You can walk into a shop and buy mobile phone recharge cards, pick up a few groceries and even share a joke with the shop keeper. That is what two days without the sound of a bomb can do in Maiduguri.
Life has started picking up gradually in the troubled capital city of Borno State as some business centres and markets which were closed at the peak of the Boko Haram crisis were opened yesterday.
But the roads are still deserted as motorists shy away, perhaps wondering where the next bomb would go off.
Also, no bank has opened to customers yet but some shops were opened on the popular Post Office area and Ahmadu Bello Way with the popular Monday and Baga markets having an influx of both sellers and buyers.
The roads that were deserted for major parts of last week also witnessed improved traffic as commuters started coming out from their homes.
Some who fled in the heat of the crisis have started coming back to the town as the bombing has stopped for about two days now.
One of the returnees who spoke with NIGERIA FACTORS, Uche Ebelechukwu, said he decided to return to Maiduguri believing that the worst was over because of the assurances by Governor Kashim Shettima. Shettima also compensated some victims of the mayhem Monday.
The governor gave out 11 vehicles to those whose vehicles were burnt at the London Chinki area when the Joint Task Force (JTF) engaged the sect in a shoot-out.
The governor equally gave N1.6 million to the two widows of late Mohammed Bahaushe, Sande and Habiba Mohammed who alleged that they lost the amount during the clash that claimed the life of their husband.
The governor, while addressing the victims at the Multi- Purpose Hall, Government House Maiduguri, sympathised with them and disclosed that the government had already set up a committee for the distribution of thousands of tri-cycles recently purchased by the government.
He said they would be given on loan basis, payable at N200,000 only, instead of the company price of N300,000.
Shettima also promised to re-build the houses that were razed, and called on those who had fled the area to come back and settle down, as the government was doing everything possible to restore peace and normalcy in the state.
The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) said yesterday that the institution was at no time closed to the public.
The Head of Information and Public Relations, Hajia Mabruka Babagaji, said as a well-known hospital that is alive to its responsibilities, there was no way the hospital could have closed especially in a period where casualties were on the rise.
She said the management was disturbed by the advert in some of the national dailies which claimed that the hospital was closed.
She added that it was only the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) that was closed last week but not the hospital, stressing that “the entire departments in the hospital are fully functional and there was never a break in service delivery since the outbreak of this crisis”.
The hospital was functioning as doctors, nurses and clinical staff were seen attending to patients when correspondents visited yesterday.
The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) has commenced distribution of relief materials to over 140 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.
According to a press release by the agency in the North-east signed by Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, the relief materials were given to the IDPs at camps in Gidan Lawane Maya Kyariri community in Mafa Local Government Area of the state and some 245 families stationed at the Central Mosque in Jimtilo, an outskirt of Maiduguri.
Farinloye disclosed that relief materials which included blankets, mosquito nets, rice, beans, detergents, bathing soaps and clothes were also distributed to IDPs now in Damaturu, Potis-kum, Bama, Auno and Konduga.
The NEMA spokesman said the agency was considering applying psycho-social and trauma treatment in collaboration with the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri on some of the displaced persons.
However, the state Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Yuguda Ndurvwa, has condemned the compensation to the victims, insisting that it was based on religious consideration.
Ndurvwa alleged that the compensations were to 33 Muslim victims.
He said that the Christian community in the state was not happy with this, adding that many pastors and Christians were killed in the two-year sectarian crises.
Speaking in a telephone interview with journalists, he said: “I am hearing it now from you for the first time; and this is very privileged information with which we are not happy. We are sad that the governor could segregate or exclude Christians killed and injured in the Boko Haram attacks, killings and bombings of our members and their churches and houses.”
He said he was summoning a meeting of the Executive Council of CAN today to fully deliberate on the actions of the governor in excluding Christians for the distribution and disbursement of vehicles and funds to the Boko Haram victims of Zannari and Kaleri wards.
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