko Haram sect members were pitilessly killing people, so they do not deserve any pity from other people,” he added.
