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Tag: boko haram

  • From Boko Haram to Ebola

    From Boko Haram to Ebola

    Even if millions die, should that stop the President’s campaign train? Go on, TAN

    Just as we were celebrating our containment of Ebola, and as if to make nonsense of that celebration, a fresh Ebola case was detected in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Thursday. I had wanted to caution that we should not dance ourselves lame on Ebola yet when our health minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, said last week that we had contained the disease. But then, one could have been branded as unpatriotic. With the Port Harcourt discovery, it simply means we still have a lot to do to keep Ebola at bay.

    Indeed, Nigeria has not been at ease since Mr. Patrick Sawyer, the American-Liberian imported the disease into the country on July 20. In fairness to the Federal Government, its response and collaboration with the Lagos State government since July 20 have been impressive. This has, as it were, almost obliterated the fact that its agencies at the airport had been lax in their duties, hence Mr. Sawyer’s ability to beat the security checks there.

    Well, as some would argue, such collaboration is the most sensible thing to do where Ebola is concerned. This is a different ballgame from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Yes, Ebola, like AIDS does not respect party affiliation. It is no respecter of whether you are progressive or conservative. It does not recognise boundary, be it religious, social, economic or geographical. Like AIDS, Ebola has no known cure. With AIDS, one can take all the precautionary measures: buy your barbing kits to avoid using general clippers, avoid using the same injection or syringe with someone carrying the AIDS virus; don’t take blood transfusion indiscriminately, above all, avoid the ‘danger down below’, zip up.

    Even where all these fail, AIDS could still be somewhat managed. But not so with Ebola. So far, there is no known cure for it. Anyone struck by it could jolly well start singing the Nunc Dimittis, or its other version, ‘Oh Lord, I am coming home’. That is how bad things are. So, even when one is crying, he should still be clear-headed as to keep his eyes wide open. Even where political party or ideology differs, that should not preclude collaboration to ward off the Ebola.

    It seems to me that with Ebola, God does not need to take any trouble of using either fire or flood to bring the world to an end again if He so desires today. Some 5,000 Ebola patients would do the job. Imagine what would have been our fate in Nigeria had Sawyer been allowed to escape into thin air as he had wanted to, even after having been taken to First Consultants Hospital in the Obalende area of Lagos? Not even Donatus could have been as generous as he would have generously distributed the virus in the country, such that even the Boko Haram terrorists would have seen how little their bombs and other armaments that they had hitherto relied on as weapons of mass destruction could be.

    Nigeria had been dealing with a seemingly intractable blood-letting unleashed by the Boko Haram insurgents before Ebola came. Indeed, since 2009 when Boko Haram began its onslaught on the country, there has been no respite. The insurgents have attacked virtually everywhere one could imagine and even never have imagined, including police and military formations. It has sacked entire townships and presently has its flag hoisted in Gwoza, Borno State, where it has also proclaimed a caliphate. More than 12, 000 lives had been lost to the senseless attacks by the terrorists and they do not appear to be done yet. The way they slaughter their victims that they did not bomb suggests they are being propelled by some blood-sucking demons.

    As things stand, the terrorists are still holding captive more than 100 secondary school girls that they abducted in their hostel in Chibok in April. At least twice they have rubbished the ultimatums given by top military chiefs even as they seem on a systematic mission of demystifying the Nigerian military, given the ease with which they stroll into parts of the country, abducting people at will.

    In all of these, one person I do not envy is President Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed, if any man is sitting on a hot seat, President Jonathan is it. So hot is the seat that one would think he should be in a hurry to get out of it. But the most surprising thing is that he is not in a hurry to complete his term and leave. He has been to churches to pray for peace and apparently to seek God’s nod for more years in the rock. And, just in case that fails, he also invited some Senegalese clerics to Aso Rock, in what many have interpreted as a spiritual angle to the current war against Boko Haram. The 10 clerics were led to the State House, Abuja, by Khalifah Sheikh Ahmad Tijani Inyass, the grandson of Late Shehu Tijani Ibrahim Inyass, the founder of the Tijjaniya sect. They met for about an hour with the President at the First Lady’s Conference Room and offered prayers for an end to the security challenges facing Nigeria, as well as for peace and stability in the country.

