The Nation Newspaper

Tag: boko haram

  • 35 dead as twin bomb blasts rock Maiduguri

    35 dead as twin bomb blasts rock Maiduguri

    •20 villagers killed by jet targeting Boko Haram

    Two explosive-laden vehicles went off last night in Maiduguri claiming at least 35 lives.

    A military jet targeting Boko Haram hideouts along the Nigeria/Cameroun had earlier on Friday bombed Daglun Village, killing at least 20 civilians, survivors said yesterday.

    Yesterday’s explosions occurred at the heavily populated Ngomari-Bulumkutu in Maiduguri.

    Time was about 6.30 when a lot of residents were preparing for prayers.

    Eyewitnesses said that the bombs were neatly packaged inside a fire wood truck, believed to had taken-off from the Sambisa Forest in Damboa Local Government Area.

    One of the eyewitnesses, Malam Mohammed Buba, said: “Nobody can say exactly how it happened, the first blast occurred just about 15 minutes before the second one. Only few people were injured by the first blast, but while people were trying to rescue the victims of the first blast, the second one occurred killing many people.”

    The State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Lawal Tanko, confirmed the blasts, saying that 35 bodies had been evacuated so far.

    “We are still counting, so far we have counted 35 bodies. Our men are still working with rescue workers at the scene.”

    As soon as the explosives went off, people started fleeing the area.

    Eye witnesses said some of the victims had gathered to buy fried bean cake (akara) and fried fish for dinner. Many of them had already been rendered homeless by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Youth volunteers, known as civilian JTF, rushed to the scene to assist security agents in combing the area for the brains behind explosions and to pick up corpses of the victims.

    Defence spokesman, Major-General Chris Olukolade said by phone that he was aware of the situation but had no details yet.

    He confirmed that one of the suspects who detonated the bomb had been arrested and that efforts were on to identify and arrest the rest.

    Earlier on Friday, a military jet targeting terrorists bombed the village of Daglun near Nigeria’s border with Cameroun, and killed at least 20 civilians, survivors said.

    Most of those killed were elderly, because most residents had fled because of the recent violence and rumours that the military was about to mount attacks in the area in response.

    Military spokesman, Capt. Jafaru Nuru of the 23rd Armored Brigade operating in Yobe State, said he was unaware that any airstrike had killed civilians.

    An elderly resident of Daglun said he was sitting under a tree when he saw bombs dropping from a military aircraft. A nurse at the local hospital said it received many dead and wounded. A community leader said 20 people died and 25 were wounded.

    All requested anonymity citing fear of military reprisals.

    Jets have been bombing Boko Haram bases around Daglun daily for three weeks in a bid to flush the extremists out of their remote forest hideouts and caves in mountainous terrain.

    In January, a jet dropped bombs near a federal senator, who was travelling in a convoy being escorted by soldiers and police. No one was hurt. The military called the bombing “an operational blunder.”

    Also that month, a Nigerian jet pursued Boko Haram militants across the border into Cameroon and dropped three bombs on a Cameroon customs post, destroying two vehicles.

    The Nigerian armed forces are believed to have located about a dozen of deadly bases of, Boko Haram, in Cameroon.

    Consequently, the Federal Government is mounting pressure on Douala for collaboration in routing the insurgents who are hiding in those bases.

    President Goodluck Jonathan and President Paul Biya are already in talks on how deal with the security challenge,authoritative sources said yesterday in Abuja.

    Nigeria is said to have tabled four conditions before the Cameroonians for their consideration on the issue.

    A military source said that many Boko Haram leaders and field commanders have relocated to Cameroon from where they direct operations in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, the latest being Sunday’s massacre of about 50 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi,Yobe State and Wednesday’s attack in Madagali and Michika Local Government areas of Adamawa State.

     

  • Soyinka faults centenary honours list

    Soyinka faults centenary honours list

    •Deplores Abacha’s listing

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday lashed out at the Federal Government for including the late General Sani Abacha among those honoured to mark Nigeria’s Centenary celebration.

    He called the action of government as a disservice to the nation and a failure of a moral rigour that calls into question “the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership.”

    In a statement entitled The Canonisation of Terror, the Nobel laureate said, “According generalized but false attributes to known killers and treasury robbers is a disservice to history and a desecration of memory. It also compromises the future.”

    Soyinka, who was also listed as one of the awardees, added in statement to explain why he declined to accept his own award saying, “I reject my share of this national insult.”

