You are protected in Dikwa ―Gen John Ochai

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BRIGADE Commander of 22 Army Brigade in Dikwa, Borno state Brigadier General John Ochai has assured returnee residents of Dikwa local government area that as long as he serves in Dikwa they shall be protected.

Ochai gave the assurance while addressing a group of returnee residents who paid him a visit has come to test the waters to see if Dikwa was indeed safe to bring down their families and start their business all over again.

Dikwa was one of the local governments captured by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014 sending the Shehu and thousands of innocent people into homelessness during the period which also resulted in tremendous humanitarian crisis.

Some fled to internally displaced camps in Bama and Maiduguri like the traditional leader and his Bulamas while many others not from this state went back to their ancestral state of origin having being born and raised in Dikwa.

Indeed a lot of people who could not flee were slaughtered before the town was eventually recaptured late 2015 in a strategic mission accomplished by the Nigerian Army and Air Force operating under the banner of Lafiya Dole.

Brigade spokesman Lt Yemi Sokoya in a statement said the group commended the Nigerian military for restoring peace to Dikwa Emirate most of whom returned home from all across the country; especially from the south-west and south-south region of Nigeria.

The Brigade Commander, Ochai who received some of the returnees on Monday said, “this is a testament that peace has come to stay in Dikwa and its environs; our commitment to protect you from all forms of aggression is absolute. “We have orders from our government to protect you, orders that are consistent with our national protocols.

Protecting you and your properties is our main priority. Tell those still living abroad to return home.”

Sokoya hinted that one of the returnees Modu Umaru who came from Ondo State said, “Dikwa has returned back to her former glory; a town free of oppression and violence.I will go back to Ondo to bring my properties to stay.”

S-Davies Wande