    Jonathan is not alone in this. As the spokesman of the group, Ahmed Tijani Sanni Alwalu said, “It is a historic visit because it has been done by his father with the then President, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi. So, history is repeating itself and we come for the Moulude of Ibrahim Inyass Gombe and on his way going home, the President requested for a courtesy visit and Shehu granted that.”

    But President Jonathan is yet to complete the ‘tripod’ as he has not called in the African Traditional Religion people for similar prayer. In this wise, one would have thought he would cultivate Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State whose government has embraced the ‘three-in-one’. But he appears to have made Aregbesola a sworn enemy because it was only in Aregbesola’s Osun State that the president did not do well at all in the south west in the 2011 presidential election.  With Aregbe’s election for a second term, that history is set to repeat itself in the state in next year’s general elections, a thing President Jonathan had wished he could nip in the bud, by militarising the state to scare voters in the August 9 governorship election.

    Interestingly, to date, President Jonathan has not indicated his intention to stand for reelection, but his campaign train is already on the track. The most visible one is the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that has been holding rallies on his behalf, I suspect very much against his will, reminding one of the late General Sani Abacha who never said he wanted to transmute from military to civilian president but everything, including his body language and all, pointed in that direction. With TAN having flagged off the president’s reelection campaign, Nigeria has moved on. What this implies is that that is the end of the search for the Chibok girls; that is if Nigeria ever searched for them. Apparently those who came to help us had to abandon us to our fate when they saw how unserious and unprepared we are in looking for the poor girls. Not many serious countries would want to have anything to do with a country whose soldiers, in the course of ‘tactical manoeuvre’, would stray 80 kilometres into another country in battle! But, wouldn’t it have been better for our military authorities to tell us that in this season of defections, our soldiers merely took a cue from our politicians and defected to Cameroon, instead of  saying they were on ‘tactical manoeuvre’?

    But whatever the degree of blood-letting or blood-shedding, the president’s campaign train must start. If he wins reelection, President Jonathan would still have a large part of the country under his control. And if he loses, his successor may have to negotiate with the rebels for a return of the Gwoza caliphate to Nigeria.

  • Redefining full-scale war against Boko Haram

    Redefining full-scale war against Boko Haram

    This newspaper published a report last week of retired military officers campaigning for the declaration of a full-scale war on the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast. A battle line must be drawn, they suggested angrily. The report also added, perhaps hilariously, that some unnamed sources within the military disclosed that the 480 soldiers who ‘strayed’ into Cameroon last week and returned rather ignominiously were eager to return to Gamboru-Ngala, from whence they earlier fled, to give battle to the insurgents. It will be recalled that the Senate President, David Mark, some weeks back, also suggested it was time full-scale war was declared on the insurgents. The sentiment on full-scale war has been growing in the past weeks, especially with every reverse suffered by the Nigerian military. Even the former military ruler, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, has suggested that negotiating with Boko Haram was pointless on account of the sect’s facelessness. Some logic.

    We know the origins of the campaign for full-scale war, and the personalities behind it. What is unclear is where they got the impression that the Goodluck Jonathan government was yet to declare a full-scale war on the insurgents. If Nigeria is unclear about the war they are fighting in the Northeast, certainly Boko Haram and its commanders are neither burdened nor hamstrung by that semantic fog. As far as the insurgents are concerned, they are already engaged in a full-scale war with the Nigerian military, and are having a ball. Whether they are giving it their all is not clear. But by achieving some spectacular victories in recent months, even putting Nigerian troops on the run in a few areas as demonstrated by the Gamboru-Ngala debacle, the insurgents show their tenacity and contempt for terminological inexactitudes.

