Nigeria News
Unabating Bloodshed
As negotiations for an amnesty deal for its members intensify, Boko Haram is showing no let up in its killing campaign
For once, President Goodluck Jonathan, last week got public commendation from former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, his rival in the last general election and fierce critic of the federal government. The applause followed Jonathan’s proposed extension of amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, who, for over four years now have unleashed hell on parts of northern Nigeria. The proposal has ignited debate bordering on its propriety or otherwise.
•Part of Kano State Police Headquarters after it was bombed by Boko Haram men
Indeed, the decision to grant amnesty to the Islamists is meant to shift the focus from the war and peace subsisting in the country to that of total peace and harmony. But the would-be beneficiaries of the programme are apparently uninterested. In the last one month, when the calls for amnesty for it became stringent, the insurgents have stepped up their attacks, wasting lives by modifying its killing strategies.
•Buhari: Commended government for the amnesty proposal
On 14 March, shortly after President Jonathan’s visit to Yobe and Borno states, Boko Haram responded swiftly by killing Ibrahim Gula and Hajia Gambo, two officials of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Borno State who took part in planning the president’s visit. Days later, it staged a sequel in Kano using tricycles because of the ban on motorcycles in the city. The mindless killers shot sporadically at everything above grass level. After the attacks in Sharada area of Kano where they wounded two brothers who later died in hospital, they moved to Hausa Quarters, also in Kumbotso Local Government, where it attacked a primary school, wounding four in the process.
In pursuing its deadly agenda, the group switches tactics intermittently, thus getting off snares set by security agencies. On 18 March in Kano Boko Haram’s , foot soldiers working for Boko Haram infiltrated the New Road Luxury Park, Sabon Gari in Kano and attacked buses waiting to transport passengers and goods out of the city. As the smoke of the bombs settled, human bodies littered everywhere with carcasses of buses dotting the motor park as relics of the attack.
Adamawa State has had its fair share of Boko Haram attacks in recent weeks. On 6 April for instance, the group invaded Midlu village, Madagali Local Government Area, home of Bala Ngalari, deputy governor of the state. The attackers killed 11 people, including two private guards at the deputy governor’s country home. Some of those killed were reportedly called by name by their assailants to face the death squad. The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Muhammed Ibrahim confirmed the attack: “The information available to me is that 11 people lost their lives in the village, including the two private security guards at the deputy governor’s house,” he said.
•Assorted firearms seized after a raid on a Boko Haram hideout
Earlier before the visit to Midlu, Boko Haram vented its spleen on Ganye, headquarters of Ganye Local Government Area, also in Adamawa State. Apart from wasting 12 people, the group attacked and looted a bank of its treasure vault, emptied a police station of armoury before heading to the town’s prison to free inmates suspected to be members of the sect or its future recruits.
These incidents don’t occur because of lack of effort to rein-in Boko Haram. Its meticulous tactical switches and avid knowledge of insurgence operational dynamics keeps many of its members from law enforcement agencies. At times it operates by coordinated use of explosives to hit targets like churches, schools or mere show of might as it did in Maiduguri the day President Jonathan left the beleaguered city after his first visit to the city since assuming office.
•Fasoranti: Boko Haram members should be identified and dealt with
Security officials are not insulated from Boko Haram bullets. When they can, the jihadist gleefully kill law enforcement agents. On 18th January for example, Esther Tarimo, a divisional police officer in the Daurawa District of Kano was felled by Boko Haram pellets. Earlier, Dahiru Ibrahim Majia, a superintendent of Police and Commanding Officer of MOPOL 9 Hotoro, Kano was killed by men suspected to be Boko Haram men. The Joint task Force, JTF, the military outfit maintaining peace in trouble spots has suffered casualties resulting from Boko Haram attacks. Most of the cases of military men killed in service while combating the insurgents have been recorded in Maiduguri. When it is not murdering security men, Boko Haram simply turns the heat on its easier prey, the defenceless citizens. This was the case on 9 April when it killed four officials of the Borno State government. Among the victims were Tijjani Mafe, chairman of the state’s school feeding committee in charge of public schools, an accountant, a driver and an unidentified official, were waylaid on the outskirts of Bama Town.
Earlier in April, men suspected to be Boko Haram operatives executed 13 Christian factory workers in Kumbotso area of Kano for refusing to join in a Muslim prayer. A much more earthshaking operation was planned for the Christian feast of Easter. In the attack which was foiled by the JTF, Boko Haram had returned to its fundamental operational tactics of using improvised explosive devices, IEDs, wired into vehicles and detonated at strategic locations. An early morning raid to foil the ominous operation however yielded many deaths. A woman, a child and 14 Boko Haram operatives were killed by men of the JTF.
•Bomb making devices seized from Boko Haram men in Kano
Boko Haram may be contemptuous of government’s amnesty offer because of its ideology. A personnel attached to the JTF voiced his frustration with the persistence of the insurgents, attributing their success to the sects ideology: “I have been to Dafur and Liberia, but never experienced these kinds of fighters. Rebels want power but these ones want death, they are just resilient warriors. You will see a small boy fearless and exchanging gun fire with us and even killing and injuring our colleagues,” the soldier who craved anonymity reportedly told an online publication.
Earlier when security agencies intensified using general packet radio services, GPRS to trace its men, Boko Haram devised other means. Rather than cell phones, television remotes replaced phones as tools for detonating explosives. With surveillance heightened and the international police on its trail, Boko Haram’s weapon handlers returned to using locally sourced material to fashion bombs and other explosive materials. This also manifested in the change of transportation arrangements- it moved from motorcycles to tricycles to attack its enemies when some states like Kano banned commercial motorcycles. For easy get-away, they looked towards the tricycles.
Apart from staging blitzkriegs, the Islamic group uses propaganda to the hilt. It responded with fury, for instance to President Jonathan referring to its members as ‘ghosts,’ while he was in Maduguri and Damaturu on a working visit. The group promised to carry out more attacks, a promise it is faithfully fulfilling. Last week, when the federal government raised a committee to streamline the amnesty deal, the insurgents went to town in Maiduguri warning teachers and school children to keep-off classrooms or risk the wrath of its bombs. It followed it up with a faction turning down the amnesty offer. A statement by Abu Shekau, the vocal leader of the belligerent movement mocked government’s offer of amnesty.
—Nkrumah Bankong-Obi
——————————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
DisNaija.Com publishes regular posts on Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Online Nigeria Gist.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Your Opinion Counts. Be sure To Leave A Comment, If You Have Any.
Please Like, Share or Tweet. Your Support Is Appreciated.
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
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
Buhari Will Win In 2019: US Institute
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has predicted that President Muhammadu Buhari will win the 2019 election. The organisation...
Why Buhari Deserves Second Term – Lai Mohammed
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that President Muhammadu Buhari deserved second term election because,...
Atiku Presidential Campaign Council: PDP Releases List of Members
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday released the list of party members to handle the campaign team of the...
Obasanjo Forgives Atiku, Endorses Him For President
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday said he has reviewed his stance on not backing his former deputy for the...
Buhari, Atiku In Battle Of Integrity Over 2019 Poll
THE brickbats continued yesterday between President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The All Progressives Congress (APC) and...