BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRIABUJA—A lucky survivor of the midnight massacre of squatters in an uncompleted building situated at the Apo district of the Federal Capital Territory on allegation that they were members of the Boko Haram sect, Mallam Gambo Idris, yesterday, narrated before a panel of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, how some masked gun men besieged the building and slaughtered the sleeping occupants like helpless goats.
Idris who was close to tears as he gave a blow-by-blow account of what transpired between them and their assailants on the wee-hours of September 20, which culminated to the instant death of eight persons, said he escaped death by the whiskers, “because after shooting sporadically inside the building for a long time, three of the armed men wearing black cloths, went inside each of the rooms to confirm that the occupants were dead.
Insisting that none of the victims were Boko Haram members but mostly Keke-NAPEP, Taxi drivers and Shoe makers, Idris said he was fast asleep on that fateful day when at midnight, gunfire suddenly erupted from various sides of the building. “We all woke up in panic, some of us were shot at the back or the fore head while running for safety.
“We were up to 100 persons living in two separate one-storey building inside the compound. As the people were trying to run away to save their lives, the bullets were killing them. Our attackers barricaded the house; we didn’t even know where the bullets were coming from because it was dark.
“So I and some others quickly ran back inside the house and hid in one of the dark rooms. Thank God there was no light. It was while we were inside the room that we saw three masked men in black overall, carrying guns. When they were entering the house, they met one of the squatters who hid by the door and shot him dead. After that, they inspected most of the rooms; luckily for us, they passed the room we were hiding in, if not, they would have killed all of us,” he added.
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