Boko Haram: Mubi liberated by military and local vigilante

(THISDAY) Yesterday, residents marched onto the streets of Mubi, Adamawa’s second largest town, singing and celebrating the liberation of the town by a combined team of the Nigerian military, local hunters and the Civilian Joint Task Force, which collaborated to flush out Boko Haram terrorists who had captured the town two weeks ago.

Vintim, the hometown of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was also liberated in the battle spearheaded by the military, local vigilantes and hunters to uproot the terrorists who had taken over five local government areas in Adamawa State.
Mubi residents, who poured out into the streets, said they were excited that their town had been liberated from the insurgents, who were killed and chased out by the military and their local civilian collaborators.

One of the residents from Mubi, Mallam Musa Bello, informed Newsmen that most of the local hunters and Civilian JTF were mobilised from  Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno States by some top politicians in Adamawa following fears that the state might be taken over by the insurgents, if nothing was done to dislodge them.

Bello further added that over 30,000 local hunters and Civilian JTF were mobilised for the fight against the insurgents, adding that the Emir of Mubi was the one who initiated the idea, seeing that he might lose his kingdom to the insurgents.
He revealed that during the battle to recover Mubi, several insurgents were killed, several injured, while a number of them had been arrested.

Bello added that the leader of the insurgents Abubakar Shekau might have been killed in the battle between the two sides.
In the course of the clash, the military was also able to recapture the 234 Army Battalion as well as other strategic security formations in the town which fell into the hands of the insurgents when they overran Mubi.
Residents reported that about five armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and military hardware were recovered from the insurgents.

The residents also disclosed that all the flags hoisted by the insurgents had been uprooted and replaced with Nigerian flags, adding that even the palace of the emir, which was converted to the spiritual headquarters of the insurgents, was liberated.

Confirming the recapture of Mubi yesterday in Yola, the Adamawa State Governor Bala James Ngilari, said: “The insurgents have been flushed out of Mubi and are on the run.”

Ngilari said the success recorded in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents was the handwork of God, adding: “God is in this business of security in Adamawa State. You know in the last one week or so, the government decided to work with the vigilante group ‘Yan Baka’, local hunters and Civilian JTF. We have been working hand in hand with them.”
THISDAY also gathered that the local hunters and Civilian JTF will proceed to other parts of the North-east still under the control of the insurgents to uproot them.