A TruthNigeria investigation reveals a fully functioning extortion regime forcing Christian women to hide their faith, and where civilians must pay insurgents to move, farm, or survive.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — In northern Borno, survival now depends on a slip of paper issued not by the Nigerian government, but by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province — violent extremist organizations responsible for mass killings, abductions, and widespread human rights abuses. Along the roads leading into Monguno, insurgents have erected illegal checkpoints and built a full extortion bureaucracy, forcing traders, farmers, and even women on their way to their fields to buy “clearance passes” or face execution. What was once sporadic roadside extortion has hardened into a shadow state, where terrorists decide who moves, who works, and who lives.
“Pay or Die”: The Exorbitant Price of Doing Business
The financial stranglehold on local populations has reached a breaking point, driving already vulnerable families into absolute destitution.
Local trader David Kawu spoke exclusively to TruthNigeria, painting a harrowing picture of how frustrating and terrifying daily existence has become under the looming shadow of terrorist extortion. “It is no longer just about avoiding landmines or ambushes,” David Kawu revealed, his voice heavy with desperation. “They have turned every road into a tollgate of death. Before, we paid smaller sums just to be allowed past, but now they have hiked the price of these illegal tickets to 30,000 Naira before anyone can even think of moving goods or setting out for business. If you cannot produce 30,000 Naira, you do not go. If you dare move without their paper pass, you simply do not return home. We are dying of hunger on one side and paying our executioners on the other just to earn a living.”
For small-scale traders in Monguno whose entire inventory barely exceeds the value of the extortion fee, a 30,000 Naira gate pass is a sentence of ruin. Yet, refusal is not an option. The choice presented by the insurgency is stark: hand over your savings, or forfeit your life.
Disguised Identity and Sacrificing Faith for Survival
The horror is doubly compounded for non-Muslim residents living under the watchful eyes of the extremists. In separate testimony obtained by TruthNigeria, Mary Ishaya, a local Christian woman, confirmed the absolute reality of these terrorist gate passes while describing the terrifying lengths residents must go to just to traverse their own ancestral lands.
“The tickets are real, and without them, you cannot even cross into the fields to till the ground or harvest crops,” Mary Ishaya confirmed. She recounted the psychological warfare inflicted on Christian women whenever they attempt to pass through insurgent-controlled zones.
To evade targeted harassment, brutal beatings, or forcible abduction by terrorists stationed at these illegal collection points, Mary and other Christian women are forced to conceal their true identities. They wrap themselves strictly in full Islamic hijabs whenever they step onto the transit paths leading to their farms.
“We must disguise our identity as Christians,” she explained. “We cover ourselves completely in hijabs so they do not single us out for worse treatment or immediate violence when checking our tickets. Every step you take outside Monguno feels like walking directly into a graveyard. You wear the veil, you hold their paper ticket tightly in your trembling hand, and you pray silently that they do not see through your disguise.”
Proof of the Terror Tollgate: Troops Intercept ISWAP Passes
For months, rumors of this bureaucratic extortion machine circulated in whispered terror among displaced persons and rural communities. However, recent security operations have provided concrete, indisputable evidence of the insurgents’ administrative network.
Renowned counter-insurgency analyst Zagazola Makama recently reported a major breakthrough by military forces operating in Sector 3 of Operation HADIN KAI in Northern Borno. According to his verified report, Nigerian troops intercepted two logistics suppliers operating on behalf of the ISWAP network in Monguno, recovering vital evidence that exposed the inner workings of their toll gate system.
Zagazola Makama detailed the arrest: “Troops of Sector 3, Operation HADIN KAI, arrested two suspected ISWAP logistics suppliers in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State. Security sources confirmed that troops recovered an alleged ISWAP-issued gate pass, believed to have been used to facilitate access and movement into terrorist-controlled locations alongside contraband logistics items meant for insurgent camps.”
Full report of Zagazola Makama Publication In the link below:
Abandoned Fields and the Grim Reality of Agrarian Terror
The enforcement of these mandatory extortion passes represents only one facet of a broader, systematically sinister strategy aimed at subjugating the population of Borno State. Across Northern Borno, vast tracts of fertile agricultural land lie abandoned. Farmers who are either unable to afford the exorbitant 30,000 Naira pass or who refuse to pay taxes to terrorist organizations are routinely hunted down and slaughtered in cold blood.
TruthNigeria Investigations detailing the structural oppression imposed on agrarian communities reveal that ISWAP’s shadow tax system levies penalties on every single stage of crop cultivation. Farmers are charged fees to plant, fees to weed, fees to harvest, and finally, fees to transport their yields leaving households starving while insurgents grow rich. Those who attempt to farm illicitly without paying tribute risk barbaric punishments, ranging from amputations to beheadings.
As the terror syndicate tightens its grip on Monguno through extortion, intimidation, and bloodshed, the citizens of Northern Borno remain trapped in a dystopian reality.
Suleman Ayuba is a TruthNigeria conflict reporter.
