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Tag: boko haram

  • Sultan seeks total amnesty for Boko Haram members

    Sultan seeks total amnesty for Boko Haram members

    President General of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar said on Tuesday that the government should grant an unconditional and total amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect as a way of bringing an end to the current insecurity in the country.

    The Sultan, who spoke at the Central Council meeting of the JNI in Kaduna said the government should embrace any member of Boko Haram that has come out to denounce terrorism as such move will give members of the group the confidence to come out and embrace peace.

    The Sultan said, “We have been hearing about terrorism everywhere and everyday. I want to use this opportunity to say that we have heard in the news that Mr. President will be visiting Maiduguri in a couple of days.

    “We want to use this opportunity to call on the government especially Mr. President to see how he can declare total amnesty to all combatants without thinking twice, that will make any other person who picks up arms to be termed as a criminal.

    “If the amnesty is declared, majority of those young men who have been running would come out and embrace that amnesty and I believe that some of them have already come out because we have heard some of the stories in the papers.

    “Even if it is one person and he denounces terrorism, it is the duty of government to accept that one person and see how he can be used to reach others. Whether it is true or not, the government should accept that person first, evaluate him and see whether he is genuine or fake.”

    He denounced those criticising northern leaders, accusing them of doing nothing to address the problems in the north saying, “people have been saying we are not doing anything as leaders in the north. We have done a lot more than what any other person have done and I want to commend all of you for what you have been doing and we will continue to do so despite the criticism.

    “We will continue to call on the government to be just in whatever they do because the bottom line of the problem facing us has been injustice meted out to the people. By the grace of God, we will continue talking to government.

    “We are facing a lot of challenges in this country and as Muslims, we own it as a duty to ensure that we contribute positively to peace and stability in this country.

    “We have been talking and will continue talking. We will not get tired of talking until the Almighty Allah takes us away. We believe that it is only when we talk and dialogue that issue will become clearer. I believe we are all patriotic and love ourselves and our neighbor as the Almighty Allah said.”

     

  • ‘I saw Boko Haram kill my husband, snatch my kids’

    ‘I saw Boko Haram kill my husband, snatch my kids’

    IT was a heart-rending session yesterday in Abuja.

    Many were in tears as victims of the Boko Haram sect relived how their loved ones were killed, leaving them with shattered lives.

    It was at an event where funds were raised to support survivors of the fundamentalists’ bloodletting.

    In a shaky and emotional voice, Mrs Deborah Shettima from Borno State recounted how Boko Haram insurgents killed her husband in her presence, snatched away her two children and returned a few days later to kill her only surviving child. All she has left are photographs of her loved ones, which she displayed.

    Pastor Serana Chinda of the All Saints Protestant Church, Hauran Wanki, Barracks in Kano spoke of how 17 members of his congregation were killed for refusing to divorce Jesus Christ.

    Former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and others wept as the victims told their chilling stories – at a joint news conference by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Christian Association of Nigeria-Americans (CANAN).

    The President of CANAN, Dr. James Fadele, its Executive Director, Laolu Akande and CAN Secretary General Dr. Musa Asaki addressed the conference where N8million ($50,000) was donated to the relief fund set up by CAN for the victims of Boko Haram attacks.

    Mrs. Shetima (45), who lost her husband and three children, said: “On April 25, 2012, after work, I went home and discovered that everywhere was quiet. I met my husband sitting on a table. He was preparing to preach to the children at a prayer meeting. He asked me to get him water to bathe. So, I went outside and saw a tricycle approaching with five persons inside it. Four of them came down and went into our house. I started running but one of them blocked me while another said they should allow me in and asked me to lie down.

