75 Borno elders slaughtered in 2014, says Ndume

THE Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has

 clarified that the gruesome murder of the 75 Borno elders by Boko Haram insurgents, happened in 2014.

Ndume, who made the clarification in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Thursday, however, said some parts of the state were still inaccessible to residents.

There were media reports on Thursday that Ndume, while addressing journalists in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Wednesday, announced the murder of the 75 elders.

But the representative of the Borno South Senatorial District told our correspondent that it was an old incident.

He said, “I need to clarify that the murder of the 75 elders was not a recent event.  The incident actually happened in 2014.

“We have been meeting the various military troops on the ground and it was during one of our engagements that I gave the narrative about how 75 elders were murdered.

“I explained that they were slaughtered by the Boko Haram insurgents in an abattoir, while 20 others were lined up and killed. But that was at the peak of the insurgency in 2014 when they took over many areas and created a caliphate,” he added.

Media reports on Wednesday, had quoted Ndume to have said, “There was a time in my hometown, Gwoza, that about 75 elders, most of whom I know personally, were dragged by Boko Haram to the town’s abattoir and slaughtered like animals.

“Only two persons survived because their bodies were covered with other people’s’ blood and the assailants thought they were dead.”