— June 12, 2014
Boko Haram terrorists are reportedly asking for 40 cows as a precondition for the release of each of the 20 abducted Fulani women, whom they had held in captivity for about a week now, husbands of the abducted women and security sources have said.
The insurgents who picked up the women in Garkin Fulani, a nomadic settlement near Chibok town last week Thursday are now reaching out to the husbands of the kidnapped women with what could be described as ransom.
A police official in Maiduguri who spoke to LEADERSHIP under strict condition of anonymity said many Fulani herdsmen had reported cases of abduction to them in various police Divisional headquarters and outposts around Damboa and Kaga local government areas of Borno State.
The police source said, the husbands and fathers of the abducted women were not ready to part with even a single calf as ransom for the release of their wives and daughters.
‘You know the Fulanis hold their herds more dearly, because without it they have no means of livelihood”, said the police Sergeant. “Most of them have come to report the incident at our offices but they are all saying such demands are not tenable”.
The officer said they were presently handling a particular case at the police Divisional Outpost in Jakana town of Kaga local government, about 50km away from Maiduguri, where the Fulani man said he would rather stay without his wife than giving out what he does not even have.
“This man in question has a son delivered to him by his abducted wife and presently the man and his son are at the police station in Jakana; he said he was asked to provide 40 cows as ransom for the release of his abducted wife, but the man said he has his son with him; and that if God wills that his wife would return to him, he doesn’t need to part with his means of livelihood to secure her back”.
The Fulani man’s concern was that “what if he gave out the cows, which are not even up to 40 and then his wife was not released; it means he would lose in both ways. So he would rather keep his herds and his son and pray that his wife returns safely home one day”.
There are a lot of concerns being expressed around Borno State as to the increasing impunity of the Boko Haram, whose activities were gradually becoming unchecked.
Borno State police command has hitherto not been able to officially issue any statement in respect of the abducted Fulani women, even though the police public relations officer of the state police command had on Monday promised to get back to journalists once he could confirm the veracity of the abduction itself.
Garkin Fulani is situated not very far from Chibok town, where the 219 schoolgirls still in the captivity of the Boko Haram were picked alongside 57 others that had escaped back on the 14th of April this year.