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Tag: boko haram

  • 19 students, six others killed by gunmen in Adamawa

    19 students, six others killed by gunmen in Adamawa

    Pandemonium broke out in Mubi, Adamawa State on Monday night as 19  students from the Federal Polytechnic, School of Health Technology and Adamawa State University were  killed by unknown gunmen. Six other persons were also victims of the shooting.

    Though the cause of the killing was not immediately known, but a source from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi told the Nation in a telephone chat that the students were killed on the night of the 52nd Independent anniversary at about 10:00pm

    The source however said that the unknown gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram started shooting sporadically at the innocent students for several hours, causing a lot of confusion within and outside the Wuro Fatuje, a popular off campus hostel housing students from the three tertiary institutions.

    At the end of the shooting, not less than 19 students were confirmed killed on the spot, while scores of others were injured. Many of them are said to be on danger list at the Mubi General Hospital.

    Eyewitness account added that the sporadic gunfire kept residents of Mubi awake all night, heightening the already tense security situation in the area.

    It was also confirmed that the 25 dead bodies were deposited at the Mubi General Hospital while more bodies were still been recovered from the venue of the attack.

    The incident came barely a week after the Joint Military Task Force recorded a major breakthrough arresting over 156 suspected terrorists and discovering a local bomb manufacturing factory as well as cache of arms and ammunition in Mubi.

    Since the major breakthrough, a 24 hour curfew has been imposed on Mubi and its environs.

     

  • Joint Task Force steps up battle against Boko Haram

    Joint Task Force steps up battle against Boko Haram

    -Six members killed in fighting

    -Bomb suspects held in Ibadan

    -Sect’s leader vows more attacks

    It was a bad Independence Day for the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect yesterday.

    Six suspected members of the group were killed by the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and Zaria, the university town in Kaduna State.

    One was killed in a gun duel in Zaria; five were gunned down in Maiduguri.

    But the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, vowed more attacks, saying the group would target government officials’ and military leaders’ wives – in retaliation for the detention of its members’ wives.

    Shekau said the nation’s military and security agencies have seized 10 women who are wives of Boko Haram members. He claimed the women had been raped by the captors, though he did not elaborate on how he knew that.

    Shekau issued the threat in a YouTube video over the anti-Islam film that has sparked widespread protests in the Muslim world.

    “First, insults against the prophet, evil plots against him, making blasphemous movies against him, all these will do no harm to Islam,” Shekau said in the video, which appears to have been posted on Sunday. He spoke in Hausa.

    “Anybody plotting this will surely pay for it. Everybody knows what this statement entails. Everybody should wait and see what we will do regarding this,” he said.

    The video could not be independently authenticated, according to the AFP, but it closely resembled previous such videos of Shekau, who has been in hiding since a 2009 crackdown by the military on Boko Haram.

    In the video, Shekau appears relaxed, wearing a checkered red-and-white Keffiyeh scarf. A Kalashnikov assault rifle leans against the wall behind him.

    At one point in the video, Shekau laughed and said: “You should wait and see what’s going to happen to your own wives.”

    “Let it be clear that we never sought dialogue or to sit down with government agents or representatives … they (Nigerian leaders) will never know peace while they attack our members.”

    Shekau also said the sect’s spokesman was being detained by the security forces.

    “Our spokesman, Abu Qaqa is alive but with the security agents, but I believe strongly that after this message from me, they may decide to kill him this night,” Shekau said.

    It was the first public statement on the matter by the militants since a raid, which it says led to Qaqa’s arrest but not his death.

    Senior security sources said on Sept. 16 that troops had killed a man identified as “Anwal Kontagora, alias ‘Abu Qaqa’”, whose pen name is often used to claim responsibility for the sect’s pronouncements from its base in the northeast of the country.

    A number of protests over the anti-Islam film produced in the United States have been held in the North, organised by a Shiite Muslim group not connected to Boko Haram, with no violent incidents occurring. The protests have been held in Jos, Katsina, Kaduna and Zaria, among others.

    In the nine-minute video, Shekau, an AK-47 leant on the wall next to him, also threatens the government, saying he is prepared to die. He denied that the group has been holding dialogue with the government.

