Local vigilante ‘recapture’ Mubi, send Boko Haram packing

Local militia in Adamawa State have driven Boko Haram militants out of Mubi, , nearly two weeks after the town fell to the insurgents, the state governor and residents said Thursday. A spokesperson to Governor Bala Ngilari on Thursday said Mubi is now “quite different from what it used to be”. He said local vigilante, popularly called Civilian JTF, launched a daring night time attack on Boko Haram insurgents in Mubi and drove them out of town between Wednesday and Thursday. The government said the operation received some support from the military. The Defence Headquarters could not confirm the operation. Spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, could not be reached. A military official, however, said the operation was not as “conclusive as claimed”. But the Adamawa State government said the operation was successful and that Mubi is now free of Boko Haram. “His Excellency, Governor Bala Ngilari, has confirmed that the combined efforts of the Civilian Vigilante and the Sarkin Bakan Gombi as well as the military has successfully chased away Boko Haram from Mubi town,” Phineas Elisha, the director, press, to Governor Ngilari, said. He said: “Some of them(Boko Haram) ran away through Askira Uba and others through Mubi South and the situation in Mubi now is quite different from what it used to be.” A journalist based in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, said Mr. Ngilari first made the disclosure while inspecting relief materials provided by the government for people displaced by Boko Haram in the captured towns. Boko Haram captured Mubi October 30 in a daytime raid after attacking the military installation there, chasing soldiers and residents out of town, and killing many. The group has made lightening wins in recent months, taking and holding towns in Adamawa and neighbouring Borno State, the hotbed of its five-year-old campaign.