Baga is the birth place of Senator Lawan who represents Baga and other towns in Borno North in the Nigerian Senate.
The villagers had told the state governor and journalists, two days after the incident, that they buried 185 people after the clash, a figure disputed by the Nigerian Army.
Mr. Lawan, a former Governor of Borno State, expressed fears of an epidemic if the Federal Government does not immediately deploy more rescue and humanitarian aide workers to assist the displaced people.
The National Emergency Management Agency and the Nigerian Red Cross are already in Baga helping the surviving victims.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party Senator told journalists in an interview that though a special committee of the federal government would be investigating the Baga massacre, and he hopes for a factual finding from them, he decided to speak out so as to salvage the plight of the surviving victims.
“I do not intend to join issues with Nigerian military spokesman over the authenticity of his figures, but the fact is that I visited Baga and visited the three graveyards where the victims were buried. I had interacted with the aid agencies which did some of the burials, I had interacted extensively with the victims and their families.
At one of the three graveyards called Makabartar Waya, 130 graves of victims were counted; in another graveyard called Makabartar Arewa, 60 graves were counted; then in Budumari graveyard another 30 graves of victims were counted. And inside the town, the aid agencies said they buried eight corpses which could not be evacuated to the graveyards,” he said.
The Nigerian military, after making contradicting statements about the crisis, claimed that the casualty was exaggerated. The Joint Task Force, whose officers are accused of starting the fire that killed most of the victims, claimed only six civilians were killed.
Mr. Lawan, however, said the fire has caused a major humanitarian crisis" Premium times
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