    “When I got in, my husband was praying and I heard him say, ‘Lord, today I’m going to visit you. I ask you to please receive my spirit. One of them said, ‘have you finished praying and you think your prayer is going to save you?’ And after that, I heard four shots of gun. I said, ‘I will be the next target and started praying, Lord they are finished with my husband, here I am, receive my spirit, but they opened the door. When my two daughters, nine and seven years old, heard me, they started crying, saying ‘they have killed our father, they will soon kill our mother and as they were crying, they reached out to them and took them away. Up till now, I have not seen them. They have not been declared dead or been seen. One of assailants hit my eye with the gun. I cannot see with the eye.

    “After three months, while marking the death of Yusuf Mohammed, their leader, they returned to my house and killed my last son. Someone came and told me to leave the house.”

    A young man held his own photograph, taken when Boko Haram assailants attempted to cut his throats. There is a gory gashes on his neck. He survived miraculously.

    Mrs. Ezekwesili, in tears, said Nigeria does not place value on human lives.

    She said: “Whatever happens to one of us happens to every one of us. So, if we have become a nation that does not put value to human lives, then we really are in a bad place. Listening to these women particularly and seeing what these women have to carry alone, you almost feel a sense of abandonment for them.

    “We must get ourselves back to a drawing table and figure what we really are; what are we and what we have become as a people and as a nation. Is it right that a mother would watch her husband killed and her two children taken away and does not know where they are up till now and nobody is concerned about it? Three months after, they came and killed her son. I know a nation where this thing happened before. It’s called Rwanda and it didn’t end well.”

    Akande urged President Goodluck Jonathan to become aggressive in fighting the Boko Haram sect.

    He said: “I think government itself has expressed hopelessness, including President Jonathan who has said on several occasions that this problem is big. We believe that Nigerian government cannot handle this problem anymore. There are instances of lack of political will on the part of the Federal Government. The cases of some supporters of Boko Haram like those senators who have been accused should be pursued.

    “Government can become more aggressive in going after members of Boko Haram and those supporting this sect. Government is not proactive. It must seek support from other countries, like the United States, to deal with Boko Haram. This is an international problem. I wish government could do more in protecting the lives of Nigerians. Some of the cases are not even reported. How can somebody be going to another person’s house to kill. If government cannot provide law and order it then becomes worrisome.”

    Fadele urged Nigerians and people of goodwill to “rise up and come to the financial and material aid of the victims of Boko Haram attacks in northern Nigeria”.

    According to him, Nigerian Christians in America have taken notice of the impact of the actions of Boko Haram. “We are concerned about the widows and are touched by the plight of the orphans. We reckon that many of these individuals are left without a source of livelihood.”

    He said: “We have heard that CAN is setting up a Relief Fund where Nigerians can donate money and relief materials to support the victims. For instance, victims’ children can benefit from scholarships taken out from such a fund. Towards such fund, CANAN is making an initial widow’s mite contribution of $50,000.

    “If backers of terrorists are raising the money to perpetrate acts of terror, supporters of and advocates for peace can no longer look the other way. We want to join with CAN today to call on Nigerian philanthropists, businesses, and captains of industry, well-to-do individuals and all people of goodwill to consider the financial plight of Boko Haram victims and lend a helping hand.

    “CANAN does not conceive itself as a political group. We are an advocate for innocent and helpless people being slaughtered in their places of worship. Christians are being killed, churches are being attacked and destroyed, health workers and doctors are being assassinated, markets are being ravaged, police precincts are being vanquished, and neighbourhoods are being tormented. This wickedness must stop. We commend the bold leadership of CAN for speaking up in a categorical, courageous and consistent manner on the Boko Haram issue.”

  • Boko Haram: Nigerian Christians in U.S seek Obama’s intervention

    Boko Haram: Nigerian Christians in U.S seek Obama’s intervention

    The Christians Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) on Monday decried the inability of Federal Government to checkmate the activities of the Boko Haram sect in the northern part of the country.

    It pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to seek the assistance of President Barack Obama in tackling the menace.

    President of CANAN, Dr. James Fadele and the Executive Director Laolu Akande stated this at a joint press conference in Abuja.

    About N8 million ($50, 000) was donated to victims of the Boko Haram attacks at the event.