    The playwright said it was the same Abacha who “placed this nation under siege during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very psychopath that was recently canonised by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years of Nigerian trauma.”

    He said it was also under the authority of the late Abacha, whom he called “a vicious usurper” that ” the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out. Assassinations – including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition – became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance. To round up, nine Nigerian citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, were hanged after a trial that was stomach- churning even by the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance of the intervention of world leadership.”

    The Nobel laureate wondered why successive administrations have not had the courage to “wipe out” Abacha’s memory from Nigeria.

    He observed: “One of the broadest avenues in the nation’s capital, Abuja, bears the name of General Sani Abacha. Successive governments have lacked the political courage to change this signpost – among several others – of national self degradation and wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter.

    “Not even Ministers for the Federal Capital territory within whose portfolios rest such responsibilities, could muster the temerity to initiate the process and leave the rest to public approbation or repudiation. I urged the need of this purge on one such minister, and at least one Head of State. That minister promised, but that boast went the way of Nigerian electoral boast. The Head of State murmured something about the fear of offending ‘sensibilities’.”

    He is of the view that the lack of will to do what is right tantamount to “moral cowardice and a doubling of victim trauma. When you proudly display certificates of a nation’s admission to the club of global pariahs, it is only a matter of time before you move to beatify them as saints and other paragons of human perfection. What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even – worship.”

    He said he, like many Nigerians, he found it disgusting that the hospital to which victims of the recent attack on a school in Yobe by Boko Haram were rushed for treatment was named after Abacha.

    His words: “The sheer weight of indignation and revulsion of most of Nigerian humanity at the recent Boko Haram atrocity in Yobe is most likely to have overwhelmed a tiny footnote to that outrage, small indeed, but of an inversely proportionate significance.

    “This was the name of the hospital to which the survivors of the massacre were taken. That minute detail calls into question, in a gruesome but chastening way, the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership.

    “It is an uncanny coincidence, one that I hope the new culture of ‘religious tourism’, spearheaded by none other than the nation’s president in his own person, may even come to recognize as a message from unseen forces.”

    He added: “Such abandonment of moral rigour comes full circle sooner or later. The survivors of a plague known as Boko Haram, students in a place of enlightenment and moral instruction, are taken to a place of healing dedicated to an individual contagion – a murderer and thief of no redeeming quality known as Sani Abacha, one whose plunder is still being pursued all over the world and recovered piecemeal by international consortiums – at the behest of this same government which sees fit to place him on the nation’s Roll of Honour!

    “I can think of nothing more grotesque and derisive of the lifetime struggle of several on this list, and their selfless services to humanity. It all fits. In this nation of portent readers, the coincidence should not be too difficult to decipher.”

    But the Federal Government in the brochure at the awards ceremony said it decided to honour Gen Abacha for his unprecedented economic achievements.

    Abacha, government claimed, oversaw an increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997, reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion in 1997.

    It also credited him with ending all the controversial privatisation programmes of the Babangida administration, reducing the inflation rate of 54 per cent inherited from Babangida to 8.5 per cent between 1993 and 1998, while the nation’s primary commodity, oil was at an average of $9 per barrel.

    Besides, he was said to have created the most comprehensive and realistic blueprint for Nigeria’s development through Vision 2010 committee chaired by his predecessor, Chief Ernest Shonekan.

    Abacha’s widow, Maryam received the award.

    Also present to receive their awards were former Presidents/Heads of State Olusegun Obasanjo, Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Shonekan and Abusalami Abubakar

    The past leaders received award for outstanding promoters of unity, patriotism and National Development.

    Posthumously awards were given to the former Heads of State/ Presidents including Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, General Aguiyi Ironsi, Murtala Muhammed, General Abacha and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    Representatives also received awards for the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Anthony Enahoro and former Labour leader, Pa Michael Imoudu.

    Presenting a book “The reforms that have transformed Nigeria, 2010-2013” at the occasion, President Jonathan said it would not be fair not to apologise to Nigerians about the selection of Nigerians for the award.

    He explained that it was difficult to select 100 people, saying that about 500 people are qualified for the award and that the government would look for a way to recognise them in future national occasions.

    The families of the late Bashorun M.K.O.Abiola, the late Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the late music icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti also rejected the posthumous awards earmarked for them.

    Mr. Kola Abiola, eldest son of the late Chief Abiola said the award was ‘inappropriate’ while, Mr. Mohammed Fawehinmi said it would be morally wrong for the family to stand on the same podium with General Babangida to receive an award.

