EXCLUSIVE: How NIN registration ended up in Boko Haram’s attack on Geidam

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BY USMAN MOHAMMED, APRIL 26, 2022 | 01:01 AM


YERWA EXPRESS NEWS reported last week how gunmen believed to be members of Boko Haram / ISWAP attacked Geidam Town and killed ten people, nine of whom were slaughtered.

The tenth victim was identified as Hussaini Audu Girjimtilo, 23. Until then, he registers telecom SIM cards and numbers.

Further investigation by our correspondent revealed that the gunmen were mainly at the town to take revenge against him, even if they had other reasons.

They were reported to have sacked a nightclub where they slaughtered eight people and burnt down parts of a technical secondary school.

While they may have had motives for that too, we learnt after speaking to many people that their altercation with Hussaini was also a major cause.

The background

Sources in the town who spoke to our correspondent narrated that before the attack, some of the gunmen were at Hussaini’s shop to register their SIM card but they did not provide their NIN.

On account of that, he reportedly refused to attend to them.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has mandated the linking of all telecom lines with the national identity number.

This month, lines not already linked were largely blocked.

Part of the reasons given by the government to justify the decision was largely for security.

The terrorists wanted Mr. Hussaini to breach the system and register their lines for use without the NIN.

‘Hussaini Audu Girjimtilo… was a SIM registration vendor. When the terrorists visited his shop for a registration, they were unable to provide NIN,’ a source said.

Few hours later, the gunmen came back to the town and located the residence of Hussaini, where they killed him and injured his twin brother, Hassan.

Being identical twin, the terrorists could not tell who among them they had an encounter with.

On seeing him, they slit Hassan, who was unsuspecting and completely unaware of what had happened.

But while doing that, they immediately realized Hassan was in fact not their target.

They realized they were twin and Hussaini was who they were after.

But he had already taken to his heels when he saw what was done to his brother.

As they could not catch him, they shot at him, in the course of which he died.

Hassan was already deeply wounded and was left bleeding by the time troops chased the terrorists out of the town.

He is now receiving treatment at a medical facility where he was rushed to.


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