    At the solemn event, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, broke down in tears after listening to Pastor Sarana Chinda of All Saint Protestant Church, Hauran Wanki, Barracks, Kano, on how 17 members of his congregation were wiped out for refusing to renounce Jesus Christ.

    Ezekwesili also heard from a 45- year old Deborah Shetima from Borno State how her husband was slaughtered on April 25 last year and her other two children abducted by Boko Haram members and their whereabouts still unknown.

    After this sad development, the sect came back three months later and killed her third child in cold blood.

    According to Akande, President Jonathan should become aggressive in fighting the Boko Haram sect and those members of the National Assembly that were indicted, whose cases are in court.

    He said: “I think government itself has expressed haplessness including President Goodluck Jonathan who has said in several occasions that this problem is big. We believe that Nigerian government cannot handle this problem anymore. There are instances of lack of political will on the part of the Federal Government to prosecute some supporters of Boko Haram like those Senators who have been accused.

    “Government can become more aggressive in going after members of Boko Haram and those supporting this sect. Government is not proactive and it should seek support from other countries like the United State to deal with the sect. This is an international problem. I wish government can do more in protecting the lives of Nigerians.”

     

  • 20 Boko Haram members killed in Borno

    Twenty members of the notorious Boko Haram sect were  killed by men of the  Joint Task Force in Borno State, Operation Restore Order on Sunday  in a deadly shot out  in Monguno town.

    The killing of the sect members came just as two top members of the sect, said to be responsible for the detonation of explosive bombs during the visit last week to Maiduguri of governors of the opposition party were arrested.

    The spokesperson of the JTF, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa in a statement on Sunday said: “Information available to the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Order indicated that some Boko Haram Terrorists attempted to attack a Military Barracks at Monguno, Monguno Local Government Area, Borno State at about 5 am today, Sunday 3 March, 2013.
    ” Monguno is about 200 kilometers away from Maiduguri and about two hours drive. The attack was repelled by the FOB’s and JTF troops at the outskirt of the barracks. The encounter led to the death of 20 Boko Haram Terrorists, 3 four wheel vehicles and 8 motor cycles used by the terrorists were destroyed.”

    Items  recovered from the sect members included seven AK47 Rifles, 10 Rocket Propelled Grenade, two RPG Tubes, large quantity of assorted Ammunitions and eight assorted magazines.

  • Insecurity: UK warns citizens against traveling to Nigeria

    Insecurity: UK warns citizens against traveling to Nigeria

    Britain advised its citizens on Wednesday against travelling to several regions in northern Nigeria, after an increase in attacks blamed on Islamist militants and the abduction of several foreigners earlier this month, Reuters reports.

    Gunmen killed a security guard and abducted a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers after storming the compound of Lebanese construction firm Setraco in Bauchi State on February 16.

    It was the worst case of foreigners being kidnapped in the mostly northern part of Nigeria since an insurgency by Boko Haram intensified two years ago.

    Britain upped its travel risk ratings on Wednesday, advising against any travel to Bauchi State and Okene in Kogi State where militants last month attacked Nigerian troops who were bound for Mali to counter an Islamist insurgency.

    It also advised against ” all-but-essential travel” to Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina States, a statement from the foreign office said.

    Attacks by Islamist groups in northern Nigeria have become the biggest threat to stability in the country.

    Western governments are concerned the militants may link up with groups elsewhere in the region, including al Qaeda’s North African wing AQIM, especially given the conflict in nearby Mali.

    France sent troops to Mali last month to help oust Islamist rebels.

    Islamist group Ansaru claimed responsibility for the Setraco raid in Bauchi and the Okene attack.

    The Setraco raid was “based on the transgression and atrocities done to the religion of Allah by the European countries in many places such as Afghanistan and Mali,” said the group, which has kidnapped other foreigners in Nigeria in the past.

