The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Sambisa forest

  • Safety of mother, child in emergency

    Safety of mother, child in emergency

    “I remember hearing gunshots and feeling afraid. I ran to save my life and that of my six children, but I was not fast enough… I lost my baby… but I had to remain strong for the others…”, recounts Zainab (not real name) rescued from the Sambisa forest.

    “We are looking for your men. Do not run,” she remembers the gunmen saying when her village was stormed, leading to abduction of women and children. Another survivor, a pregnant Fatima (not real name) watched Boko Haram militants murder her husband and drag her three children away. Afterward, she was taken to the Sambisa Forest and ended up giving birth in the forest. She and her newborn were later rescued.

    The above tales of horror orchestrated by Boko Haram insurgents at the peak of their acts of terrorism in North-East Nigeria has been strongly condemned by the internal community including the United Nations (UN).

    The plain truth, yet a sad commentary, is that at the receiving end of the humanitarian crises arising from insurgency are women and children. The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the refugees kept growing.

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the UN system in Nigeria put the total number of IDPs at 1,235,294 while 2,120 refugees and asylum seekers were registered as of 17 January 2015.

    According to Assessment Capacities Project, Start Network (ACAPS), the majority of IDPs are in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, in the far northeast, but 47,276 IDPs are in Plateau, Nasarawa, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna states.

    However, the magnitude and severity of needs remain more pressing in the northeast, where humanitarian emergency thresholds have been exceeded and access was for a long time extremely challenging.

    Thus, it is no longer news that hundreds of women and children were abducted and held in locations hitherto held by the insurgents, including the dreaded Sambisa forest. It is also not news that hundreds of women and children have been rescued and are still being rescued by the military.

    That a number of the women and girls rescued were very traumatised and found to be pregnant is also in the public sphere. However, that every pregnancy, regardless of circumstances leading to it, must be safe and delivered is the issue for the front burner of public discourse.

    No doubt, the women and girls have gone through hell in the hands of their abductors. Their rights have been infringed upon; they have been brutalised and abused; and many have lost their lives in the process. The lucky ones that are still alive are back and still far away from returning to their normal self. They, obviously, need all kinds of support: foods, non-foods, dignity kits, health support, education, livelihood, among others.

    Furthermore, every time there is a humanitarian emergency, the actors in the humanitarian field are quick to rush and repeatedly provide food and non-food items to the displaced population.

    Of course, that reinforces the African proverb that says, ‘If you resolve the challenges of feeding in the life of a poor man, then he is no longer poor.’ But over time, the reality of other equally critical needs set in. The pregnant women, the lactating mothers, women of reproductive age and the children have to be catered for specially.

    The United Nations through its specialised Agencies, Programmes and Funds and the government, with the benefit of hindsight, always anticipates this and in all cases, factors such into its response plans.

    The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) being the lead Agency of the UN in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) is committed to delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Its mandate was determined by United Nations Members, including Nigeria.

    Indeed, Nigeria is one of the countries whose 1965 appeal to the UN ultimately inspired the creation of UNFPA a few years later.

    UNFPA in Nigeria is committed to save lives, restore dignity and rebuild broken lives of vulnerable women and girls.

    Within the context of the insurgency in the North-East and its humanitarian challenges especially as they affect women and children, UNFPA is addressing gender-based violence in humanitarian settings through a wide range of services, including counselling, post-rape treatment, legal support, assistance with livelihoods, and support through its Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programs.

    Working with and through the government of Nigeria including in the states, UNFPA interventions in 2014 alone supported more than 16,000 safe deliveries in North East Nigeria; reached about 2.6 million women and girls with SRH services including for Gender Based Violence (GBV) management in North East Nigeria; and supported provision of modern family planning services to an estimated 2 million women and Couple Year Protection of 2.2million countrywide.

    It is gladdening to note that through its interventions and support, about two thousand maternal deaths were averted country wide while another one thousand free fistula treatment surgeries were supported with 97% success rate across the country.

    Explaining the SRH support to the rescued girls and women, the Director and Country Representative of UNFPA Nigeria, Ms Rati Ndhlovu, observed that “Upon the arrival of rescued women and children in Malkohi camp in Yola, UNFPA responded immediately by providing reproductive health care and psychosocial counselling to survivors of violence.

