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Tag: Shekau

  • Chibok protesters to Shekau: you’re a coward

    Chibok protesters to Shekau: you’re a coward

    •’They can’t malign my character’

    Protesters of the BringBackOurGirls Movement have accused Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau of cowardice.

    The group said he is not preaching Islam but wickedness and cowardice. The protesters spoke yesterday during their 82nd day sitout in Abuja.

    A leader of the movement, Aisha Yusufu, said she would not wait until her daughter is abducted before she does something about insurgency.

    Mrs. Yusufu said:  “I say to Shekau, you are not human; you are a coward. This is not Islam; Islam is a religion of peace and not of wickedness and cowardice.

    “I don’t have to wait until my daughter is kidnapped to do something, most of us might think that we are protected and anointed and cannot be touched.

    “ But we do not realise that Boko Haram is a problem for all Nigerians and not of a people or religion, it will get to a point that there will be nothing left for us to live for.”

    Former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili said the detractors trying to malign her character did not give her a character so they cannot malign it.

    Ezekwesili said the Chibok girls trusted the society but instead were inflicted with an injury.

    “They did not give me my character and so they cannot malign it. I will continue to stand with the Chibok girls, no matter what they do

    “These girls trusted the society but instead they were inflicted with a wound, seeing the wound, we have refused to walk away.

    “This is not a time to move on, we cannot move on with a pain that is so deep. We use the Chibok girls to say, never again will we move on when our people are in pains.

    “If I want to be a politician, I can but I came here because of the wound and will not move on until there is a closure for the Chibok girls and their families.”

  • I ordered bombing of Lagos fuel depot, says Shekau

    I ordered bombing of Lagos fuel depot, says Shekau

    Sect: we did it in Abuja

    Police ‘studying video’

    Arewa rejects terror

    Lagosians got yesterday perhaps the first hint of Boko Haram’s imprint in the city.

    Abubakar Shekau, leader of the violent Islamist sect, claimed responsibility for the explosion in Apapa – one of the key homes of businesses with national and international relevance, including the port.

    It also owned up to the bombing in Abuja, in the 16-minute video given to the French news agency AFP.

    Shekau said his group was responsible for a bombing in the capital Abuja and an attack at the fuel depot in Lagos on June 25.

    The Lagos attack was described by government officials as an industrial accident, but an AFP investigation revealed it was a deliberate explosion.

    “I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it,” Shekau said. “You said it was an accidental blaze. You can hide before the people, but not before Allah.”

    “We were the ones who detonated the bomb in filthy Abuja” that killed at least 22 people, the leader of Boko Haram added.

    In the same recording, Shekau voices support for the extremist militant group ISIS, which has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

    “My brethren… may Allah protect you,” Shekau said in the video, listing ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

    He also mocked the “Bring back our girls” campaign, calling for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State, on April 15. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abductions, showing some of the girls in a video as they recited part of the Holy Quran.

    Shekau released his video as Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani schoolgirl who became an education campaigner after she was shot by militants, spoke in Abuja where she met the missing girls’ relatives.

    “Thank you so much for telling the world that this is happening here,” Yousafzai said. “We need to raise our voices for them so that they can be released and be free as well as other girls in Nigeria who also need full protection and security.”

    Police spokesman Frank Mba, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said last night on telephone:   “We are studying the video. It will go through information technology and forensic analyses in order to confirm the motion picture. It is only after that we would take an evidence-based stand.”

    A state government official declined to speak on the development, saying only security agents could comment on it.

    The Arewa community in Lagos has said it will neither aid nor tolerate terrorist activities in Lagos.

    In a statement yesterday by the Chairman, Council of Arewa Chiefs and the leader of the Hausa in Lagos, Alhaji Sani Kabir, the group assured that “ the Arewa community will neither hide nor aid terrorists in any way”.

    It also condemned the activities of the Boko Haram sect, saying they do not represent the teachings of Islam.

    “Nigeria is facing challenges that are unprecedented in our recent history perpetrated by terrorists disguising as a religious group.

    “We have enjoyed peace in Lagos and for that reason, we are sensitising our people on the need to maintain peace and to be security conscious.

    “We have also directed all our Imams to consistently intensify the message of peace among the community. We have also directed that people should not be allowed to sleep in mosques and other places designated for worship” the statement said.

