A half a minute video, a chilling speech by an insurgent, a staccato of bullets, and five men laid dead. Cold dead. In the hands of Boko Haram.
The speech translated from Hausa into English: “this is a message to the infidels who are using you to cheat and turn our people into unbelievers. You should know that your employers are just using you to achieve their aims, but they don’t care about you. That’s why whenever we abduct you, they don’t care about you.
“Our advice for you is that you should repent and turn to God, or else we shall continue to waylay and abduct you all in all the routes that you traverse.
“And if you don’t heed to our warning, what is about to happen to these five aid workers would also be fate that will befall you too.”
In a statement from the Presidency they were said to have been with the State Emergency Management Agency, Action Against Hunger, Rich International, and International Rescue Committee. They were said to have been abducted weeks ago.
President Muhammadu Buhari condoles with the affected aid agencies and their family members, and adds in a statement, through his media aide, Mr. Garba Shehu: “He assures them that his government will continue to do all it can to ensure that every remaining vestige of Boko Haram is wiped out completely from northeastern Nigeria and that the perpetrators of this atrocity face the law.
“President Buhari also condoles with the State Emergency Management Agency, Action Against Hunger, Rich International, and International Rescue Committee, whose staff have suffered this gruesome fate.
“He thanks them for their continued dedication and service to the victims of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. He assures them that security agencies in the state will work closely with their organisations to implement measures to ensure that no such kidnapping of staff occurs again.”