    “Women and girls who survive unimaginable trauma of captivity and brutalizing violence need immediate and compassionate care and UNFPA has been, as always, determined to ensure that they are given everything they need to be able to heal with dignity, safety and a restored sense of self-worth. After a few weeks of counselling, there was marked improvement in the survivors.”

    Restoring the livelihood and normal lifestyle of the rescued women and children and those that are displaced by the insurgency and military operations is the issue on the front burner of the UN system in the country.

    Of particular importance is ensuring that women can deliver babies safely and that they and girls can maintain their health, dignity, rights and self-worth even in the most challenging situations.

    “Our efforts”, Ms Ndlovu added, “are focused on supporting women and girls to restore their lives as quickly as possible and begin the process of healing to be able to fulfill their potential and once again resume productive lives.”

  • Additional 234 women, children rescued from Sambisa Forest

    Additional 234 women, children rescued from Sambisa Forest

    The military yesterday announced the rescue of additional  234 women and children held captive by Boko Haram, in the Sambisa forest, Borno State.

    The  Defence Ministry which broke the news on its tweeter handle  said the hostages were rescued on Thursday from the Kawuri and Konduga end of the expansive forest.

    This brings to 687 the total number of children and women so far rescued from Boko Haram camps in the forest since the  commencement of the military onslaught on the last stronghold of the terrorists.

    Photographs of hostages earlier  freed by the soldiers showed the victims in grim conditions with many of them looking malnourished and unkempt.

    The military authorities said  on Thursday that the victims were held in ‘atrocious condition.’

    The operation reportedly involved  heavy fighting between the soldiers and the terrorists at various camps in the forest.

    Several  fundamentalists including field commanders and foot soldiers are believed to have been killed during the operation while substantial weapons were seized from them.

    However,there has been no report of  the Chibok schoolgirls abducted from their dormitory over a year ago by the terrorists among those rescued.

  • Identities of rescued girls, women yet to be ascertained – DHQ

    Identities of rescued girls, women yet to be ascertained – DHQ

    The Defence Headquarters has said that its personnel have not ascertained the true identities of some of the women and girls rescued from Sambisa forest by Nigerian troops.

    At a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said the rescued women and girls were still undergoing profiling to verify their identities.

    “Until such comprehensive profiling is done, nobody can confirm whether they are among the Chibok girls or not,” Olukolade stated.

    According to him, rescue operations were still ongoing and more hostages were being freed by troops.

    He continued: “Whoever they may be, the important thing is that Nigerians held captive under very severe and inhuman condition have been freed by our gallant troops.

    “The joy and sense of hope being expressed by many Nigerians on hearing about the rescue operation is therefore understandable. We would like to reassure them that the momentum of this operation will be sustained until that Sambisa forest is comprehensively cleaned out and all Nigerians held captive within the bowels of the forest are rescued.  There is great hope for the recovery of more hostages being held by the terrorists.

    “Already, the dislodged and disorganized terrorists are in flight on different directions and running helter-skelter in the expansive forest. There is no longer any respite or sanctuary for them, they will be pursued and tracked down not minding the daunting challenges in the mission including hundreds of land mines and difficult terrain of the Sambisa forest.

    “It should be noted however that the essence of this operation is not to kill everybody in sight.  We encourage any of the combatants who is desirous to surrender to come out, as the forest will no more be tenable as a haven for their activities.

    “In the same vein, innocent civilians among those in flight are also encouraged to report themselves to the troops.  We will continue to treat civilians in the most professional and humane way.

    “We thank all Nigerians for their continued prayers and support and assure them that never again shall forces of darkness reign supreme in our country.”

     

  • Sambisa: Nigerian troops free 200 girls, 93 women

    Sambisa: Nigerian troops free 200 girls, 93 women

    Nigerian Troops have reportedly rescued about 200 girls from Sambisa forest, the Boko Haram’s den.

    During the operation on Tuesday, about another 93 women were reportedly rescued from the den of the terrorists, also carried out attacks in some other parts of the Northeastern states.

    Confirming the success of the operation, Major General Chris Olukolade, Director Defence Information, said he could not confirm the identity of the freed victims and their origins.

    He also maintained that he could not state if any of them was among the missing Chibok girls until after thorough screening and proper investigations have been conducted.