    If the Nigerian military will soon scale up their engagements against the insurgents, it will not be because they were unclear what tempo and quantum of war they have been fighting. I think their war effort has been hamstrung by a number of factors, among which are the poor quality of arms available to them, which they at first disputed and downplayed, the manner in which the leadership of the military has mishandled the issue of esprit de corps, the military’s own strategic and tactical shortcomings, and as some officers have confessed, their discomfort and puzzlement with guerilla/terrorism warfare. I believe the military has been fighting a full-scale war, and have given it their all. As professionals, they must not be seduced by the ignorant pitches of those who suggest that a full-scale war of a different hue could still be declared, perhaps one which will discountenance clinical and surgical strikes in favour of massive and indiscriminate bombardment.

    The disgrace of the past few months has been unprecedented. But both the military and the federal government must recognise that the brutal Sri Lankan model of total warfare, which Nigeria briefly flirted with, will complicate the problem. They must also situate the Boko Haram war within the global context of the war being waged by borderless or asymmetric warriors, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), now simply called Islamic State (IS). What is at play here is the contest of ideas and philosophies of government, the push and pull between liberalism and theocracy, and arguments as to how the almost total alienation in the polity can be addressed. Those who suggest full-scale war, apart from being grammatically inexact, seem to imply that once military victory is achieved — a doubtful proposition in the short term — peace and stability would be reestablished. Nothing could be more wrong.

    As I have suggested in this place many times, it is now more urgent than ever for the president, if he can manage it, to appreciate the harm the absence of a national spirit or national identity is causing Nigeria. I doubt his talent in this regard.  In addition, it is also very urgent that the country must be anchored on profound values and principles, among which are constitutional rule shorn of any abridgement or perversion, justice in all ramifications, and the fostering of unity around those great values. Nigerian rulers have for a long time been complicit in the destruction of these values and principles, and consequently there is no lodestar around which to build a country every Nigerian would be proud of. A military victory against Boko Haram, even though desperately desirable, will only offer us a temporary relief; it will not bring lasting peace or stability, nor the forging of a great nation.

  • Harbinger of death

    Where is the Sawyer?

    Call him back not to die

    Let his death come after this war

    Sawyer, come wage a true war

    Fight the Boko Haram with your talent

    Your urine was poisonous

    So was your sputum

    Your venom was not found in your teeth

    Your buca cavity was a container

    That offloaded a pint of Ebola

    Come back Sawyer and berth

    In our lush forest of Sambisa

    Where figs are armoured tanks

    Dreaded by our decorated combatants of war

    Come back Sawyer

    Fight a gallant war

    Waged against us by your incarnates

    Sawyer find your ilk in Sambisa

    With your buca cavity the war is won

    Slither your way into Sambisa

    Kiss the dreaded forest

    With your 21 days agonising silencer

    BUT Skip out our girls

    Your spurting venom travels in lightning speed

    From Liberia to Nigeria

    A haven surfeit of scourge.

  • When silence is not the best answer

    The country’s authorities did not grasp the weight of the Boko Haram problem in spite of warnings from the press and others, until it came to this. And that is the surprise, when you consider that people have been tried for treason in this country just for writing newspaper articles

    One of the things women do best is worry; it’s almost first nature with them. Women worry that they are losing their beauty, never mind that they normally first spend ages worrying that they didn’t even have any. They worry that they are losing the battle of the bulge, never mind that they first spend ages worrying they are never the right weight. Then they worry that their husbands are losing interest in them, even though they have sometimes (perhaps rightly) concluded that the said husbands never had as much interest in them as they had in men’s cars, and the women’s culinary abilities. Then they worry that their children will not turn out right. If those ones turn out to be medical doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc., what is the good of all that? What is the use if children don’t have money in today’s world? Gosh, how on earth are they going to convince those arrantly knavish children to marry money? Worry is Our Way; the women’s way.

    Men worry too, but they have a different kind of concern. They worry if the car will start in the morning, and whether the mechanic will cheat them again should that happen. They worry that they will not be able to provide enough to meet the needs of the house. They worry that they may never get to the position that will put them in direct access to government coffers. Sadly, I have no such words of comfort for the men as I have for the women.