    Boko Haram’s insurgency in the North has been blamed for more than 1,400 deaths since 2010.

    It was a bloody Independence Day in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, yesterday.

    A member of the Joint Task Force (JTF) was killed and four others seriously injured when an Improvised Explosives Device (IED) targeted at their patrol vehicle exploded on Lagos Street in the city. The assailants were believed to be members of Boko Haram.

    According to sources, the JTF men were on routine patrol when the bomb went off around 8am. The patrol vehicle went up in flames. A Fire Service source told our reporter that he saw the body of a soldier lying on the ground.

    He said other soldiers were injured. But JTF spokesman Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa denied knowledge of the attack. He, however, confirmed that there was an explosion in the area and promised to give details later. Shops owners around the place quickly fled the area leaving their shops open. Security operatives cordoned off the area.

    Maiduguri Street were deserted as people ran indoors. Four people were shot dead on Sunday night by gunmen in Damboa, also in the beleaguered city. Residents said the people were shot dead by gunmen who stormed their homes behind the CBN quarters.

    The JTF attacked the sect and killed five suspected members in a gun duel at Abbaganaram Ward.

    Two explosions had earlier rocked the state capital in the morning at Gwange quarters and Lagos Street.

    In Jos, the Plateau state capital, the police yesterday defused an Improvised Explosive Device on Ajayi Street in the centre of the city.

    The IED was planted by unknown persons at about 10.10 pm on Sunday at the densely populated area of Kwararafa, near the Jos Central Mosque.

    Nobody died. The police arrested one person over the incident.

    The police Bomb Disposal Squad, led by Mr.Abel Mbibi, was alerted by members of the public. Police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh said the suspect had been handed over to the Special Task Force. (STF).

    In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, three suspects, including a Burkinabe, have been arrested by the police for allegedly attempting to smuggle explosive devices into the country through a border.

    The explosives were allegedly meant for Borno and Yobe states.

    The suspects, who were paraded by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operation), Mr Musa Kimo, at the Police Headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan are in their 40s.

    Kimo said the suspects were apprehended around 8pm on Saturday by the anti-bomb squad. He said they concealed the explosives in a sack.

    Kimo added that the anti-bomb personnels confirmed that the explosives recovered from them are capable of destroying a whole community and was expected to be transported to Yobe and Borno states.

    The police boss said one of the suspects claimed to be a citizen of Burkina Faso works with a mining company in Kwara State. The other said he is from Lambu town in Kano State.

    Although the Burkinabe said he was sent from the mining company to deliver the explosives to someone, Kimo said if he was on a legal trip, the law stipulates that anyone transporting an explosive should inform the police for authorisation.

    He also said the suspect from Kano State wanted to bribe the policemen with N20,000 but the officers refused his offer.

    He said investigation into the incident was going on.

    In Zaria, the Independence Day celebration was marred by explosions in Danmagaji when men of JTF again launched an attack on a suspected hideout of Boko Haram members, killing one and arresting another.

    An eye witness account said security operatives launched an attack on one of the houses in the area, adding that there was an exchange of gun fire with members of the sect for several hours.

    It was gathered that after the gun duel, the security men overpowered members of the sect, killing one of them and arresting another.

    Kaduna State Commissioner of Police Olufemi Adenaike confirmed the incident. He said security men recovered some items.

    “We are on top of the situation,” Adenaike said, adding that the raid is continuous.

    Members of the JTF had on Sunday raided a suspected Boko Haram bomb factory at Gaskiya in Zaria during which two persons were killed after a gun battle.

     

  • Army arrests security agents over Boko Haram links

    Army arrests security agents over Boko Haram links

    The Nigerian Army said on Sunday it had arrested several security officials on suspicion of having connections with Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds in an insurgency this year.

    The government has regularly said it believes politicians and security agents are involved in the revolt, which poses the biggest security threat in the country.

    The military said the men were detained based on information given by an immigration officer, who was arrested last month and later confessed to being a member of Boko Haram – a movement trying to carve out an Islamic state in the north.