    “I can only confirm the rescued this afternoon of 200 girls and 93 women in different camps in the forest. We are yet to determine their origin as all the freed persons are now being screened and profiled. Please don’t misquote me on their origin. We will provide more details later,” he said.

    It would be recalled that another set of soldiers were said to have arrived Sambisa Forest in Borno State as part of the ongoing military bombardment on the Boko Haram militants.

    The soldiers were sighted at the Kaduna international airport tarmac.

    However, as at the time of departure, some of the soldiers who spoke to our correspondent, said they were not given adequate weapons for the operation, while others claimed they were made to sign forms that they collected N90,000 against the N30,000 they were actually paid.

    They said, “We are going to Sambisa forest in Borno State for peace operation, I just hope they (military authorities) will give us the adequate weapons we need to fight the insurgents so that we can be reunited with our loved ones.”

    However, when our correspondent was leaving the airport, three trucks suspected to be carrying arms for the soldiers were driven into the tarmac.

    The trucks sandwiched by pick-up vans, occupied by gun wielding and stern looking mobile policemen ‎were painted in Nigerian Air Force colour.

    When contacted on the soldiers’ allegations, the Defence Spokesman, Major- Gen. Chris Olukolade, denied that the soldiers were not given their due entitlements.

    Olukolade, who responded to text message sent to him by our correspondent, said, “No one who does his duty properly in this mission has been or will be denied his entitlement.”

  • Troops still in Sambisa forest, says DHQ

    Troops still in Sambisa forest, says DHQ

    The Defence Headquarters yesterday denied media reports that troops have retreated from the Sambisa forest, which has served as the main operational base for Boko Haram insurgents.

    A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Major-General Chris Olukolade, said operation was progressing and gaining increasing momentum towards clearing all terrorist hideouts in the forest.

    “It is noteworthy that it is becoming common for stories of attacks on some remote settlements to be fabricated and attributed to anonymous or unidentifiable source in remote places. This is apparently the work of terrorists’ sympathisers or propagandists.

    “Military operations to eliminate all terrorist hideouts are going on well and the terrorists are being seriously decimated. They will continue to be pursued and prevented from constituting danger to civilian population in their desperation for survival, suicide or publicity,” Gen Olukolade added.

    He debunked reports claiming that terrorists are now in control of Mafa in Borno State, saying that attempts by a group of fleeing terrorists who strayed towards the town and engaged typical suicide attacks were duly repelled by troops.

    He continued: “Similarly, the claim by some media organisations that terrorists chased out troops and took over Marte cannot be verified as troops were busy elsewhere during the said attack.

    “However, efforts to track the terrorists who were reported to have attacked the town have not indicated their presence as claimed.

    “Surveillance activities are however ongoing although there has been no indication of the large number of terrorists as being claimed in some reports attributed to anonymous sources.

    “The terrorist are certainly no longer capable of that level of coordinated action by thousands of terrorists as reported.”

    Gen. Olukolade advised the media to ignore what he described as “fabrication being churned out by some terrorists sympathisers trying to encourage the terrorists who he said were in disarray”.

    “The truth is that the operation to decimate them from Nigerian territories is progressing well. The military will not be dissuaded by the resurgence of false reports on the operations.  The progress will be prosecuted as necessary”, he said.

  • Sleep-walking toward Mogadishu

    Sleep-walking toward Mogadishu

    They must be rejoicing in their fortified encampments in the Sambisa Forest and in the open savannah stretching from Bauchi through Borno to Adamawa, mocking and taunting a demoralised and ill-equipped national army, shaming some of its leading commanders by capturing, occupying and re-naming their hometowns.

    And it is not just on the battlefield that Boko Haram is prevailing. It is also proving superior in strategic thinking. It inveigled a desperate Federal Government and a weary national army into announcing and observing a ceasefire and assuring a traumatised nation that the Chibok girls were about to be set free, more than six months after they were abducted from their school hostels.

    Meanwhile, Boko Haram consolidated its hold on the areas it has occupied and, virtually unopposed, opened a new front with lightning speed, stamping it with its accustomed bestiality and fanaticism.

    It has been suggested that the group the Federal Government was negotiating with had no mandate to speak for Boko Haram or conclude any agreement in its name.