    The group also said that its leadership had instructed its members against sleeping or camping under the bridge or indiscriminate parking of vehicles along major highways.

    It urged its members in Lagos to participate in the proposed registration of residents.

    “We believe that these measures will further strengthen the bond of friendship among other ethnic groups in Lagos,” it said.

    Some suspected Boko Haram men at the weekend bombed a bridge linking Maiduguri with Biu and Damboa using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

    A large portion of the Madafuma Bridge was damaged, thereby making it impossible to link Maiduguri from Biu, Garkida, Numam and parts of Taraba.

    A resident, Mallam Musa Yakubu, said the incident took place on Saturday at about 2am. “We heard a loud bang and when we gathered in Madafuma village we found out that the bridge linking us with Biu Local Government Area and MA Dara Girau had been blown off.  Motorists heading for Maiduguri from Biu especially long vehicles, had no option than to turn back to Gombe. Small vehicles managed to pass through the remaining thin portion which has not been affected by the blast.”

     

  • ‘I know Boko Haram leader Shekau’s hide-out’

    ‘I know Boko Haram leader Shekau’s hide-out’

    Controversial Islamic scholar and leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria popularly called Shiite Muslim group, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky has alleged that the leader of the Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau was being shielded by the Nigerian military.
    Zakzaky who spoke at the Movement’s 2014 Martyr day in Zaria on Sunday also alleged that the Boko Haram activities were part of covert operation by the developed nations to balkanize Nigeria and plunder its resources.
    While claiming he knows the hide out of the nation’s most wanted man, Zakzaky said: “Abubakar Shekau is presently being kept safe in a military camp. Let no one be fooled, there is nothing like Boko Haram. It is a covert operation to balkanize Nigeria and steals its resources in the name of search of Boko Haram insurgents. If you can fool others, we cannot be fooled.
    “They have realised that there is gold in Zamfara and Zaria, Birnin-Gwari, gold and platinum in Sokoto and Borno. They did it in Iraq, as they went in search of weapons of mass destruction which they never found but plunged the country in chaos.
    “The same thing was experimented in Afghanistan before our eyes. The Western countries are experimenting the second phase of scramble for Africa with great expectations from Nigeria.
    “The U.S. and Israel see the Islamic Movement in Nigeria as the greatest threat to achieving their sinister objective, hence the constant clampdown attempt and arrest of our members.”
    While alleging victimization of its members by the Nigerian authorities, he asked for the immediate release of two of its members Haruna Abbas and Ibrahim Hussain, who he said was arrested over a year ago for no just cause and “unjustifiably” detained without trial.
    “No law or constitutional provision allows for such a lengthy detention without trial and without visitation by families and friends, especially in a democratic government Nigeria is claiming to operate,” Zakzaky said.
    Meanwhile, an inter-religious group, Think-Nigeria Christian/Muslim Initiative wants Nigerians to work hard to expose activities of terrorist groups in the country and ensure religious harmony in the country.
    While commending multi-billionaire businessman, Alhaji Umaru Abdulmutallab, who reported his son Faruk to the authorities when he became radicalized, the group in a communiqué at the end of a two day summit in Kaduna asked parents to pay more attention to their children and wards in order to protect them from activities of religious extremists.

  • The man Shekau

    The man Shekau

    He is the face of terror. A ruthless leader with a twisted ideology. And the sadistic architect of a campaign of mayhem and misery.

     And yet, very little is known about Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram.

     He operates in the shadows, leaving his underlings to orchestrate his repulsive mandates. He resurfaces every once in a while in videotaped messages to mock the impotence of the Nigerian military. And he uses his faith to recruit the impressionable and the disenfranchised to his cause.

     Shekau was born in Shekau village that borders Niger. He studied under a cleric and then attended Borno State College of Legal and Islamic Studies for higher studies on Islam.

    That’s why he’s also known as ‘Darul Tawheed,’ which translates to an expert in monotheism, or the oneness of Allah.

     He speaks several languages fluently: Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and Arabic. But English isn’t one of them. After all, he heads a group that rejects all things Western.

    He’s elusive. Even his age is unknown — estimates range between 38 and 49.

    The U.S. State Department has Shekau’s year of birth listed as 1965, 1969 and 1975.

    He’s a loner. Analysts describe Shekau as a loner and a master of disguise. He does not speak directly with members, opting to communicate through a few select confidants.