    “His arrest led to the further arrest of some other security personnel that have been participating in various terrorist attacks in both Borno and Yobe States,” Reuters quoted the army’s spokesman in Borno State, Sagir Musa, as saying on Sunday.

    Musa said the immigration officer had admitted to killing civil servants, security agents and politicians in Borno, Boko Haram’s home state and the focus of most of the sect’s violence.

    The arrested man also said he had been trained with 15 other Boko Haram members in neighbouring Niger, added Musa.

    Security experts believe there are loose ties between Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb which operates in Niger.

    Boko Haram has been blamed for more than 1,000 deaths since its insurgency intensified in 2010. The United States has designated three of Boko Haram’s senior members as terrorists.

    But a recent military crackdown appears to have weakened the sect and there has not been a repeat of the large-scale, coordinated attacks seen earlier this year.

     

  • Boko Haram: Okada riders to assist FG with vital clues

    Following growing cases of insurgencies across the country, occasioned by Boko Haram sect and other criminal elements in the country, the commercial motorcycle operators (Okada riders), under the aegis of Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), have resolved to furnish the federal government with “vital information” that could help bring the situation under control.

    This is coming just as the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Prince Surajudeen Adekumbi, charged members of the association in the state to be vigilant and adopt internal monitoring mechanism to ensure that none yields himself as instrument of criminality.

    Adekumbi, who spoke shortly after laying the foundation stone for the N25m Secretariat of the state’s ACOMORAN in Abeokuta at the weekend, also charged the body to contribute financially to the Security Trust Fund (STF) of the Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration.

    On insurgency, the group said the resolve to henceforth assist the governments at all levels with data bordering on “security challenges,” would among other things, be their “contribution” towards ensuring “national progress, love, tranquillity and national interest.”

    This was contained in a Communique issued at the end of its tri -ennial National Council Meeting in Garki, Abuja, and made available to The Nation, where they equally declared as null and void, the dissolution of the “legitimate leadership of ACOMORAN in South West” by Alh. Sani Hassan and others.

    The Communique was signed by ACOMORAN’s leadership – Chief Alfred Opara(Board of Trustees Chairman), Alh. Babangida Shehu Maihula(National President), Alh.Shamsudeen Apelogun(Chairman, South West Zone), Moses Wakama(Chairman South East), Zaid Abubakar(Chairman, Northern States) and Adeosun Egunjobi (BoT member).

    And also during the meeting attended by participating leaders from 22 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the Association urged President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene on the side of the Okada riders by helping to lift the restriction of Okada operation in “South – South and South – East regions of Nigerian.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • FG’s approach on Boko Haram paying off – Jonathan

    FG’s approach on Boko Haram paying off – Jonathan

    Nigeria’s “robust” approach to neutralizing a threat posed by Islamist sect Boko Haram using military force, holding indirect talks with the group and improving education in the north is paying off, the President Goodluck Jonathan has said.

    Boko Haram, which wants to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has been blamed for more than 1,000 deaths since its insurgency intensified in 2010. The United States has designated three of Boko Haram’s senior members as terrorists.

    In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders, President Jonathan also played down the significance of the government forces’ killing of the sect’s spokesman, Abu Qaqa, in a gun battle in Kano on September 16.

    “If I look at it, the trend is coming down,” he said about the threat posed by Boko Haram. “It’s not because Abu Qaqa is dead. Abu Qaqa is just one person. If one Abu Qaqa dies, it can generate 10 Abu Qaqas.

    “The issue is not the death of one person,” Jonathan said. “The issue is that the robust approach that government is taking, exploiting all possible means … is paying off, and we believe it will continue to pay off.”

    Nigeria’s military has been accused of using heavy-handed tactics in the past and previous operations targeting Boko Haram have resulted in civilian deaths. But Jonathan made clear that the military approach could only be one part of the solution.

    Much more important, he said, was a push to improve agriculture, job prospects and access to Western-style education in the predominantly Muslim north.

    “The whole approach, both the security aspects, both the indirect talks, and the job opportunities that we are creating. We are giving hope to the people. The education institutions we are establishing are giving hope to the people,” Jonathan said.

    “One links up with the other to get to the respite we are seeing now,” he said. “I cannot credit it to only one approach.”