    Babangida’s government, he alleged, serially subjected the Fawehinmi to torture and that it was during one of such ‘illegal and inhuman detentions’ that “our late father’s cell was sprayed with toxic substances while in Gashua prison in 1987. The cumulative effect of that dastardly action led to our father, a non- smoker, contracting lung cancer which eventually led to his death on September 5, 2009.”

    The Anikulapo-Kuti family blamed government for destroying Fela’s ‘Kalakuta Republic’ and subjecting his late mother, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti to inhuman treatment, which led to her death.

  • Boko Haram: Nigeria’s military on the spot

    Boko Haram: Nigeria’s military on the spot

    Sometime in 2011 a private in the Nigerian Army was arrested by agents of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Task Force for driving in the dedicated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane at the Obanikoro area of the city. Angered at the audacity of the officials, the man left and soon returned with his comrades-in-arms and a full-blown army-police clash ensued.

    In my column that weekend I excoriated soldiers who thought they were above the law simply because they wore fatigues. I suggested that whole lot of them be shipped off to the North East where they could work out their aggression tackling a Boko Haram sect that was fast becoming a nuisance. At that point government was still addressing the issue mainly using the police and secret service.

    I soon received a text message from an officer who while taking my caustic comments in good humour denied that military men only had contempt for the police. He pointed out that the army was always being called in to clean messes left behind by the Nigerian Police. He boasted that if the military were the ones handling the young insurgency, they would sort it out in three months.

    This week I was reminded of that boast as the death toll from the attack on the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State hit 60. In nearby Adamawa State, a further 32 persons lost their lives in separate attacks by Boko Haram in three towns. Overall the body count for February is over 300 and rising.

    Early in December last year, the sect swept unhindered into Air Force bases located near the Maiduguri airport. They left in their wake scores killed and five aircraft razed. It was a stunning and embarrassing blow to Nigeria’s military pride, and it occurred with the armed forces firmly in charge of managing the war against the insurgents.

    Eight months after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, and gave the military extensive powers to stamp out the killings, the performance of the military is under scrutiny. Disturbing questions are being asked and nobody is providing answers.

    Frustrated and angry governors are raising posers. Bewildered legislators are scratching their heads wondering what on earth is going on. The questions cover everything from strategy to rules of deployment, funding and motivation.

    Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, got things going by claiming the insurgents were better equipped and motivated than Nigerian soldiers. This very serious charge drew a typically defensive riposte from President Jonathan who offered to withdraw the troops for one month to test the theory about their ineffectiveness.

    For his part, Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, has made the equally grave claim that there may be Fifth Columnists sabotaging the efforts of the military from within. The allegations arise from a string of strange deployments that preceded the Buni Yadi slaughter and some other recent high profile attacks.

    Wondering why soldiers were always late in arriving at scenes of incidents, he said: “In Buni-Yadi, Yobe State, the soldiers withdrew from checkpoint hours to the attack. Who ordered the withdrawal? In Shuwa and Michika, soldiers withdrew, shortly after that Boko Haram attacked, who ordered the withdrawals”?

    “We also have the case of Gen. Mohammed Shuwa who was killed in Maiduguri by the so-called Boko Haram. There is an army unit there, but they didn’t respond during the attack. Who told them not to respond?

    “The Air Force base was raided in Maiduguri. There was a military base nearby; who gave the base the order not to respond during the raid on the Air Force base?” Questions, questions!

    As though worries about unseen hands manipulating the situation were not bad enough, we now have to contend with reports of soldiers in Adamawa abandoning their checkpoints and fleeing into the bush – leaving five villages at the mercy of the insurgents according to reports by Associated Press.

    Why would soldiers who are trained to kill or be killed, who are supposed to provide protection for the people, cut and run before the enemy? It all comes down to the same issues of equipment and motivation raised by Shettima. Anyone would beat a retreat in the face of superior firepower.

    They would definitely scamper before insurgents who joyfully embrace death if they see no reason to die for their country. It is not just the hapless troops in the middle of nowhere who have to deal with the question of motivation. How many are willing to die for Nigeria? It just becomes an issue because it is the business of the military to die, and turning tail before the enemy is one of the most serious offences a soldier can commit.

    So how do we begin to turn things around seeing as current efforts are doing very little to deter the terrorists? The first battle that needs to be won is that of finance. Reports indicate that the insurgents who struck at Buni Yadi drove into town in nine brand new Toyota Hilux vans. Each of these vehicles cost more than N6 million at today’s prices. How many do they have in the fleet? Who’s paying for them? Individuals and organisations with very deep pockets obviously.