    If this is true, it would amount to a failure of intelligence with few parallels anywhere.

    Two years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan declared that Boko Haram would be crushed within six months. Like his deadlines for generating and distributing electricity to a nation that has been forced to make peace with darkness, it came and passed.

    When the UK, the United States, France, Australia and Israel promised logistic and intelligence assistance in locating and freeing the Chibok girls and containing the insurgency, an excited Dr. Jonathan stopped just short of declaring victory.

    They came, they saw, and have maintained a presence of sorts, but without achieving any significant results. The national army and the intelligence services are no better off, and the Jonathan administration is no wiser.

    Lately, Dr. Jonathan cajoled the National Assembly into authorising him to raise a loan of one billion dollars to equip the armed and intelligence services to fight the insurgency. He and his military advisers seem to have come to the painful reality that Boko Haram is not going anywhere soon.

    Boko Haram is in fact waxing stronger everyday, as Ambassador Ade Adefuye told a delegation of the influential United States Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, in Washington DC.

    In the midst of the unfolding disaster, no senior political official has resigned voluntarily or has been asked to do so.  The Commander-in-Chief has not deigned to go near the warfront to rally the troops and to give succour to the beleaguered population of displaced persons.

    But this has not stopped his rented cheerleaders from placing him on the same pedestal with Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Nelson Mandela, men who led from the front, by personal example, risking or sacrificing everything for the causes they believed in and championed.  Must they insult and assault the memories of these great personages and the intelligence of the Nigerian public in their desperation to sell a gravely flawed candidate for re-election?

    In their interactions with the rank and file, some of Dr. Jonathan’s field commanders seem to have inspired mutiny rather than loyalty. One of them is the butt of jokes and jibes on the Internet. They say he is often so inebriated that, for the most part, he can’t figure out whether he is coming or going.  But he and his colleagues remain in command, carrying on business as usual under admittedly difficult circumstances.

    Their circumstances are not to be envied.

    The nation’s armed forces are yet to recover from the planned emasculation of the Babangida-Abacha years. To ensure his personal survival and the survival of his regime, Babangida took every measure conceivable to make it almost impossible for them to organise or execute a coup.  Military aircraft were grounded, tanks were put out of commissioned, and weapons systems were not upgraded. Advanced training became a favour, to be dispensed to handpicked aides.  Toadyism supplanted professionalism.

    Military formations with awe-inspiring names littered the landscape, but they existed only on paper for the most part.  To cite one notorious example, there were “amphibious brigades” here and there.  But when a Kaduna-bound military transport plane carrying more than 150 officers crashed into the Ejigbo swamps in 1992 some five minutes after take-off from Lagos airport, no military craft of any description got to the scene within 48 hours.

    The military had to rely on the equipment furnished by the civilian contractor Julius Berger to reach the scene, for salvage rather than rescue operations. All the passengers had died of suffocation.

    The civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone gave Babangida an opportunity to ship out officers and men of units or formations whose docility he could not count on.

    Where Babangida was concerned with self-preservation, Sani Abacha was concerned with self-enrichment. And if looking the other way as Abacha indulged his overweening greed helped Babangida remain in power, so much the better.

    Thus, whether as Chief of Defence Staff or Minister of Defence in the Babangida regime and its doomed extension, Ernest Shonekan’s Interim National Government, gorged himself remorselessly on the defence appropriations. Military salaries and benefits went unpaid for months.

    According to the online archives of the military historian Dr. Nowa Omoigui, at such moments, the men of the military would shrug their shoulders in resignation and say “Sani ya chi,” literally, Sani has eaten (the money.)

    Somehow, perhaps thanks to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the admiral without a fleet —who was Babangida’s vice president, the Navy managed to keep its appropriations out of Abacha’s capacious maw. And so it was not unusual for the army to borrow from the Navy to pay salaries

    Back when he was chair of the Presidential Advisory Council, General TY Danjuma had warned Aso Rock that if it did not move vigorously against Boko Haram, Nigeria might go the way of Somalia.  That end-point is distant, but the process is underway. Boko Haram has set Nigeria on the long, treacherous road to Mogadishu.

