The wife and three children of a
pastor killed by Boko Haram in the last Monday attack at a Borno
community may have been abducted by the insurgents as members of the church
headed by the slain pastor said they are yet to see the family.
Suspected Boko Haram members
attacked Dille near Lassa in Askira/Uba Local Government, south of Borno,
killing no fewer than 25 people including the pastor of the local assembly of
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in the town, Taiwo Dokun.
A member of the church, Jacob Mamza,
who spoke to journalists yesterday on phone from Dille, about 200 kilometres
from Maiduguri, Borno State capital, recounted how the Ondo State-born Pastor
Taiwo was murdered by the rampaging insurgents.
According to him, the clergy was
shot and butchered while attempting to flee his house on the fateful morning of
the attack, having realised the attackers were closing in on him in his
official quarters.
“The pastor was in his house at
about 6am when the insurgents attacked the village, his house was surrounded by
the hoodlums and while attempting to run, he was shot. He was running to a
neighbour’s house and it was in the course of his fleeing that he was shot in
the head and the chest and the insurgents equally came to butcher him to make
sure that he was dead,” Mamza disclosed in a emotion-laden voice.
He said the terrorists then went
into the pastor’s house and burnt it, adding that Boko Haram fighters
may have abducted the pastor’s wife and three children “who are apparently
inside the house” at the time of the attack.
“The family could have been abducted
by the insurgents who took away many of the residents of the town because we
didn’t see the family members since then and none of them has called us. Though
their residence was completely razed by the insurgents, we didn’t also find
their corpses in the debris. This is our dilemma now,” another church member,
who preferred anonymity, told journalists.
The source said members of the
church at Dille who were already scattered, may be compelled to bury the slain
pastor at Mubi in Adamawa State where the corpse is presently deposited. The
source said the decision was informed by the decomposing condition of the
corpse and financial implication of conveying it to Akure, Ondo State where the
deceased hailed from. “He might be buried at Mubi for he was initially taken to
a Mubi hospital where he was embalmed but because it was not properly done, the
corpse started swelling up and a decision was taken to bury him in the town.”
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