    But no matter how rich they are they cannot be more endowed than the Nigerian state. That is why it is scandalous to even imagine that the insurgents can be better armed than our soldiers. What do we spend our huge defence budget on if troops can’t get the armament they need to prevail in battle?

    The ongoing war against terror provides the window to review not just the pattern of defence expenditure, but the entire structure of our military. All over the world countries are reforming their armed forces based on their peculiar security challenges. It is obvious that for Nigeria in the foreseeable future those challenges would be terroristic – rather than conventional.

    In addition to throwing more money at the problem in a targeted way, we need to throw in more troops. Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has made this demand and he should be supported. We can learn from the example of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    When it seemed like the security situation in both countries was spiraling out of control, the Americans implemented a “surge” policy that introduced thousands of new troops into the theatre of conflict. The upshot was that the spiral of violence was contained. The North East is crying out for a surge that limits the room the enemy has to maneuver.

    But that surge should not contemplate the temporary relocation of the Nigerian Army’s headquarters to the North East as suggested by senators. That would simply be an empty knee-jerk reaction that will not materially change much. If anything it exposes the nation to psychologically devastating attacks against symbols of the Nigerian state like happened with the assault on the Nigeria Police headquarters in Abuja.

    Much has been said about addressing social and economic conditions that provide a ready recruitment pool for terrorists. It is hard to fault that. Still, the point needs to be made that Boko Haram is unique. They are an implacable foe that would settle for nothing less than victory for their evil ideology. The only thing that can stop them is defeat. That is why it is important to get our military strategy right.

    There’s no question that some progress has been made in limiting their activity to the North East. These days stories of IEDs going off in city centers in the North West are rare occurrences. Still more needs to be done. It begins with the military and President being humble enough to admit that their current strategy is not working and is in urgent need of a review.

  • Boko Haram: How military can win, by Onyekweli

    Military action is not enough to win the terror war against Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

    To deal with the tricky situation, the military will require the full support of the civilian population in the affected areas.

    These were the views of former Provost Marshall and later, Chief of Administration of Nigerian Army, General Charles Onyekweli (Rtd).

    Onyekweli, who spoke with The Nation in Lagos, stated the seemingly unending attacks and daily massacres by the terrorist group are not signals that the country is losing the war.

    Onyekweli said: “The country is not failing at all. What people must understand is the nature of the war we are fighting.

    “It is a difficult war, an expensive war and the military is doing the best they can. But the military requires the support of the civilian population.

    “The military cannot alone know who, amongst the civilian population, is a Boko Haram member, because some of them live amongst the populace.”

    Onyekweli warned that unless information gathering permeates the society, it will be difficult for the military to win the battle as quickly as Nigerians want.

    In his view: “Civilians must play their own role. Carrying of guns is not the only thing that decides who wins this kind of battle.

    “People should be able to give information as to the where the members of Boko Haram are, their routes, their approaches so that the military can deal with the situation.”

    Notwithstanding the painful loses so far, Onyekweli assured that the country will eventually win the war.

    “The country is winning and will win this battle. It takes time and is all over the world,” he said.

    Explaining why it has taken the military so long to handle the situation, the ex- combatant soldier said: “Have you imagined where they get their weapons from? Our borders are porous.

    “That is why the country is doing everything possible now to make sure they use all sorts of means to protect our borders; not only through physical occupation but also through the use of technical facilities to protect our borders.”

  • Of threats and Boko Haram

    Of threats and Boko Haram

    Students’ massacre: Time to wipe out the sect

    With The killing of 59 students (so far) of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State, on Tuesday, at least three questions become pertinent, again. The first is: what does Boko Haram really want? And the second, what have innocent students got to do with whatever the grievances of the sect are? Above all, how effective is the existing structure to curtail the dangerous sect?

    According to a resident, “The attackers started the operation around 12:15 unperturbed until after 4 am; the students were slaughtered and fired with guns … I counted 39 corpses” he said, adding: “It was too horrible because, some of the students were slaughtered, some were burnt inside the hostel”. Unless one has eaten the head of a tortoise (it is believed in Yoruba land that people who eat such lose whatever regard they have for human life) one must feel touched by this kind of report, especially because the victims were children. These could have been anybody’s children. Now, their parents must be regretting their decision to send their children to that school. Who knows how many promising children had been so killed over some senseless reasons? With this kind of attack, life in that school can hardly ever be the same again. Indeed, no one should be surprised if parents with children in other schools in that part of the country start withdrawing them en masse because they would be the ultimate losers should anything untoward happen to their wards. All they can hope to get are the usual comforting words and assurances that the government is on top of the situation! And, as they say, “he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches”.

