by Oge Okonkwo

The wives of volunteers popularly known as civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) have been recruited by troops fighting armed rebels in Borno state, to restrain the increasing involvement of women in the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

Men of the JTF have not ceased to express their surprise at the increasing rate rebels use women, including their wives to carry out some acts of terrorism such as carrying arms and  gathering information of security operatives, even though the military has made appreciable progress in restoring law and order to the state.

The military have now sought the help of female volunteers in an attempt to avoid been accused of harassing innocent women during search for accomplices of the rebels, the wives of the civilian JTF will search for suspected female insurgents in Maiduguri metropolis and other parts were the armed rebels still carry out their violent attacks.

Leadership reports:

Maiduguri residents woke up early Friday to another episode and dilemma when at Jimtilo village, on the outskirts of Maiduguri metropolis, two bodies of suspected Boko Haram insurgents who disguised themselves in women’s dresses were found dumped along the Maiduguri-Kano road.

Only yesterday, two Boko Haram suspects who disguised as women to escape from vigilance youths in Jimtilo ward of Maiduguri were killed after they were handed over to the Joint Military Task Force, JTF. Their corpses were dumped in Hausari ward behind the State Specialist General Hospital, Maiduguri.

This is the second time that suspected terrorists who disguised as women have been arrested. The first was in Gwange ward of the same Maiduguri metropolis where six Boko Haram suspects in female dresses armed with AK 47 rifles were arrested and killed by troops.

Our correspondent gathered that the victims were on their way to Maiduguri to unleash terror on the residents but were intercepted by the youths at Jimtilo, about eight kilometres from the western entry point to Maiduguri.

The insurgents, who wore pink brassieres, according to sources, covered themselves with veils and were on their way to carry out a deadly attack on some parts of the metropolis.

Another source added that the terrorists who fled to Sambisa and other camps are easily identified because they look haggard due to lack of access to food.

The military spokesman, Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, and the police public relations officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin, could not be reached for confirmation of the incident as at press time because of the absence of telecommunication services in the state.

Security operatives said that the engagement of the civilian JTF also known as Yan Gora and their wives in the street to search women and check houses where the insurgents hide had paid off as hundreds of women bearing arms have been arrested.

LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that some of the women were caught with AK 47 rifles on their backs covered with their veils (himar). Others were allegedly arrested in public places such as markets by the volunteer youths and their wives.

Military sources claimed that some of the women concealed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on either backs as if they were carrying their babies to beat security checks.

It was further learnt that some of the women were arrested in their homes in possession of guns and ammunition covered with grains in plastic buckets and sacks and, when interrogated, claimed that they did not know that their husbands kept such items in their residences and that they did not have an inkling that their husbands were Boko Haram members.

Some of the detained women allegedly confessed that they were informants and ran errands for insurgents who paid them between N5,000 and N50,000 depending on the mission and the location for the delivery of the guns and IEDs.

LEADERSHIP Weekend also gathered that some of the women confessed that they were forced to engage in such acts by the insurgents, who threatened to wipe out their families if they failed to carry out the mission.

A civilian JTF member confirmed that their wives and female siblings have joined them in searching for female insurgents or their sympathisers on the streets and in neighbourhoods where a lot of successes have been recorded. “Our wives know how to subject them (female insurgents) to rigorous stop-and-search — pedestrians, motorists, motorcycle riders and their passengers. Nobody is exempted from such searches. When the soldiers were conducting the search, it generated a lot of controversy as married women protested against it. Also, women were rarely seen outside for social events such as weddings and birthdays.

“This is why we introduced female civilian JTF to search women’s hand bags, himar (veils), stomachs, backs and even their thighs. Sometimes, women who appear very dangerous are ordered to kneel down and our wives often found rifles on their backs. Some are even asked to put down their babies for proper search and they do so without any resistance,” he said.

The source said the moment a woman resisted or protested against being searched by civilian female JTF, the civilian male JTF are alerted and she would be forced to undress herself in the presence of the military for the search to be conducted.

So far, no case of killing of suspected female Boko Haram members has been reported among civilian JTF youths or the military, but many have been arrested with arms, ammunition and IEDs on the streets and in marketplaces in Maiduguri, the source said.

In an interview, one Halima Yar Fulani on duty at Baga Road civilian JTF checkpoint, near the Baga Road International Fish Market, said: “Some of these useless women Boko Haram insurgents are involved in the dirty acts because of poverty. It is either because they have lost their husbands who were insurgents or are orphans because their parents were killed and have none to cater for them.”

She added that “some of them may be into it because they don’t know the danger associated with it. Illiteracy and poverty could also account for what they are doing because I don’t see any reason why a woman should be involved in this ugly activity. Anything can happen as it does happen to them. So, they have to face the music alone.”

Another female civilian JTF in Polo JIddari area who declined to mention her name for security reasons told LEADERSHIP Weekend, “These women do carry guns, bombs and ammunition for their husbands or for money as they often confess to us. We have arrested some of them here and in some places like Customs Market, Monday Market and Gomari areas in possession of poisons, IEDs and guns.

Efforts to get any of the women arrested for interview failed because security operatives declined to say where to get or meet them.