    Sometimes, though, I tend to feel that the song that goes ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ is a good song, as far as songs go, but it falls very short of the mark, as far as effectiveness goes. It gives the impression that happiness is in a room and you can go pick at it as you like, rather than something you have to work at. You can’t just fold your hands behind the back of your head, cross your legs and rest your pretty back on a bench, then expect happiness to come strolling in to meet you. Let’s look at this logic. 1) Happiness, I believe, is about beating the odds. 2) Worry happens when the odds are difficult to beat. 3) The odds are difficult to beat when we fold our hands too much. Pure, isn’t it?

    Sometime last week, the news came that the seemingly intractable boko haram group might have set up, first a caliphate, then a Sharia state, in the north eastern part of the country. From where most of us are standing, that is news to cause the women to put on their worrying caps as the country appears to be stretched out, relaxed on a bench, hands behind its head, while a fire is raging in its backyard.

    Three things strike one here. We will not go into all the rhetoric of this act being a direct confrontation against the state and all its instruments of office. We will also not go into the debate of the uselessness of the action, given that the region is already practicing, unhindered, the system of religion supported by the act. We will also not get involved in the attempt to argue that the act is an open and direct declaration of greater antagonism. We will not go into all these because the earth is too round for that.

    The first thing that strikes one here is that politicians and other elites in the north appear to have failed to foresee where the problem created by covert or overt omission would lead the region and the rest of the country. Worse, the central powers, i.e., the federal government and the armed services under its thumb, also failed to foresee this damage potential. So, our worry stems from the fact that the country’s authorities do not appear to have grasped the weight of the boko haram problem in spite of warnings from the press and others, until it came to this. And that is the surprise, when you consider that people have been tried for treason in this country just for writing newspaper articles.

    Secondly, all the combined forces appear to have fiddled, watched and sat thinking while men and women were being massacred, burned, terrorized, dispossessed, and made homeless by these troublers in our midst. Rather than apply sufficient energy to burn the problem to cinders at its onset, the country diddled and did practically little enough; but that little was enough to allow the problem to grow. Right on our watch, little girls were abducted by the boko haram and have not been seen till now. I don’t believe we have understood completely the ramifications of this failure.

    Let me explain. This country maintains a security unit made up of all kinds of sub-units: police, navy, air force, soldiery, and other less understood ones. Since these units are maintained on public funds, it means that the public has a right, nay, expectation to demand protection against robbers, raiders, and other big bad wolves. That public includes all our young girls, young boys and defenseless adults. Naturally, when young girls are abducted, they expect the country’s defense units to come to their rescue, no matter how far away they have been taken. They expect that their parents will come to their rescue, no matter how poor they are. Children have faith. The failure of both parents and government to do this has meant that the country has failed in its duty and has let the girls down in their belief in the protection offered by adults and their systems. In short, we all, collectively, have failed to honour the faith of those girls in parents and country.

    Thirdly, four months after the abduction, there does not appear to be any move to reclaim the country’s good name. Worse, the boko haram people have even upped their game. Now, they are moving to set up a government for themselves while the country watches. Yet, in all of these, the country is maintaining some studied silence which is not very comprehensible. Right now, some move, any move, would be better than this silence, this stillness, in the face of this severe provocation. I don’t know about you, but I feel very mortified by all these because I was one person, and I have stated this more than once, who really believed in the ability and ableness of the Nigerian armed forces. I have relatives who served on them and I know their worth. That is the basis of my faith.

    Whatever may be the handicap of the army and the government in putting out this already growing wild fire, I think they need to step over it now and step up. Corruption in the army, as we have been hearing, is no excuse. Insufficiency of manpower, as we have also been sniffing, is no excuse. If it were so, the government would not have been able to afford to send thousands and thousands of soldiers to go and monitor election sites in one state only. So, no, we don’t buy insufficiency of soldiers as an excuse.

    It’s been predicted that Nigeria may disintegrate by 2015, even though the president and others have expressed their convictions to the contrary. Keeping silent while a group sets up its own flag in a part of the country is helping that forecast become a self-fulfilled prophesy. We do not have to tow this highway of self-destruction; we just need to borrow a leaf from the ‘Our Way’ of women: worry produces the peaceable fruits of self-preservation.

