Nigeria News
Amnesty For Boko Haram: A Wrong Signal From The North
By Lajunwon Lasisi
Amnesty request for terrorist Boko Haram sect, is a wrong miscalculation of political harangue. The request is too pedestrian and it is a thoughtless political calculation signifying the puerile mindset of the Arewa ruling class (apart from the Emir of Kano). The proponents of the amnesty are unmindful of the sanctity of lives of many Nigerians that are being terminated, consistently by the blood thirsty sub-human beings that constitute Boko Haram.
We warned the northern elites sternly in 2011 when they started their treasonable campaign of calumny, that unless an Arewa man was allowed to be president, they would make the country ungovernable for President Ebele Jonathan. Other ethnic groups that constitute other parts of Nigeria were not surprised when the threat metamorphosed to Boko Haram, and lately, Ansarul Islam, nay Islamist Jihadists, shouting “Allah is Great” during their operations, at times.
They believe it is their birthright to continue to rule the country but that was thwarted by Nigerian voters in 2011. That is why they deliberately created the hydra-headed monster called Boko Haram, a replica of Al- Qaeda terrorist international organization to torment the nation. In fact, the sect has international connections with Al-Qaeda, due to the various nationalities caught fighting for them. They are also in league with Malian rebels fighting the government of Mali. The attack on the Nigerian peace keeping force at Okene, on their way to Mali by Boko Haram, actually portrays the sect as aiding the Malian rebels within its own enclave. Some Nigerian soldiers were killed in the process.
The Arewa ruling class was there when their brothers were issuing that thoughtless threat of making the country ungovernable for Jonathan but they kept mum because they spoke for the north. When the sect started their dastardly operations by bombing an area near the Eagle’s Square on Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary, 1 October, 2010, and the Nigeria Police headquarters, the northern elders clamouring for amnesty for Boko Haram did not say anything. Even when on 25 December 25, 2011 the Catholic Church at Madalla in Suleja, and other churches in many parts of the north, were bombed, their reaction was very terse and of no significance.
Even the present terse reactions of the ruling class from the north-east, and north-west, came as a result of the self-imposed agony, and ruination, not to talk of the excruciating sufferings, economic strangulation, and total insecurity being experienced by the people of these two geopolitical zones. The northern ruling class have programmed the country for war and political crisis, which they have achieved and have been grappling with. However, to turn round and ask for amnesty, for terrorist murderers, is unthinkable and baseless. They are so myopic to realise that the hydra-headed monster terrorist sect they created, has a watch word of “no surrender until the last drop of their blood is shed”. That is the type of vampire beings they are now requesting amnesty for.
It is unacceptable for any government in any part of the world to grant amnesty to terrorist murderers, regarded as enemies of mankind, and political outcasts who should be haunted for destruction. The terrorists don’t negotiate from point of strength. Rather, they could allow for truce to enable peaceful talk to take place. They even have guts to give the Federal Government conditions for the amnesty. It was only the Emir of Kano who opposed the idea of amnesty to murderers, because Boko Haram sect has turned Kano and its environs to disastrous, boiling battle ground, which is being bombed consistently by the daredevil sect. The recent bombing of Sabongari in Kano, where many southern people lost their lives, is a good example.
Again, virtually all the former heads of state of northern extraction now back amnesty for the deadly sect because of the untold devastation that Boko Haram and Ansarul Islam have brought to the north. Apart from Babangida, and Abubakar Salaam, Gowon has also joined the former military rulers of Nigeria, with a clarion call to forgive and pardon Boko Haram and Ansarul Islam, of whatever heinous crimes they might have committed against humanity.
Such an appeal is nonsensical effusion that constitutes arrant blandishment, coming from former military leaders, who were supposed to know what treasonable felony and declaration of war against one’s own fatherland means, under the pretext of Islamic religious and political interests of certain northern elites. These two awesome and heinous crimes are being committed by these animals in human skin, who just woke up one day, about two years ago, to start bombing and shooting human beings, and destroying properties, because of religious and political reasons.
We presume that our former heads of state, and the Sultan (who was former military officer) should try to reason positively well before speaking on sensitive security issues like this in future, so that people would not stigmatize them.
They have failed to realise that the two terrorist sects are at war against their fatherland; attacking churches, police headquarters and stations, strategic commercial areas in many northern states and Kano where the JTF stumbled on a cache of ammunition, AK 47 rifles and bombs in a house, on Easter Sunday, 31 March, 2013. 14 terrorists were also killed during a gun battle and others were arrested.
Those former military leaders, who asked for amnesty for these terrorist murderers are desecrating the noble military profession, including the Sultan who first shot the first salvo, before the bandwagon of former military leaders joined him.
Nevertheless, we learn that the military have started training some personnel on tactical formations to counter terrorism. This is good news to combat the activities of the two recognized terrorist sects. However, the government should go further to checkmate the terrorists. The Jonathan government should, as a matter of urgency, arrest Ciroma, the man who made that treasonable pronouncement, and those who backed him. They should be compelled to expose the financiers of Boko Haram. In addition, the arrested Senator Ali Ndume should be rigorously drilled to name other accomplices who were behind the creation of the sect. By the time the sources of its finance are punctured and become unsustainable, the activities of the sect would die a natural death.
It would therefore not be too much to state that the state of Israel is always at war against terrorists across the Middle East countries, which she towers over and above, when it comes to counter-terrorism. Israel has the best intelligence secret service in the world. Her secret service, MOSSAD, can strike, successfully, anywhere, if invited to do so. She has the necessary experience with tactical formations to relieve us from this catastrophic insecurity of Boko Haram, if invited to complement the joint effort of the police and military. Invitation to any other country that was struck by Al-Qaeda before, putting in place necessary security measure for future occurrence, will not solve the problem of Boko Haram in Nigeria, period.
•Lasisi wrote from Lagos.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
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