     He uses many aliases: Abu Bakr Skikwa, Imam Abu Bakr Shiku and Abu Muhammad Abu Bakr Bin Muhammad Al Shakwi Al Muslimi Bishku among them.

     He was an unruly No. 2. Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf, a charismatic, well-educated cleric who drove a Mercedes as part of his push for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. He wasn’t too effective as a leader and had a hard time keeping his second-in-command in check. Shekau was more radical and had grander designs. And merciless as No. 1. Mohammed Yusuf was killed in a security crackdown in 2009, along with about 700 of his followers. That left Shekau in charge. He vowed to strike back, and his group has spared no one: government workers, police officers, journalists, villagers, students and churchgoers. Human Rights Watch estimates that in the past five years, more than 3,000 people have been killed.

    He’s come back from the dead. The military has touted Shekau’s death several times, only to retract its claim after he appeared alive and vibrant in propaganda videos.

     They almost got him in September 2012 when they raided his home, where he had snuck in for his six-day-old baby’s naming ceremony, according to the International Crisis Group. He managed to get away with a gunshot wound to the leg; his wife and three children were taken by the military.

     He uses Islam to recruit and radicalise. The northeast, where Boko Haram has been most active, is economically depressed and among the least educated regions in Nigeria.

    There’s no firm evidence as yet that Boko Haram has ambitions beyond Nigeria. But its campaign of terror has spilled into remote parts of Cameroon and it appears to have informal links with militant Islamist groups in Mali and Niger.

    It was in May 2013 that Shekau first announced in a video that Boko Haram would start kidnapping girls. The kidnappings, he said, were retaliation for Nigerian security forces nabbing the wives and children of group members.

    The most horrifying instance was last month’s abduction of 276 girls from a girl’s school.

    “I abducted your girls,” he taunted with a chilling smile in a new video that surfaced this week. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell.”

    There’s a $7 million bounty on his head. Shekau has been on the radar of U.S. officials since he came to power in 2009. Last June, the United States put a bounty on him, offering a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his location. But that’s yet to yield results.

                                                                                                •Culled from cnn.com

  • Shekau vows to ‘mutilate’ more people in new video

    The leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, has appeared in a new video, promising to “decapitate and mutilate” more people in the name of Allah and ridiculing the United States for putting a bounty on his head, saying, “You can’t in any way harm me.”

    Shekau, who has been dubbed a “global terrorist” by the U.S and twice been declared killed by the Nigerian military, claimed responsibility for a December 20 attack on a tank battalion barracks in Bama, Borno State.

    “Brothers pulverised 21 armoured tanks. People were killed in their multitudes, bodies scattered all over,” he said, adding that his forces “blew out the brains” of soldiers who tried to hide under their blankets.

    “Had Allah allowed us to eat them we would have eaten them but we are not cannibals,” he added, according to reports. “This is a victory from Allah.”

    The video showed the terrorist leader seated on a mat surrounded by masked fighters. It included footage ostensibly filmed of the attack, with burning buildings and fighter jets and armed, masked men walking around them.

    The insurgents stormed the barracks by arriving in a convoy of trucks shortly before sunrise, opening fire on soldiers inside before torching the compound. Witnesses said they kidnapped soldiers along with women and children.

    The military has not yet released a death toll from the attack but said that more than 50 insurgents were killed when ground forces backed by fighter jets pursued them after the raid. Locals claimed they also killed an unknown number of civilians and destroyed four villages.

    Shekau threatened more mayhem in the video sent to AFP on Saturday whose authenticity has not been verified, although it is one in a series sent to the news agency in which he features.

    “As for killing, we will kill because Allah says we should decapitate, we should amputate limbs, we should mutilate,” he said.

    He also shrugged off the bounties put on his head – $7 million by the U.S and $312,500 by the Nigerian government. “We do not worship money,” he says. “You can’t in any way harm me.”

     

  • Boko Haram responsible for attack on military base, says Shekau

    Boko Haram responsible for attack on military base, says Shekau

    The Isamist sect, Boko Haram, claimed yesterday responsibility for the daring raid on military installations in Maiduguri earlier this month.

    Its leader Abubakar Shekau, in a video obtained by the French news agency (AFP), said it got “spoils” from the raid.

    “Allah the Almighty has given us victory in the attack we launched inside Maiduguri [which was] called Borno in ancient times,” said Shekau in a 40-minute clip.