  • Boko Haram: Cleric urges FG to be more swift, decisive

    Boko Haram: Cleric urges FG to be more swift, decisive

    The Presiding Bishop Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Ibadan, Nigeria, Bishop Francis Wale Oke has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to be more swift and decisive in checking Boko Haram insurgency before escalate to the entire nation.

    He gave this charge on Friday while addressing journalist to herald the 32nd annual Holy Ghost convention of the church which begins on Sunday August 31 at the Christ Life Church International Headquarters, Garden of Victory, Old Ife road, Ibadan.

    Bishop Oke who revealed that the prominent ministers of God like Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, CAN President Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and Bishop David Oyedepo will minister during the convention, said the church is calling on the federal government to use every power to check the insurgency.

    “We’re calling on the Federal Government to wake up and use every power within its fold to defend Nigerian territory. The federal government should be more decisive because Boko Haram is acting the script of ISIS.

    “The trend at which the insurgency is moving is dangerous. For more than 48 hours they declare caliphate on a section of the country and there is no swift reaction? Let the Federal Government evacuate all civilian from that area and shell the area. The insurgency step is unacceptable. The Federal Government is given us an impression that we have a very weak government which cannot defend its territory.

    “The church is demanding that the Federal Government must take action; that the beheading of christians is unacceptable, the kidnap of over 200 girls for over 200 days without any positive sign is unacceptable, that taking over of the Catholic church is unacceptable. We demand that the government should show us that we have a government that is capable of defending the people,” Bishop said.

    The clergyman also noted that the action of the run away soldiers recently, portends a great danger in tackling the insurgency.

    “The action shows the mental state of the military officers and how ill equipped, ill trained and weak command structure they have. It is something that should amaze Nigerians. We should stop playing politics with security. Some people should lose their head because of this, our military command should be overhauled, if that will make our men who are serving in the security sectors to be well motivated,” he opined.

  • Boko Haram: Questions America must answer

    Boko Haram: Questions America must answer

    Apocalypse 2015: Is there any chance whatsoever that the United States of America might want Nigeria damaged or dismembered? What would be the motive? What would it profit the U.S. to have one more humanitarian debacle, another blood festival in another corner of the world? The war theatres of Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Iraq and Central African Republic must be enough to sate the thirst of even the worst vampires. Bringing this lumbering giant, Nigeria, to ruins in a fratricidal religious war will do the world no good, not the least America. So why does everything seem to point to the fact that by omission or commission, America seems to crave the demise of Nigeria as currently configured?

    Let us state upfront that it is naïve, if not cowardly, to admit and surrender to the notion that the destiny of one nation could rest solely under the authority of another. But history is replete with cases and Ukraine is current history. It is also a shame, a surrender of sovereignty and an admission of failure to accept and capitulate to the authority of another sovereign entity but that is Nigeria’s current reality. Is the U.S. taking advantage of Nigeria’s structural, institutional and leadership ferment? There are numerous questions craving answers.

    And the first is: a U.S. agency had suggested nearly a decade ago that this entity known as Nigeria may fail by 2015. Knowing that the U.S. and most other developed countries don’t live by the moment, we must ask now whether there wasn’t much more to that dire prognosis than the rest of the world knew.

    Sambisa forest:  hashtagbringout-theamericans: Now, it must be that the American experts who recently came to help us either got lost in the Sambisa forest or they were on a different covert mission of their own. Which provokes the suspicion that the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria seems to have gained more ground, garnered momentum and become more audacious after the Americans practically forced their way to the forest last June? Remember the unprecedented global orchestration of the kidnapped Chibok school girls’ affair; remember how the American political elite had found a common ground over Chibok and how eminent leaders like John Mccain and Hilary Clinton had railed against Nigeria’s leadership suggesting there is a vacuum? Recall that Nigerians, including President Goodluck Jonathan, were relieved when the Americans practically forced their way into the Sambisa fray? We still remember that they promised to send intelligence personnel and sophisticated surveillance equipment and planes to help pick out the rascals from that ‘small’ forest area and rescue the girls?