    And to think that this is not the first time the sect members had wreaked havoc on innocent students! Just before dawn on July 6, 2013, the gunmen attacked a government-run boarding school of 1,200 students in Mamudo village, Yobe State, killing at least 42 people, among such other attacks.

    It is against this backdrop that one should see the frustration of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State who claimed  that Boko Haram fighters were  “better armed and better motivated,” than the troops fighting them. This would appear to have been confirmed when on Wednesday the Boko Haram bloodletting extended to Adamawa State where the terrorists, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, nearly sacked four communities. Soldiers reportedly ran for cover on seeing the sheer number of the terrorists! If it was true that the insurgents burnt banks, shops and filling stations in their desperate search for food and cash, as the military authorities claimed, then they (insurgents) might not be better motivated. Perhaps the issue is that they are more committed to whatever they see as their cause.

    The point is that even if what Governor Shettima said might have been undiplomatic, it should be seen in the context of someone who sees it all. President Jonathan who is in the safe confines of Aso Rock in Abuja is unlikely to appreciate the gravity of the situation on ground as much as the governor. That was why the president ought not to have upbraided the governor as he did when reacting to the governor’s comment during his media chat on Monday. As the man on the spot, the governor sees and feels the pinch more than President Jonathan who relies more on briefings from his military officers, who may choose to let him into only what they feel like letting him into. If the president felt bad about the governor’s comment, and so reacted angrily the way he did, then, he too was guilty of whatever offence Governor Shettima might have committed. President Jonathan’s comment that he would see if the governor would be able to stay in the Government House if the soldiers were withdrawn from the state for one month, is unnecessary as it is un-presidential.

    Governor Shettima might have over-reacted, but he spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians. It was because of Boko Haram that the Federal Government imposed a state of emergency on three northwestern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa on May 14, last year. The expectation then was that this would curb, significantly, the activities of the deadly sect. The first round of the emergency lapsed in November and was renewed for another six months, in line with constitutional stipulations. Now, it is about nine months since emergency was imposed on the three states, yet, the activities of Boko Haram do not seem to be abating. If anything, the sect is becoming more audacious, dispatching many defenceless people, including especially innocent students who have no idea of what the sect members want, and who contributed nothing to whatever might be the grievances of the sect members, to their untimely graves.

    And here is the president getting angry at a frustrated governor who expressed worries over what is going on in his state. If President Jonathan must be reminded, provision of security is the very basic responsibility of any government properly so-called.

    Is it not worrisome that Boko Haram members would hold a whole school to ransom for hours, without any form of resistance or assistance from those who were supposed to provide security for the people? How come the sect members would go in convoys without the security men noticing, not to talk of stopping them? How come we are always closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? How come it is those who should have responded by repelling the sect members that are the very ones who reel out for us the number of casualties, tell us how the ‘invasions’ went and why they could not deal with the situation until it was too late? Is the president himself not tired of repeating the same graveside oration each time these unfortunate incidents occur? Is he not tired of giving us assurances that the government is in control when people see little in that regard?

    Nigerians will keep asking questions whether the president likes it or not, if only for the fact that human lives are involved, and secondly, because of the humongous amount of money that has been sunk into our attempts to rein in Boko Haram. This year alone, no fewer than 350 persons had been killed by Boko Haram. And that is for those whose identities were made public. It excludes the figures of military casualties too.

    The fact that students were hit this time around is enough to attract attention, and many eminent Nigerians have condemned the attacks as senseless. The international community has done the same. Even the Senate President, David Mark remarked that “It is also curious that under an emergency rule, when security operatives should be on red alert, this mayhem still persists. Honestly, this calls for soul-searching and I believe the security authorities must rise to this challenge”. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, echoed a similar sentiment:”While we must all join hands to bring this insanity to an end, we must, however, bear in mind that we are running out of excuses in our responsibility to our citizens”.

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-Gen Kenneth Minimah told the Senate Committee on Defence and Army that the army would soon defeat Boko Haram. For sure, General Minimah is aware that he is not the first military top brass to give such an assurance. Others before him made the same pledge. Yet, here we are! We have reached a stage where the military authorities should stop threatening to quell Boko Haram. It’s high time they carried out the threat. When Boko Haram is finally quelled, we would not need any military officer to announce to us. We would all see and feel it because it is that palpable.