     

  • France won’t negotiate with Boko Haram

    France won’t negotiate with Boko Haram

    France will not negotiate with Boko Haram gunmen who have taken a French family of seven hostage, the country’s Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said yesterday.

    The three adults and four children were kidnapped in Cameroon’s far north, near the Nigerian border in Borno State, last week. In a video posted online on Monday, the gunmen threatened to kill them, unless authorities in Nigeria and Cameroon released militants held there.

    “We do not negotiate on that kind of basis, with this kind of groups,” Le Drian told RTL radio. “We will use all [other] possible means to ensure that these and other [French] hostages are freed.

    “We do not play this bidding game because that’s terrorism,” he said, deploring the fact that children were involved.

    The video, posted to YouTube and mentioned on a jihadist website, shows one of two French men reading a statement, with a woman in between them. Four children sit on the ground near them, flanked by two masked militants wearing camouflage uniforms and holding rifles.

    A masked militant in front says in the video that Boko Haram kidnapped the French hostages, a family of three adults and four children who were taken from outside a national park in Cameroon’s Far North Region on February 19. A black banner in the background, bearing the images of the Quran flanked by two Kalashnikov assault rifles, also resembles a symbol previously used by Boko Haram.

    The man says the kidnappings came due to the French military intervention in northern Mali, where its troops have fought with Malian soldiers against Islamic extremists who took over the north in the months following a coup last year. The man also threatens the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments, calling on them to release their imprisoned members.

    “Let the French president know that he has launched war against Islam and we are fighting him everywhere,” the man says in Arabic. “Let him know that we are spread everywhere to save our brothers.”

    The man threatens to kill the French hostages if the group’s demands are not met.

    The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the video’s authenticity on Monday, though it shares similarities with some Boko Haram propaganda videos published in the past.

    However, in this video, the man speaks entirely in Arabic, while other Boko Haram videos have its leader Abu Bakr Shekau also speaking Hausa. Boko Haram has not published a video featuring hostages before. The video appears to have been filmed outside, as prayer mats hung in the background sway in a breeze.

     

  • Abduction: France will not negotiate with Boko Haram

    Abduction: France will not negotiate with Boko Haram

    France will not negotiate with gunmen claiming to be from the Boko Haram sect who have taken a French family of seven hostage, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.

    The three adults and four children were seized in Cameroon’s far north near the Nigerian border last week, Reuters reports.

    In a video posted online on Monday, the gunmen threatened to kill them unless authorities in Nigeria and Cameroon released Muslim militants held there.

    “We do not negotiate on that kind of basis, with these kind of groups,” Le Drian told RTL radio. “We will use all (other) possible means to ensure that these and other (French) hostages are freed.”

     

  • Boko Haram threatens to kill abducted French family

    Boko Haram threatens to kill abducted French family

    Gunmen claiming to be members of Boko Haram threatened yesterday to kill a kidnapped French family of seven, if authorities in Nigeria and Cameroun do not release detained Muslim militants.

    Yesterday, North’s governors urged the fundamentalist group and its cohorts Ansaru to lay down their arms.

    French ministers said they believed the three adults and four children snatched in Cameroon’s far north, near Borno State border last Tuesday, were being held by Boko Haram which has killed hundreds in their campaign to carve out an Islamist state in Nigeria.

    The first sign of the family since they were captured came in a video posted on YouTube in which they appeared surrounded by three gunmen wearing turbans and dressed in camouflage.

    “We have been taken by Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad,” one of the male hostages said in the video, referring to the name in Arabic of Boko Haram.

    “They want the liberation of their brothers in Cameroon and their women imprisoned in Nigeria,” the man added, speaking in French as he sat on the floor beside another man, a veiled woman and four children.

    “A video of the French family kidnapped in northern Cameroon last Tuesday has just been posted by Boko Haram,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. “These images are terribly shocking and show a cruelty without limits.”

    The hostage-taking highlighted the risk to French citizens after France sent thousands of troops into Mali last month to oust al Qaeda-linked Islamists operating in the north.

