Police: 55 scrap metal collectors killed by insurgents in Borno in three weeks

The Borno police command says insurgents killed 55 scrap metal collectors in the state within three weeks.

Abdu Umar, Borno commissioner of police, said this on Saturday while speaking at a security stakeholders’ meeting in Maiduguri, the state capital.

Several scavengers, otherwise known as ‘Yan Ajakuta’, were killed in Mukdala village in Dikwa LGA of Borno state on June 8, when gunmen on motorcycles invaded the area.

Days before, at least 30 persons were confirmed dead when insurgents invaded a community in Rann, Kala-Balge LGA.+

Speaking on the recent attacks in the state, the police commissioner said 32 scrap metal collectors were killed in the attack on Kala-Balge LGA, while 23 others died in Mukdala village of Dikwa LGA.

According to Umar, the victims went to the forests to collect scrap metals.

“The state government is working to come up with a policy plan to checkmate these activities,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“This is because the government has had a bad experience in which infrastructure and individual vehicles, especially in liberated communities, are being vandalised by scrap metal collectors. And it is surprising that the unions said none of the victims in Kala Balge and Dikwa were their members.

“The government is really concerned about the welfare and safety of every citizen. It set up a committee to check these activities with a view to fashioning out ways to forestall future occurrences.”

On his part, Umar Usman, chairman of the scrap metal collectors’ association in Borno, said the victims are not members of the group.

Usman added that the association is monitoring the activities of over 3,000 registered scrap metal collectors across 27 LGAs of the state.

Meanwhile, also present at the meeting were representatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and Department of State Services (DSS).