Residents of Buni Yadi and Buratai have expressed gratitude to the military authorities for reopening of the 135-kilometres Biu-Damaturu road.
Some of the jubilant residents bared their minds in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
They said that the reopening of 132-kilometers road three years after it was closed due to the insurgency would revive socio-economic activities among the communities living along the road.
One of the residents, Alhaji Abdullahi Yaro, who fled the area at the peak of the insurgency, expressed joy at the reopening of the road.
He said that many residents of Buni Yadi, Buni Gari and adjourning communities in Gujba LGA of Yobe would return following the reopening of the road.
“We are happy with this development; we can now begin to return to our areas.
“I travelled all the way to Buni Yadi with some of my family members and friends to experience this historic event.
“Some of us will stay back and start cleaning our homes so that we can go and bring back our wives and children,” Yaro told NAN.
Also speaking, Mallam Ado Salisu, commended the efforts of the military in displacing Boko Haram and restoring normalcy to the area.
He said that he would revive his transport business and bring back his family to Buni Yadi after two years of living in an IDP camp in Damaturu.
At Buratai town in Biu LGA, Alhaji Abubakar, an auto mechanic and Hajiya Fatima Mohammed, food vendor, expressed delight over the reopening of the road.
Abubakar told NAN that the reopening of the road would revive his auto mechanic business.
He said that for the first time in three years, customers were patronising his workshop situated at the Biu axis of the road to fix their faulty vehicles.
He, however, called on the authorities to provide adequate security and repair the bad portions of the road.
On her part, Hajiya Mohammed expressed hope that the peace that had necessitated the reopening of the road would be sustained.
She thanked the military authorities for their efforts in ensuring that the road was reopened.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai had at the opening of the road assured motorists and residents of communities along the road of adequate security.
He said that the Army would support residents to return to their homes but urged them to remain vigilant.
NAN reports that a jubilant crowd comprising women, men, young and the old, thronged the highway at Buni Yadi, Buni Gari and Buratai towns, to wave as the motorcade of the Army Chief drove through their communities. (NAN)