  • Bomb blast in Borno again

    A double barrel explosion was heard in the outskirts of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state Saturday evening as residents ran helter-skelter around Bulunkutu Maiduguri town.

    It was not very clear if lives were lost but a military source confirmed that the explosion occurred around Ailari Bintu area behind the 707 housing estate of the state capital.

    It was learnt that the blast may have been possibly by a suicide bomber who has succeeded in penetrating the tight security checks mounted in the town.

    Sources say that the twin-bomb explosion caused panic as several persons were alleged to have been killed when a pick-up van loaded with fire woods suddenly exploded and went into flames.

    The people of the area who spoke to reporters on phone said the pick-up van parked very close to the Bulunkutu commercial area where people gathered to take their dinner of fried akara, roasted and fried fish barbecue.

    It is believed that among those killed were those that besieged the commercial area to buy their dinner and some commuters around the ill fated fire wood vehicle.

    Another source said that the twin explosion shook the entire area as if it was an earthquake while it was believed that another bomb may be planted in the area because the police anti bomb squad was yet to arrive as at the time of this report.

  • Military locates 12 Boko Haram hideouts in Cameroon

    Military locates 12 Boko Haram hideouts in Cameroon

    The Nigerian armed forces have located about a dozen hideouts of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, in neighbouring Cameroon.

    Consequently, the Federal Government is mounting pressure on the neighbouring country for collaboration in routing the insurgents.

    President Goodluck Jonathan and President Paul Biya are already in talks on how to deal with the security challenge, authoritative sources said yesterday in Abuja.

    Nigeria is said to have tabled four conditions before Cameroon for its consideration on the issue.

    A military source said that many Boko Haram leaders and field commanders have relocated to Cameroon from where they direct operations in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, the latest being Sunday’s massacre of about 50 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State and Wednesday’s attack in Madagali and Michika Local Government areas of Adamawa State.

    The source said: “We have been able to establish that Boko Haram now operates fully from Cameroon where they have more than a dozen of deadly bases. Most of their wanted leaders live in havens in the Francophone country.

    “The sad aspect is that they have been operating with impunity in Cameroon. We do not know why they enjoy such latitude.

    “We have done reconnaissance which confirmed that the sect has been coming in and out of Cameroon to wreak havoc on innocent villages and communities in Nigeria.”

    The Federal Government, the source said, has been liaising with the Cameroonian government although it is yet to get a decisive response.

    Nigeria’s demands are:

    • Allowing Nigerian troops to enter Cameroon for limited engagement against fleeing Boko Haram members

    • Permitting troops to take the battle to the sect in their bases in Cameroon, especially in border areas

    • Temporary closure and freezing of movement at Nigeria/ Cameroon borders

    • Stoppage of harbouring or hosting of Boko Haram leaders under whatever guise.

    The source added: “The Federal Government has been mounting pressure on Cameroon to collaborate with Nigeria to curtail the insurgents.

    “In the 80s, when there was a similar insurgency by the Maitatsine sect, Nigerian troops trailed them to their based in Chad.

    “The understanding is necessary because it is obvious that the sect is not ready for any constructive dialogue again and their recalcitrance is threatening our sovereignty.

    “I think we have had enough from these insurgents who are taking us for granted. The battle line is certainly drawn.”

    President Biya is said to be receptive to the idea of co-operating with Nigeria but the source declined to go into details.

    He only said: ”Where Cameroon decides to accommodate the insurgents against our security interest, we know what to do as a nation.”

    President Francois Hollande of France said on Thursday in Abuja that his country stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nigeria in its battle against Boko Haram.

    He pledged his support in the fight against Islamist militancy as it had done in Mali. Hollande, guest of honour for celebrations to mark 100 years since Nigeria’s unification, expressed his condolences, calling the Yobe attack “brutal” and “unjustified”.

    “Nigeria is today confronted with the terrorism of Boko Haram,” he told delegates at a security conference attended by dozens of African heads of state and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

    “I assure you that your struggle is also our struggle. We will always stand ready not only to provide our political support but our help every time you need it, because the struggle against terrorism is also the struggle for democracy.”

    Hollande was on a two-day visit to Nigeria and had been expected to hold talks on trade and investment with President Goodluck Jonathan.

  • Nigeria at war with Boko Haram – Presidency

    Nigeria at war with Boko Haram – Presidency

    The Presidency on Friday said the country was at war with Boko Haram, apparently backing off previous claims that the sect members were on the run and desperate.

