Zabarmari residents where several rice farmers were massacred have come out to say they informed military before the attack but nothing was done.
Jomog News Nigeria reports that if the Nigerian military had taken action after being informed of the impending attack, the killing of rice farmers in the community would have been avoided; residents of Zabarmari in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State have claimed.
Abubakar Salihu, one of the surviving villagers, said they foresaw danger after they arrested one of the Boko Haram terrorists and handed him to the security operatives.
He said: “We informed military beforehand that our members sighted Boko Haram in large numbers but nothing was done about it.”
“It was a sad day for us in Zabarmari; it could have been averted but the military failed to act on the information we gave them,” he added.
Another rice farmer, Mohammed Alhaji, said that the victims were busy harvesting rice when the insurgents summoned and assembled them.
“It was a deliberate act to ensure that we do not harvest our farm produce. We need the federal government to assist us and secure our lives,” he said.
The Zabarmari attack occurred on Saturday, November 28, as Boko Haram terrorists rounded up farmers on rice fields and slit their throats or beheaded them.
No fewer than 43 bodies were recovered in one location after the attack.
The bodies, recovered from other locations, according to the United Nations, have raised the death toll to 110.
The military has not yet responded to the villagers’ claims.
However, Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, has blamed the farmers’ deaths on their failure to get military clearance before working on the field.
“The truth has to be said. Was there any military clearance from the military who are in total control of the area? Did anybody ask to resume activity?” Shehu said while speaking to BBC ‘Newsday’.