    This week, Nigeria’s military said it killed 35 members of Boko Haram and arrested several during an overnight gun battle in Damaturu, capital of Yobe State.

    Jonathan’s spokesman said last month that Nigeria’s government was reaching out to Boko Haram and talking with some of its members via “backroom channels” as it seeks a peaceful way out of the north’s conflict.

     

     

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  • Boko Haram insurgence causing internal migration – NPC

    Boko Haram insurgence causing internal migration – NPC

    The Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Festus Odimegwu on Wednesday raised an alarm that the Boko Haram insurgence is causing internal migration.

    Speaking in Abuja when the Regional Policy Lesion Officer of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Ms. Alexia Scarlett visited the NPC headquarters, Odimegwu said urgent steps must be taken to avoid further crisis.

    Migration, he said is a critical issue which must be tackled by government with all supports from donor agencies.

    His words: “We are happy that you are a development partner involved in the promotion of migration as it affects development in Nigerian. We will ask that you continue to give us attention because migration has become a critical issue even in security of nations.

    “With some of the happenings in Nigeria, in our northeastern region which has to do with the Boko Haram insurgency and the problem of kidnapping in the South east there are obvious implications for internal migration from some of these regions to the other parts of the country.”

     

  • Boko Haram must be fought, says Soyinka

    Boko Haram must be fought, says Soyinka

    Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka is against dialogue between the Federal Government and the fundamentalist sect Boko Haram.

    “This is a violent organization. What do you do with them? I’m sorry but you must fight them,” Soyinka said.

    The 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature spoke to IPS during a visit to the United Nations on the International Day of Peace.

    The International Day of Peace was celebrated on September 21with a debate about how to build a global culture of tolerance. Among the participants were superstar actor Forest Whitaker, economist Jeffrey Sachs and Soyinka.

    After his speech, Soyinka spoke to IPS about the situation Nigeria, where Boko Haram has been responsible for thousands of deaths and the bombings of many churches, the Police Headquarters and the UN office in Abuja.

    Boko Haram (western education is a sin) is seeking to establish sharia law in the country.

    “We have an organisation which closes down schools, shoots faculty teachers, knocks out children and turns most of the north into an educational wasteland. How can we reach the children there? We must first get rid of Boko Haram,” Soyinka said.

    “We have a contradiction,” he acknowledged. “How do we get rid of Boko Haram? Violence must become involved. That is a dilemma.”

    Calling for armed intervention on Peace Day may certainly seem like a paradox. But Soyinka’s call for attacking Boko Haram to stop the group’s attacks on schools made more sense after the debate, where speaker after speaker highlighted the importance of education to enable a global culture of peace to grow.

     

    As stipulated in the 1999 Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, the United Nations’ primary goal is to “create and maintain world peace” through economic, social and political agreements, and in the worst cases through military intervention.

    For such a framework to succeed, a foundation of peace and a culture of tolerance must to be built. A cornerstone in building this culture is inculcating respect for others in children.

    “The real weapon of mass destruction is ignorance,” said British-Iranian philanthropist Nasser David Khalili, one of the speakers during the event to emphasise the importance of schooling, building a culture of peace. “The solution must be education.”

    Sachs, a professor of sustainable development at Columbia University, said: “As an economist it strikes me… how hunger and poverty are incendiary parts of war.”

    He added: In the Sahel region of Mali this summer, for example, a famine sparked conflict between nomads and farmers over access to water.”

    Sachs drew attention to the fact that critical issues, such as these, receive too little attention, describing the great frustration he felt as he failed to raise money from the World Bank on behalf of Mali. “Shout Al-Qaeda, and you get millions for missiles. But try to do something preventive, and you do not get anything.”

    He urged global leaders to invest in “development rather than military”. Globally, “we are spending more than 10 times more on the military than we do on development,” Sachs said. “In the U.S., the rate is 30 to one.”

     

  • Crackdown on Boko Haram

    Crackdown on Boko Haram

    -JTF kills 35 members in Yobe,- Kingpin shot dead in Adamawa,

    -156 sect members arrested ,- Arms, ammunition recovered

    There was a massive security crackdown on the Boko Haram sect in the Northeast yesterday.