    Where on earth are the Americans and all the ‘allied’ nations that rushed purportedly to help Nigeria rescue the Chibok girls and stem the insurgency? All we heard was that the Americans and the Brits were here to offer superior intelligence and spy wares. Not another word after that except the rumour mill which buzzed that the Americans had to leave in frustration as they could not live with the numbing corruption in our system. Really? That does sound mighty fishy doesn’t it?

    As Boko Haram rolls out the tanks of warfare:Is it possible that our friends merely sought opportunity for reconnoiter and to plant coordinate surveillance devices for future strategic uses? Is it not worrisome that the so-called Boko Haram has suddenly transformed from daggers, rifles and IEDs to rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), rocket launchers and armored personnel carriers (APCs)? It will not be a terrifically smart deduction that BH will introduce stealth jetfighters and bombers to the war next. Is it not strange that since the Americans ‘joined’ this ‘war’, the BH ‘army’ has grown from under-cover attacks of boys’ schools and herding away of young girls at night to overrunning a crack mobile police academy, chasing a battalion of Nigerian soldiers across the border, 80 kilometres into the Cameroons and declaring a Caliphate Republic of Gwoza within the enclave of Nigeria. Is it by coincidence that since the Americans ‘joined’ this ‘war’ in June, this rag-tag BH army now seems to be imbued with better intelligence, to be better organised and have persistently out-gunned Nigerian soldiers?

  • Cameroon bombs Boko Haram camp

    Cameroon bombs Boko Haram camp

    Boko Haram has suffered a heavy casualty after coming under attack from Cameroon’s army.

    The Cameroonian army shelled one of the Islamist sect’s camps across the border, killing “many” fighters, according to a security official.

    The source said the army shelled the camp on Wednesday evening, two days after the jihadist group seized control of Gamboru Ngala on the border with Cameroon.

    “It was tanks stationed on the frontier at Fotokol (on Cameroon’s side of the border) that shelled the camp on the other side,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

    “Seen from Fotokol this morning, Gamboru looks empty and smells of death,” he added. “Nobody knows how many Boko Haram members were killed, but it is obvious that many were.”

    The shelling was confirmed by a local police officer.

    “These were abandoned houses that they have occupied since they entered Gamboru. We think they still control the town, because there are many of them and they didn’t all gather in the same place,” he said.

    All was calm in Fotokol by Wednesday following days of panic as residents fled to escape the Boko Haram attack on Gamboru.

    The Catholic Church has complained that the Boko Haram insurgents have taken over the parish rectory of its Church and other houses of Christians after last week’s attack on Madagali in Adamawa State.

    The   Director, Catholic Social Communications in-charge of the Maiduguri Diocese, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie, said Christians and Christian institutions had been at the receiving end of the satanic group.

    Fr. Obasogie said in Madagali, “the whole town and the Parish rectory have been occupied by the terrorists; so many structures and items have been vandalised. Dozens killed and a lot of church structures have been burnt down.”

    Fr. Gideon also lamented the unhindered advancement of the insurgents in the Gwoza part of Borno, a town they have already declared as their Caliphate.

    In a statement, he said: “The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has advanced greatly in their rampage and killings, to the extent of declaring a Caliphate in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, a town bordering Borno and Adamawa states.

    “As it is well known, the catholic diocese of Maiduguri covers the whole of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, the three states under strict emergency rule.

    “Apart from the churches within Maiduguri that have great share of such attacks by the terrorists group, all the churches on the major road linking Maiduguri and Adamawa state have been closed down due to same acts of terrorism. St Timothy’s Bama had been under siege since last year. The Parish priest, Rev. Fr. Timothy Cosmas, had long been relocated to a different Parish. At the early part of this year St. Peter’s Pulka was badly attacked. Thanks to God the Pastor Fr. James John was luckily unavailable. The terrorists searched and wanted to kill the holy Priest of God.

