The Late Emir Of Gwoza's SOS Letter To FG before his death

ON LATE EMIR OF GWOZA: The Emir of Gwoza was not the first in the royal family of Gwoza to be counted amongst the casualties of the Boko Haram conflict. One of his sons, who was the district head of Takumbari, was also killed last year by the Boko Haram terrorists.

The emir’s last contact with the media was in his recent SOS letter which he wrote to all security chiefs in the country as well as the Federal Government decrying the incessant attacks and killings his people suffered in the hands of the terrorists. He implored the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, deploy more troops to protect the lives of his people whom he may risk losing if they all flee to Cameroon.
He stated in the SOS letter: “Sincerely speaking, my people, including the traders and other businessmen and women, have been prevented from travelling to Maiduguri to buy industrial and household goods for sale to customers in my chiefdom with an estimated population of 655, 000 in 11 wards and other border
communities with Cameroon.

“Besides that, there is no blessed day the Boko Haram gunmen will not kill 7 -15 residents on these three roads that had already been blocked and taken over by insurgents. My people have been prevented from going to work on their farmlands last year; and even the limited cultivated farmlands with harvests, including my
350-hectre farmlands and orchards at Jaje village, were seized by the insurgents last October… Therefore, I am pleading, and will continue to plead to the Military, Police and other Security Agencies in the state to take emergency action on the three blocked and taken-over roads in Gwoza council area. If my people flee to Cameroon, leaving me alone in this palace, who will I rule, as their traditional and religious leader in this chiefdom?”

The Emir died at a time Boko Haram gunmen had overtaken a substantial portion of his domain behind the Gwoza hills, hoisting their flags and declaring it an occupied territory currently being ruled under sharia law.