    A kingpin of the sect was gunned down in Adamawa State during a gun fight; 35 others were killed in Yobe.

    No fewer than 156 members of the sect that has been responsible for unprecedented attacks and the death of close to 1,000 people were arrested in the raids.

    Guns and explosives in various forms and shades, ammunition, army and police uniforms, mobile telephone SIM cards, vehicle number plate, and drugs were among the 67 items seized from the sect’s hideout in Yobe, according to the Joint Task Force (JTF).

    The Yobe JTF said a house-to-house search, which started at the weekend and lasted till the early hours of yesterday, to flush out the insurgents led to an “unprecedented success in the clampdown on suspected terrorists”.

    JTF Spokesman in Yobe Lt. Lazarus Eli, who said the operation was continuous, confirmed that 35 members of the sect had been killed.

    In Adamawa, the internal joint army-police security, “Operation Restore Sanity”, said it killed a key commander of the sect, Abubakar Yola, alias Abu Jihad, in a shoot-out early yesterday, in Mubi.

    Also arrested were 156 persons, including four believed to be unit commanders involved in the recent bombings of MTN, Globacom and Airtel base station masts.

    Five women and six children were rescued in a house believed to be an arms and ammunition dump.

    The Brigade Commander of 23rd Armoured Brigade, Brig.-Gen. John Nwoaga, in company with police commissioner and the director of State Security Services (SSS), said the kingpin was shot during a gun battle with his men.

    He said over 300 improvised explosive devices, 25 assorted brands of rifles, mostly AK 47 submachine guns, were recovered.

    There were over 2000 daggers, swords, bows and arrows seized.

    The compound at Shagari Low Cost Housing, Mubi was where the items were seized.

    But the sect members seem undaunted, in spite of the clampdown.

    The home of the Speaker of the Yobe State House of Assembly, Mr. Adamu Dala Dogo, was on Sunday night set ablaze.

    Also burnt down by assailants suspected to be Boko Haram members was the house of the younger brother to the governor, Alhaji Sheriff Gaidam, and Hon. Goni Bukar, a member of the House of Representatives from Yobe state.

    An eyewitness said two beheaded bodies were seen being carried away by security operatives yesterday morning.

    The home of the speaker and the two others are located at Shagari Low Cost Housing Estate on Gashua Road, one of the troubled areas of the city.

    The onslaught on the houses was said to have been lunched between 2am and 4am on Sunday night. The local security attached to the houses fled when the assailants came in a large number.

    “Nobody was killed because the Speaker, the lawmaker and the governor’s brother evacuated their immediate families soon after peace eluded Damaturu.”

    “The local guards attached to the houses also fled,” Kabiru Musa, a resident said, adding:

    “However, when I peeped through the window this morning, I saw a military pick up van zooming up with two beheaded bodies…it was a gory sight. I also saw smoke billowing in the direction of the house of the speaker.”

    A source at the Yobe State Police Command confirmed the burning of the three houses and the killing of the two civilians.

     

  • Boko Haram is political, says Oritsejafor

    Boko Haram is political, says Oritsejafor

    President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has described the mayhem unleashed in parts of the country by the fundamentalist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, as political.

    Speaking at the opening of a six-day meeting of the Niger Delta Christian Leaders Forum at the Christian Central Chapel International (CCCI) in Calabar yesterday, Pastor Oritsejafor said the group was created and sponsored by those who want to create political space for themselves and if they fail to achieve that, seek to divide the country along religious lines.

    He rejected the notion that poverty is one of the factors fuelling the crisis, saying it is a lie by the organisation’s sponsors to mislead Nigerians and the world.

    He said: “Boko Haram is fuelled by extreme religious ideology and not poverty because they have not come out to tell us that they are killing people because they are poor.

    “The Leader of Boko Haram is from a very wealthy family background and even that young man who wanted to blow up an American airline, his father is one of the richest men in Nigeria. The claim that the fundamentalist group is created by poverty is a false one by its sponsors and apologists.”

    According to Pastor Oritsejafor, the sponsors of Boko Haram have control of a section of the media, so they feed the public with “half-truths”.