    It is still possible to arrest the drift. Dr Jonathan must show focused and sustained political resolve, and so must the civilian leadership of the armed and intelligence services. The professional leadership of the armed and intelligence must show greater imagination and capacity.

    Everything must be done to boost the morale of the fighting forces. They must be given the tools they need to carry out their assigned tasks.

    In the final analysis, the insurgency is an armed response to political grievances. A lasting solution will therefore have to be sought in political accommodation rather than in military victory.

    To that end, the major political parties must begin to countenance the formation of a government of national unity after the forthcoming general elections.

     

     

  • Anxiety as Boko Haram relocates from Sambisa Forest

    Anxiety as Boko Haram relocates from Sambisa Forest

    •Moves to capture Southern Borno

    BOKO Haram is on the move from its Sambisa fortress in Borno State.

    It is heading towards Southern Borno with several towns and villages already seized by its insurgents. Its members, and possibly captives,are  dispersed  in such places .

    Gwoza is the most prominent of the towns thus seized.

    A top security source described the situation last night as scary.

    The source said the ‘security situation’ in Gwoza and some other parts of the state was worsening.

    Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the insurgents, who were encouraged by their recent capture of Gwoza and surrounding villages, have been advancing fast  to the  southern part of the state.

    Towns like   Askira/ Uba, Bayo, Biu, Chibok, Damboa,  Shani, Kusar, Kwayu and Hawul  are their immediate targets.

    “The insurgents have been rapidly taking over towns and villages in Southern Borno which were hitherto safe from terror attacks.”Unless urgent action is taken by the federal government, they might be in total control of the southern part,” the source said.

    “The situation is getting worse because the military, the police and other security agencies have no access to towns and villages overrun by the insurgents.

    “Only a comprehensive military campaign can save the entire Borno State from falling into the hands of the insurgents.”

    But a military source said: “There is no way the insurgents can take over Borno.We will reclaim anywhere they may be temporarily rampaging.

    “We will not unfold our plans but we will surely liberate these areas.”

    Sambisa Forest has been the focus of intense covert surveillance by the military, and the foreign experts sent by the United States of America (USA)   and other western nations to assist in locating the over 200 school girls abducted in the April 14 attack by Boko Haram elements on the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

    It is believed that the girls were taken to the forest which has also served as the training camp of the sect.

    Over four months after their abduction, the girls are yet to be located.

    The relocation of the insurgents from forest has raised anxiety about the fate of the girls.

    The federal government has repeatedly said that patience is crucial in rescuing the girls as using force will endanger their lives.

    The Mail of London reported on Wednesday that the Royal Air Force   was sending three fighter jets to help in locating the  girls.

    The RAF Tornado GR4s equipped with surveillance facilities, according to the newspaper, will undertake “reconnaissance missions” over the Sambisa Forest where the girls are believed to be held.

    Besides, the jets are expected to help the Nigerian authorities in tracking the movements of the insurgents.

    The mission is, however, dependent on one of Nigeria’s neighbours allowing Britain the use of its runway.

     

  • Chibok girls inside and outside Sambisa forest (2)

    •Continued from last week

    Inside the forest

    It is from the few Chibok girls who have escaped and from other escapee women abducted before or after them that we obtain faint picture of goings-on in the forest. It is some of these stories which keep my head awake at night when certain events, such as rainfall, a stormy wind or cold bring their plight back to my memory.

    •One of the girls said she was raped by seven men in one day and then tied to a tree, hands and legs, for three days. An escaping abducted boy freed her and another girl tied to a tree beside her.

    •Another girl said 15 men raped her in one day.

    •Another girl said they had no beds and slept on leaves-covered earth. Whenever the American drome airplane was sighted, trying to map their location, the girls were instructed to lie on the forest floor and cover themselves with green foliage to avoid detection. Disobedience could bring death.

    •One Christian girl who bluntly refused to recite the Koran was buried alive in a pit saves for her head. As a warning to other girls, the victims head was bombarded with a hail of stones until she died.

    •Another captive said she and seven other women abducted before the Chibok girls bore children for the leader of the Boko Haram in the forest, Shekau, when she escaped and got home with her own child, her family was unkind and unwelcoming, contrary to her expectation. Her family saw the child as a satanic child and did not want him around them. As a mother, she couldn’t throw her baby away.