    “The president of France has launched a war on Islam and we are fighting it everywhere,” said one of the apparent kidnappers, speaking in Arabic and identifying himself as a member of Boko Haram. “Implement our demands. If you leave out even one, we will kill these people.”

    Boko Haram has previously posted videos in Hausa, but the black and white flag that hung behind the hostages in the released video is more associated with al Qaeda-linked groups.

    A spokesman for Boko Haram had denied any connection with the kidnapping at the weekend.

    However, security experts say Boko Haram is made up of multiple cells, without a defined command structure.

    The militant group is known to have had some links to al Qaeda factions in North Africa and Mali, but experts say they appear limited for now.

    Cameroon’s Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said he could not comment because his government was not aware of the video.

     

  • Boko Haram group insists on cease fire

    A splinter group of the Islamic Boko Haram group, led by Sheikh Abdulaziz Ibn Adam on Saturday insisted that it was ready to dialogue with government to the group’s current bloody campaign.

    Ibn Adam made the announcement at a news conference in Maiduguri, Borno State Capital.

    He said that the group had come to realise that it could not achieve its aim through violence.

    “You will recall that we announced a cease fire last month as a precondition for talks with government.

    “But sadly after a few days of respite, violent began again in the country,” he said.

    Ibn Adam said that the group was not responsible for the renewed violence in some parts of Borno.

    “Those currently engaged in this violence are not our people because our people are obedient to their leaders.

    “Since the leadership has asked them to cease fire, they won’t continue with violence,” he said.

    Ibn Adam said that the group would go after those who still engaged in violent campaign since they had been warned severally.

    He said that the leader of the sect Sheikh Abubabak Shekau was behind the cease fire agreement and hence all members must abide or face sanctions.

  • Lagos allays fears over terror attacks

    …Sacks transporters from Ojuelegba Under-bridge

    Amidst reports that Lagos is  a likely a target of  Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, Jama’atu Ansaral Muslimana Fi Biladis –Sudan, the Lagos State Government has  urged residents to ignore the threats and go about their normal activities.

    State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba and his counterpart in the Ministry of Environment Mr. Tunji Bello who spoke to journalists shortly after monitoring the February edition of the monthly sanitation exercise said the government has put measures in place to ensure the protection of lives and properties.

    The commissioners who during the exercise led a team of their personnel to comb under bridges and hidden places in Surulere local government area of the state of filth and suspicious materials said the state government and its security agencies are already working on security reports available to the

    “I will say categorically that Lagos is safe, Lagosians should not entertain any fear. We have done all we are supposed to do for Lagosians to live safely. I want to just tell them to go about their normal duties without entertaining any fear.

    “The idea of Boko Haram coming to attack Lagos is nothing to scare anybody. This is a proactive government and Lagosians have confidence in their government. Lagos is home to everybody and I don’t think anybody in a right frame of mind will want to extend act of terrorism or violence to Lagos. No matter how you look at it people have one interest or the other in Lagos, ” Ibirogba stated.

    Bello  said the decision to send transporters under the bridge in Ojoelegba packing became necessary to clean up the place and get rid of some unscrupulous elements hiding in the garage to perpetrate evil.

    He said the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) will take over the garage and ensure the transports polluting the place do not return to the spot and constitute nuisance.

    Meanwhile, the government has beefed up security at the Lagos State Governor’s and his deputy’s entrance gates, just as  vehicles are not allowed  into the state government secretariat.

    Our reporter learnt that the directive was given by top security aides to the state governor.

    By this development our correspondent was told by the police officers deployed to man the gates that visitors and workers at the Lagos State Secretariat Alausa are barred from entering or exiting through the gates unless they have been cleared by the Office of Head of Service Mr. Adesegun Ogunlewe.

    The security personnel on duty turned blind eye to pleas from staff of the state government to allow them entrance to resume their duties scheduled for weekend, saying he was acting on instruction from a superior officer.