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has been fiercely criticised over its handling of the conflict, both for its inability to stop massive attacks on defenceless civilians and for what some have described as mixed and contradictory messages on the severity of the crisis.

    Jonathan has termed the ongoing military offensive in Boko Haram’s northeastern stronghold a success and maintained that normality will be restored to the embattled region by May.

    Presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, told the Channels television that the Boko Haram conflict was a “war situation.”

    “We are dealing with a very, very serious enemy,” AFP quoted Okupe as saying on Channels TV.

    “We are engaged in a war that has been internationalised,” he added in an apparent reference to Boko Haram’s reported but unconfirmed presence in neighbouring countries like Cameroon.

    The conflict has killed thousands since 2009 but many argue the plight of civilians in the northeast has worsened since the military began its operation in May.

    Since then, nearly 300,000 people have been displaced in the region, according to the United Nations, and more than 1,500 people killed, according to the UN and figures compiled by AFP.

    “It is very difficult, very costly in terms of lives lost. But we will overcome,” Okupe said. “We are in the dying phase of this insurgency.”

    The defence ministry on Thursday said the insurgents were “desperate” to escape Nigeria because of military pressure and would be “degraded towards elimination shortly.”

     

  • Boko Haram kills 32 in attack on three towns

    Boko Haram kills 32 in attack on three towns

    ON a day the President was railing against terrorists and the military announced a change of strategy, the news broke yesterday of a Boko Haram attack on Adamawa State.

    No fewer than 32 people died in the Wednesday night attack, which followed Tuesday night’s massacre of scores of school pupils in Yobe.

    The insurgents, driving in a convoy of new Hilux pick up vans, according to eyewitnesses, hit sleepy communities of Shuwa, Kirchinga and Kibla before proceeding to Michika.

    Security agents at checkpoints reportedly scampered for safety as the gunmen, who operated for about five hours in the area, approached.

    “They retreated because of the large number of the attackers and the sophisticated weapons they bore,” eyewitnesses said.

    Some Michika residents said they slept in the hills and nearby bushes during the night attack. They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone yesterday that the attackers arrived in the town around 9p.m.

    “They burnt three banks, a police station, shops and part of the Michika Local Government Council secretariat.

    “They came in nine Toyota Hilux vans, firing guns and throwing explosives,” a resident who simply identified himself as Fide said.

    Fide said he saw bodies of two victims.

    “One of the bodies is that of a worker of Bank of Agriculture,” he added.

    “They burnt places of worship and the house of a former commissioner, Idris Nuhu in Shuwa village,” said a resident, Mr. Sule Idris.

    Spokesman of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, Capt. Ja’afaru Nuhu, said the insurgents attacked communities in Madagali and Michika local government areas.

    The chairman of the Madagali Local Government Area, Maina Ularamu, said “a large number of militants carried out three separate attacks on Shuwa and Kirchinga in my local government area and on neighbouring Michika”.

    “The gunmen divided themselves into three groups and separately attacked the three locations,” he told AFP.

    In Shuwa, several buildings were burnt, including a Christian theological college and a section of a secondary school.

    A local resident, Kwaje Bitrus, said three bodies were recovered from the seminary and 20 were killed in and around the village.

    In Kirchinga, Samuel Garba said the gunmen were all dressed in military uniform — a tactic frequently employed by the militant fighters in previous, similar attacks.

    “The gunmen … killed eight people in our village and burnt many houses,” he added.

    “Four people have so far been confirmed dead in Michika,” said Abdul Kassim, who lives in the village.

    The dead were a young boy, who was trying to run away, and three security guards, he added.

    Michika residents described earlier how people fled to the nearby foothills when the attackers arrived in trucks and on motorcycles.

    Michika resident Abdul Kassim said militants arrived at about 9:30 pm (2030 GMT) on Wednesday, “armed with RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and explosives, which they hurled indiscriminately at homes and public buildings”.

    The attack reportedly lasted for more than four hours. Various residents said four banks were razed, as well as hundreds of shops, a police station, government buildings and dozens of homes.

    One witness, who requested for anonymity, said the village looked like a “war zone” and that 90 per cent of all businesses had been destroyed.

    A pastor, who preferred anonymity, said: “When the soldiers at the military check points saw the number of the attackers, they retreated into the nearby bushes as the gunmen operated without challenge throughout the night.”

    The member representing Michika Constituency in the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Hon. Adamu Kamale, also confirmed the attack on Michika.

