228 killed, 4000 houses razed in Baga mayhem – Senator





Contrary to initial reports of the death toll of 185 and destruction of over 2, 000 houses at Baga Town on Tuesday in Borno state, Sen. Maina Ma’aji Lawan, representing north senatorial district at the National Assembly has declared that from his personal two-day assessment  of the town at the weekend that over  228 people were killed while about 4, 000 houses  were destroyed after   during the mayhem.

Sen. Lawan  at a press conference in Maiduguri,  Saturday, said the casualty figures  as  reported in the media is not a reflection of what he saw during his assessment  of the town.

Instead, Lawan  said: “during my two-day on the spot visit to Baga, what I saw was very frightening and sad to report and comment further, as many more lives and properties were massively destroyed in the two-day carnage. The houses leveled or torched runs for length of three-four kilometers of township settlements. I drove through the carnage and counted no fewer than 4,000 houses of innocent residents destroyed in the fight between the Boko Haram sect and soldiers of Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF).

“The magnitude of carnage has overwhelmed me, as the number of and level at which the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Red Cross (NRC), the JNL, Izala and other Humanitarian Agencies in Baga town are grossly inadequate to meet the food, health and housing requirements of victims that are still sleeping in the open air. Even, NEMA as at last Friday had only two tents to cope with tens of hundreds of displaced victims.”




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