     “Lately, precisely on Friday the 22th August 2014, the dreaded group had moved steadily and yet more boldly into Gwoza, which is in Borno State and the neighbouring Madagali Local Government Area in Adamawa State. Declaring a caliphate!!! The assisting priest of St. Denis Madagali, Fr. Aiden Ibrahim, fled the Parish with some of his Parishioners to the mountains, upon hearing serious fire battle from the terrorists. Since the curfew declared after wards was dusk to dawn, they had to travel on foot through the mountains up on till Michika, a neighbouring local government area where movement was free. Since then Madagali and Gwoza had been greatly under siege and strictly controlled by the Boko Haram sects.”

    Fr. Gideon said the situation in Madagali remained unclear, adding that people who escaped from the town through the Gwoza hills to Michika could explain it.

    “Madagali is a local government that borders Borno and Adamawa states, the closest town to Gwoza . It has a large number of Catholics, and members of other Christian denominations. And a good number of Muslims. It is quite eloquent that terrorism has no friend, but it is abundantly clear that the Christians are worst hit. It might surprise you to know that no one knows the state of affairs in this terrorist zone.

    “Report reaching the Director Social Communications, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie, in Maiduguri has it that the whole town and the parish rectory have been occupied by the terrorists, so many structures and items have been vandalised. Dozen killed and a lot of church structures have been burnt down. Christians in the town are really in a terribly situation; a moment of great persecution. Christian men were caught and beheaded; the women were forced to become Muslims and were taken as wives to the terrorists. The houses of Christians that have fled are now occupied by the Haramists . Their cars are used by the terrorists. Some Boko Haram sympathisers around the town identify Christian homes to be occupied and the Christians hiding were also identified and killed. Strict Sharia Law has been promulgated, as observed by a woman who luckily escaped the dead zone.

    “The situation, as it is now, has really and truly gone out of control. People are finding it really hard, citizens are being killed in their numbers. Hope Nigeria would be real in handling the dwindling state of insecurity that has enveloped the entire North east,” the statement said.

  • ‘Boko Haram occupies churches in Borno, Adamawa’

    The Director Social Communications, Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, Fr. Gidoen Obasogie, on Thursday said the Boko Haram insurgents have taken over the entire Madagali town and Parish Rectory of the Catholic Church in the area.

    He also lamented the unhindered advancement of the insurgents in the Gwoza part of Borno where the insurgents have already declared as their Caliphate.

    A statement signed by Fr. Obasogie reads: “The Boko Haram sect has advanced greatly in their rampage and killings, to the extent of declaring a Caliphate in Gwoza local government area of Borno State, a town bordering Borno and Adamawa States.

    “As it is well known, the catholic diocese of Maiduguri covers the whole of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States, the three states under strict emergency role.

    “Apart from the churches within Maiduguri that have great share of such attacks by the terrorists group, all the churches on the major road linking Maiduguri and Adamawa State have been closed down due to same acts of terrorism. St Timothy’s Bama had been under siege since last year.

    ‘The Parish priest, Rev. Fr. Timothy Cosmas had long been relocated to a different Parish. At the early part of this year, St. Peter’s Pulka was badly attacked. Thanks to God, the Pastor Fr. James John was luckily unavailable. The terrorists searched and wanted to kill the holy Priest of God.

    “Lately, precisely on Friday the 22th August 2014, the dreaded group had moved steadily and yet more boldly into Gwoza which is in Borno State and the neighbouring Madagali local government area in Adamawa State, declaring a caliphate.

    “The assisting priest of St. Denis Madagali, Fr. Aiden Ibrahim, fled the parish with some of his parishioners to the mountains, upon hearing serious fire battle from the terrorists. Since the curfew declared afterwards was dusk to dawn, they had to travel on foot through the mountains to Michika a neighbouring LGA where movement was free.

    “Since then Madagali and Gwoza had been greatly under siege and strictly controlled by the Boko Haram insurgents.”

     

     

  • How to end Boko Haram insurgency – NLC president

    How to end Boko Haram insurgency – NLC president

    The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, Thursday asked the Federal Government to block all channels of food supply to members of the Boko Haram insurgents as a way of forcing them to abandon their terrorist adventure.