    President Jonathan, at a seminar in Abuja to mark Nigeria’s centenary celebration, called for action against terrorists. Speaker after speaker sympathised with Nigeria on the Boko Haram killings in Yobe.

  • Boko Haram: Jonathan vows to bring murderers to justice

    Boko Haram: Jonathan vows to bring murderers to justice

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday promised that no resource will be spared in bringing to justice all murderers in the country engaging in violence in the North.

    Islamic sect Boko Haram and other terrorists groups have killed thousands of Nigerians and destroyed billions of naira worth of properties.

    Speaking at the Centenary Conference in Abuja, with the theme “Human Security, Peace and Development: Agenda for the 21st Century”, Jonathan said Africa must address some fundamental challenges to the continent’s human security, peace and development.

    He said: “But as I address you today, I have a heavy heart. Two days ago, terrorists invaded a secondary school and murdered innocent children in Yobe State, while they slept. The children, the hopes of their parents and the future leaders of our dear nation, had their hopes and dreams snuffed out, leaving behind grieving families, schoolmates, communities and a sad nation.

    “Our prayers and thoughts are with their families at this difficult moment of loss. This gruesome and mindless act of savagery is not Nigerian. It is not African. Let me assure all Nigerians that we will spare no resource in bringing those murderers to justice.

    Stressing that the menace of small arms and light weapons is on the rise, he said of the 500 million illegal small arms and light weapons in the world, an estimated 100 million are in Africa, with 10% in West Africa.

    Jo nathan said the cost of wars and insurgencies is too high and that Africa has been estimated to lose $18 billion yearly from wars and insurgencies.

    “In concert with our regional and global partners, we will continue to respond strategically and decisively to this scourge, and together with our people we shall end the killings and bring terrorism to an end.

    “Your Excellencies, let us work together across boundaries, not only to coordinate and strengthen our defences, but also to address any socio-economic roots on which these extreme ideologies thrive.

    “Terrorism must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We all must work together, collectively, to rid our world of haters of peace, who use terror to maim, kill, instil fear and deny people their rights to peace and security,” the President said.

    In his view, greater regional cooperation in intelligence gathering and control of insurgents will not only ensure Nigeria’s security, but also the security of her neighbours.

    Noting that Africa faces a huge challenge with rising youth population, Jonathan called for drastic steps to create jobs to tackle increasing unemployment among the youth.

    “By 2050, it is projected that about 40% of the population of Africa will be made up of young people below the age of 15 years, while about 60% of the population will be made up of young people below the age of 25 years.

    “A major concern is the high level of unemployment among the youth, especially those that are educated and skilled. No priority for human security is more important for African countries than a sharp focus on creating jobs for this teeming youth population. Skills acquisition, entrepreneurship development, encouraging the youth to go into agriculture as a business, and providing them with access to cheaper financing to fulfil their dreams, are all needed to harness and unleash the power of our youth to secure our collective future.

    “To foster this, we need to further strengthen intra-Africa trade to create jobs. Africa must add value to its primary products and commodities to ensure that wealth is created on the continent. This will create wider scope for prosperity for our populations.”

    The President also urged leaders in the continent to address the issue of inequality in the continent.

    He said: “There is no doubt that Africa is growing and our economies are among some of the fastest growing in the world. But this growth is not creating enough impacts in terms of improving the living standards of our people.

    “We need inclusive growth that can stimulate broader shared prosperity among our citizens. Social policies that improve access to food, water, housing and education are crucial for inclusive growth and social participation.

    He urged the leaders to also address the challenges of climate change in the continent as its negative impacts include increasing incidences of floods and droughts, which create vulnerabilities, displace populations and threaten human security.

    To empower women, Jonathan suggested that at least 30 per cent of bank lending in agriculture should be to women farmers and women-owned agribusinesses.

    He spoke of a brighter future – “if we improve governance and accountability systems”. “We must reduce the cost of governance and increase more of the national resources on the governed. In particular, we need to reduce the cost of elections and electioneering and shift greater focus on ensuring that the dividends of democracy are delivered to our peoples,” the President said.

    In his view, democracy alone is not enough. We must remain vigilant and look into our peculiar situation in Africa and identify critical factors that belies the extremism and terrorism that threaten our collective security,” Jonathan said, adding: “The enemies of the state today in Africa are often faceless, driven by religious extremism, ethnic mistrust and rivalries, and propagandas of hate. Their nefarious actions are not limited to any single country and no one is immune.”