    Responding to claims that he is a fundamentalist and a partisan leader, he said: “I have never shot a gun before; I have never killed anybody before. I have never encouraged anybody to kill anybody before; but what I do is to identify the truth and respond to it because I am not afraid of trouble.”

    Pastor Oritsejafor described the Niger Delta Region as a great region on whose pedestal Nigeria is standing to lay claim to greatness.

    His words: “Niger Delta is a region of great people and it is the region that has given Nigeria its greatness, yet we are poor. The Niger Delta is big yet we are small, the Niger Delta is powerful, yet we are weak, this is time for change. All those things that have eluded us, we shall reclaim them.”

     

  • U.S.: why we won’t tag Boko Haram terrorist body

    U.S.: why we won’t tag Boko Haram terrorist body

    The United States has not designated Boko Haram a terrorist organisation because its insurgency is principally aimed at portraying the Nigeria government as ineffective, Ambassador Jonnie Carson said yesterday.

    The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs spoke in a continent-wide telephone conference monitored at the US Embassy in Lagos.

    Mr. Carson said Boko Haram is not a homogenous organisation and, therefore, not qualified to be labelled a terrorist group.

    “Boko Haram is an organisation trying to discredit the Nigerian government and trying to show the government as ineffective in protecting its citizens,” he said.

    He, however, conceded that the US “constantly keeps it (Boko Haram) under review” and that is why it has declared three Boko Haram leaders as terrorists.

    Last June, the US Government placed Abubakar Shekau, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi on its global terror watch list.

    “These three leaders were declared as terrorists because we believe they have established contacts and broader network with foreign terrorist organisations. They have sought funding and materials,” Carson said.

    In the build-up to the November 6 US presidential election, Carson spoke extensively on US affairs in Africa.

    According to him, the US’s predominant activities are targetted at helping “Africa deal with its ongoing security challenges” because crises take away resources meant for development. But, he said the country’s larger aim is to help Africa grow its economy, especially agriculture.

    On the recent attacks by Islamists on US Embassies and diplomats in some African and Arab countries. Carson’s said the “provocative video” was only a means for the attackers to show their interest, which is not necessarily religious, but to force US government out of those countries.

    He, however, said “that incident will not draw us back from engaging the global community but will make us intensify our efforts”.

    The US Consular General in Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins, also condemned the violence that erupted as a result of the anti-Islam video.

    “That video does not reflect the view of the US government and I am personally against it,” he said, adding: “However, we believe in freedom of speech in the US; even speeches that are sometimes provocative and that should not warrant violence.”

    Mr. Hawkins said Nigerians have shown maturity in the wake of erupting violence against US diplomats.

    Mr. Hawkins said the Lagos Consular office now exists strictly to build bridges between the US government and Nigerians, without any government interference.

    “We recognise this is a young and growing country and we realise the youth are the future. So we are focusing a lot on the youth of this country,” he said.

    There was a procession in Zaria, Kaduna State, yesterday against the production of the anti-Islam video in the US.

    Leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky said the production and release of the anti-Islam film is part of the plan to institutionalise September 11 as an annual ritual aimed at branding Islam as a religion of terrorists.

    Addressing the protest rally at the Zaria Polo Club, El-Zakzaky condemned the film makers and the United States for releasing such a film to mock and ridicule Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.

    According to him, apart from outward mockery of the tenets and beliefs of Islam, the film presented Prophet Mohammed in an unspeakable, immoral manner, pointing out that the “filthy” hand of the enemies of Islam is once again restless and becoming impatient and frustrated with the daily increased radiance of Islam and the Holy Qur’an in the present world.

    The Islamic scholar noted that the United States had in the past backed the previous links in the “evil chain”, namely Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoonist and the U.S. Pastor who attempted to burn the Holy Qur’an.

    He also alleged that the American government had ordered for production and worldwide distribution of many anti-Islamic movies to companies affiliated to the Zionist capitalists, pointing out that if they had not done that, things would not have gone the way they are today.

    He noted that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the Muslims in Nigeria decided on a peaceful demonstration to condemn this dastardly act, as people who love Prophet Mohammed and his teachings.