    There is no doubt that many, if not all of the women have been sexually brutalised. That is the hallmark of soldiers under tension. When they take a town during war, some of them go looting while others go after the women. Some women get pregnant in the process. It surprises many men, not women that such pregnant women keep their babies. That is the maternal instinct at work. The baby grew in the woman, giving her a new experience of life as mother, not in a man. I remember a diplomatic row between Britain and a North African Arab country, I suspect was Morocco in the 1970s or 1980s. An Arab couple raised their two daughters born in Britain to adolescence but did not want them to marry British boys. They arranged a home going holiday after pre-arranging husbands for these girls back home. The couple sneaked back to Britain leaving their daughters behind. Next day, the village chief summoned the girls and introduced their husbands to them. It was a harrowing experience for these girls. After about four years, British journalist on their trail, following newspaper reports instigated by the friends of these girls, found them in a mountain range. Britain demanded their release since they were British citizens. But the Arab government would let go only if the girls left their children behind.

    Meanwhile, each of these girls had had two children in their forced marriages. The girls agreed to stay with their husband and children. Thus, their lives would change forever!

    The girls and women in Sambisa Forest are not different. I always imagine how terrified they would have looked on finding themselves in a forest, and when the men made for them. Some would have fought back and be killed. Others would have cried and cried after the first man came, and cried still when more men came in a seemingly endless row.

    Why me?

    In the hearts of these girls, many serious questions of life or existence will rage. So will they in their parents’. These questions will include: why is this happening to me? Does God exist? Why does he allow all these atrocities, if He does and he is love? Today is not the time to address these questions and more. Today, we must chase away the fox. On the morrow, we rebuke the chicken. Suffice it, however, to say today that God is perfection and Justice. Nothing happens by accident. We wonder why certain events occur only because we view a short span of our existence. Today, we reap the harvest of seeds sown yesterday.  Nature is a theatre of warfare where “carelessness avenges itself bitterly”. If security warnings were heeded, and these girls missed their examination for one year, it is possible they would not be captives in a forest of horror today, abused by savage men and dehumanised. Who knows, what will be, will be! And this will lead us back to the role of our “yesterday” in our lives “today. Yesterday, in this context, will include previous earth lives. Of previous lives, the Bible is rich in instructive beacons despite the attempts of Emperor Justinian at the Bishops Conference of Constantinople in AD 553 to expunge belief and teachings about re-incarnation from this Christian reference book. We still hear of ‘I knew thee before I formed thee in thy mother’s womb”, of Prophet Elijah returning to this earth before the birth of Jesus Christ. Today, the heart is sore. Nevertheless, we must give God the honour of perfection to be able to find answers to question of…’why me’ which will be well addressed some day. For perfection in this regard means our experiences have to be what they are because of certain reasons which we can then seek to discover.

    An unfeeling nation

    Nigeria roars only when experience or memory is fresh. Today, the thieves, thugs and killers of yesterday are returning to power everywhere. A few months ago, Nigeria was filled with shouts of Bring Back Our Girls. Today, many people would appear to have forgotten about them. “you are on your own”, we often hear. Even the government would appear not to be interested in their future. What I had thought would have happened, even as these girls escape from the forest in ones and twos is that the governors of their states, their Christian leaders and the President will receive them and their folks in audience to publicly sympathise with them and to salute their courage. Wouldn’t the President have received the Super  Eagles at the Presidential Villa if they won the World Cup? Following tradition, wouldn’t he have drowned them with cash? Couldn’t the government have thought of a rehabilitation programme for these girls. This rehabilitation could have involved sending them to special trauma centres abroad which can help them out of dehumanising memories of life in Sambisa forest oh no, Nigeria has no time for such matters. Rather, we play football with Iran in the World Cup. It has been forgotten Iran trained the Nigerian whiz kids of Boko Haram. It has been forgotten, too, that an Iranian escorted a ship load of arms for Boko Haram to Lagos Ports. In the days of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa in the First Republic, Nigeria would have long broken diplomatic relations with Iran for these unfriendly acts. We are a cold, unfeeling nation where easyone is on his own.