    Speaking with journalists after commissioning the office complex of the FCT branch of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, Federal Council, in Abuja, the NLC boss also asked government to deploy more troops to the frontline states to assist in the battle against the insurgents.

    Omar said that experience has shown that closing exit and entry points of supply to insurgents can prove to be a good weapon, saying it was time for the country to begin to think of alternative means of ending the Boko Haram crisis.

    He lamented that Nigerian workers have been at the receiving end of the sect activities, saying “the Nigerian workers especially in the frontline areas of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe are the most affected by the insecurity. They are the ones who shuttle between their houses and places of work and these are the people who are caught in between.

    He said, “Quite a number of Nigerians workers have been killed along with other Nigerians. The issue of insecurity is a very serious one and we really want to call on government to intensify efforts, particularly concentrate efforts in trying to combat this problem in areas where it is very prevalent.

    “People have suggested that if government can deploy as much as 30,000 security personnel to monitor election in one state, there is nothing stopping the government from deploying more troops to areas experiencing insurgency and ensure that we end this thing once and for all. I have always said that when it happened during the Maitasine era, the federal government took decisive measure and within three days, it was brought under control.

    “When it happened in Burunkutu in Borno State, the government took decisive measure and within few days, it was brought under control. I see no reason why such a decisive measure cannot be taken.

    “I know that the government is being cautious because we have our daughters in captivity and it is a very serious issue. I think we should begin to think about other means by which we can end this thing.

    “Closing up on them is a strategy. If you close up on these people and block all channels through which they can move about will force them to come out in search of food and other essentials. That is the best way, if you cannot defeat an enemy through bombardment and other means, you can use siege to block him or her to ensure that you force him or her to either surrender or perish.”

  • Boko Haram plans to use ‘disabled persons’, says military

    Boko Haram plans to attack Federal Government installations in Lagos and other states by using physically-challenged persons, it was learnt yesterday.

    It was also gathered that the sect’s new tactics would enable its new recruits enter areas with massive security without suspicion and to avoid the air raids by security operatives.

    This was the reason for the arrest of a physically-challenged man suspected to be a Boko Haram member at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, with suspected Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

    A military source, who spoke in confidence, said its personnel had been warned to screen everyone entering military bases, including persons with disabilities.

    The source said the military was also asked to pay attention to physically-challenged people using tricycles, adding that the information was based on intelligence report.

    Although The Nation was unable to get Defence spokesman Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade to confirm the report, it was learnt that security at military formations in Lagos had been tightened.

    Addressing reporters yesterday at the Naval Air Base in Ojo, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command (WNC), Rear Admiral Sanmi Alade, said the military was on the alert to prevent terrorism.

    He said: “I do not know where you got your information from, but what I know is that we are prepared to prevent and counter any act of terrorism.”

    Also, the Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro urged Nigerians to support the military to end insurgency.

    He spoke at the Naval Air Base in Ojo at the end of his two-day familiarisation tour of naval units and commands in Lagos.

    After inspecting the state of ships, aircraft and other naval facilities, the minister said the massive refurbishing of platforms showed the right investments the military was making.

    He hoped that security would improve across the country.

    Obanikoro hailed the Navy for curbing the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) at the Navy Reference Hospital in Ojo, Lagos, by isolating those suspected to have the disease.

    He said: “To avoid unnecessary discrimination, people are checked, to be sure they are not likely carriers. After this, one can graduate to the main hospital reception to be attended to.

    “Some of you, by now, would have formed your opinions, after seeing things for yourselves. Those who thought we had been sleeping can now whisper to others that we are not sleeping. We have been working. We may not be there yet, but hopefully, we will get there.

    “I am happy with the direction we are going. So, I plead that we should all find a place in our hearts to support our military and security agencies.

    “If the military had kept to its core mandate and not dabble into politics, it would have gone far ahead of the society. But in the last 15 years of democracy, it has done quite a lot and deserve our commendation.”