    Soon, we may witness this as the 2015 general elections draw near. I suspect Boko Haram sponsors, handlers and foot soldiers will be granted state pardon, and the treasury key will be given to them by way of “compensation” they are demanding for unleasing homendous mass murder on the nation. In the talks that would follow, they would demand key cabinet positions in the next government. All these may be conceded to them in exchange for a second term PDP ticket for President Ebele Jonathan. Before then, James Ibori would be brought home to complete his prison term in Nigeria. As he is doing so, he would be granted State pardon so he can contribute his quota to the President’s re-election. The girls would have been traded in and so would have been all the people Boko Haram has murdered in cold blood. The lesson would be simple for all to read.

    In Nigeria, you are on your own. Are Chibok girls and their parents listening? Brave girls! More than 60 of them escaped from the forest of horror last weekend. Suspecting that Boko Haram may be losing steam, Emurs immediately asked the Sultan of Sokoto to meet them to discuss ceasefire. The terms, of course, would include amnesty and compensation. President Jonathan may budge if the settlement involves second term ticket. In that case, there may be no need to bare the fangs of the Army which, currently is enlarging. Chibok girls, in or out of the forest, you are on your own!

  • Troops battle Boko Haram landmines in Sambisa Forest

    Troops battle Boko Haram landmines in Sambisa Forest

    •Panel holds secret session with Borno governor

    Troops on the hunt for the more than 200 school girls abducted last month in Chibok, Borno State are up against a fresh challenge.

    Their navigation of the massive Sambisa forest where the girls are believed to be kept by their abductors is being restricted by land mines laid across the area by Boko Haram, it was learnt yesterday.

    Vigilant soldiers detected the mines and the spots have accordingly been marked.

    A military source said the troops were being hampered in moving around the Sambisa forest because of many landmines planted by Boko Haram.

    The source said commanders and troops, which have been operating on the fringes of  the forest, have marked the spots where the landmines are laid.

    The source said: “Boko Haram is desperate to protect Sambisa Forest and prevent troops from gaining access to any part of it. So far, troops have discovered many landmines along the routes to Sambisa Forest; they are battling to clear these mines. Some of the landmines can destroy military tanks. We have marked the affected landmines spots and troops have been given appropriate directive.

    “This development has confirmed intelligence gathering that the forest is either a major base of the sect or where the girls are kept.”

    Responding to a question, the source said: “We have detonated some of the landmines but what they do mostly is to get counter-intelligence about movement of troops and in a make-shift strategy, they will go and lay landmines.

    “People have been asking why it is difficult to overrun Sambisa Forest. We have a challenge of landmines but we are trying to clear these mines. In tackling mines, you peg them and detonate.

    “Planting landmines is a ploy by Boko Haram to ambush troops and block access to Sambisa Forest.”

    The Presidential Fact- Finding Committee on the  girls abduction met behind closed doors  yesterday with Governor  Kashim Shettima of Borno State.

    Leading the committee was its chairman, Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd).

    The session focused mostly on options available to set the girls free.

    The private session, which lasted three hours, was held at the Government House in Maiduguri.

    A source described the meeting as a no-holds-barred session.

    “The session was to forge a consensus on the rescue strategy. We had paid a courtesy call on the governor on Tuesday but this secret session on Saturday was frank,” the source said.

    “We have been establishing a good number of facts on how to rescue the girls.”

    A member/spokesperson of the Committee, Kingsley Osadolor, said: “The committee rubbed minds with the governor behind closed doors on Saturday but I cannot give you the details yet.”

  • MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE: Make Sambisa forest farm settlement

    MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE: Make Sambisa forest farm settlement

    This is certainly a trying period for all patriotic Nigerians, considering the atrocities being perpetrated daily by Boko Haram members.

    They kidnap, maim and kill with impunity. Many families are in sorrow as a result of their evil deeds, many have been turned into orphans, widows and widowers. They weep daily for the loss of their loved ones.

    Girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State are being kept in the Sambisa forest, probably as sex slaves. They were kidnapped while in school. They committed no offence. This is man’s inhumanity to man.

    The forest is Boko Haram member’s hideout. They take refuge there after committing sins against God and humanity. The forest is evil. Let us make it an agricultural zone or farm settlement in order to put a stop to their satanic deeds. This is a message for President Goodluck Jonathan and our Minister of Agriculture.

    HRH Areja of Olowosokedile,

    Surulere LG, Oyo State.