    Speaking in Arabic, Hausa and Kanuri, Shekau added: “We stormed the city and fought them [and] Allah blessed us with lots of booty.”

    The video, which was obtained through an intermediary, shows Shekau dressed in military fatigues with a turban and Kalashnikov assault rifle leaning on his chest.

    He speaks for 19 minutes. The rest of the tape shows images of burning buildings and aircraft said to be from the December 2 attack in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

    It also shows a display of weapons the banned Islamist group says it seized in the attack, including dozens of Kalashnikovs and rockets.

    The authenticity of the tape could not be verified independently but it appears to back up descriptions from witnesses and the military, who described aircraft being destroyed and buildings set on fire.

    The camera footage appears to show militant gunmen with their heads covered, carrying assault rifles in the army and air force compounds, with buildings ablaze in the darkness.

    At first light, groups of men are seen setting fire to three fighter jets on the tarmac as fires raged in the cockpits of two helicopters in aircraft hangars.

    In another shot, a burnt-out tank is seen in a deserted street.

    The military said only three decommissioned aircraft and two helicopters were “incapacitated”.

    Maiduguri is considered the spiritual home of Boko Haram (western education is sin).

    The group’s aim is to impose a harsh form of sharia across the country.

    Thousands of people have died in deadly violence since 2009, both at the hands of the militants and as a result of the military response to the violence.

    In the Maiduguri raid, the military said 24 militants were killed and two service personnel were wounded.

    But Shekau said only seven fighters died — three in suicide bombings, three were shot and one in “friendly fire”.

    At least two local residents were also killed, people in the city said.

    The US State Department in July offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to Shekau’s arrest of.

    In the video, he said “the whole world” feared him, name-checking US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even the late British premier Margaret Thatcher.

    Shekau singled out in particular the United States, which on November 13 designated Boko Haram and its offshoot Ansaru as international terror groups.

    “You are boasting you are going to join forces with Nigeria to crush us. Bloody liars,” he said, in an apparent reference to a pledge by Washington to support Abuja in the fight against the extremists.

    “You couldn’t crush us when we were carrying sticks,” he said, adding: “By Allah, we will never stop. Don’t think we will stop in Maiduguri.”

    “Tomorrow you will see us in America itself. Our operation is not confined to Nigeria. It is for the whole world.”

    Shekau’s claims about the international nature of Boko Haram stand at odds with analysts’ general assessments that the group is largely Nigeria-based.

    But the US has said the group and Ansaru have links with the wider Islamist jihadi network, in particular Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has provided limited training and funding.

  • ‘It’s a national disgrace if Shekau is alive’

    The Director of Advanced Centre for Sustainable Development, Dr. Bode Olaonipekun, on Thursday declared that it will be a national disgrace to Nigeria and the military if the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau is still alive.

    The military had claimed few weeks ago that Shekau died from wounds sustained during troops’ raids on the sect’s hideout in the northeast.

    But Shekau in a video released on Wednesday said he is still alive and kicking.

    Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Olaonipekun said the military was too quick to speak on the issue when it didn’t recover the dead body or had enough evidence to show that the leader was actually dead.

    He said: “The Federal Government has not done too badly in the fight, but I will quickly add that not too well. There are two aspects to this issue of terrorism, from my own point of view. Firstly, I think our attitude of talking too much is taking its toll on the issue of security. Before anything happens everybody is talking, the security chiefs are talking, the special advisers to the government are talking, meanwhile these are issues that should be regarded as security information.

    “Handling security information is not just saying everything, because when you give all the information to your enemy, the battle is as good as lost. They might have the strategies they are reserving, but giving hasty or too much information might not help matters and now if not a disgrace to us as a nation, with all apologies to the security operatives it might be a disgrace to them on the long run if truly Shekau is alive.”

     

  • The deductive death of Boko Haram’s Shekau

    The deductive death of Boko Haram’s Shekau

    Just before it yielded command to a new army division expected to take over its functions in the Northeast, the Joint Task Force (JTF), which has been combating terrorism in the region, announced to a bemused country that Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, might have died from gunshot injuries sustained in a firefight with security forces sometime in June. They offered no proof except circumstantial evidence from unstated and probably untested sources. They themselves were careful not to sound definitive. So, why did they feel the urgency to make the announcement, given the importance of the topic? They didn’t say, and they offered no clue. However, it is possible that the JTF simply wishes to depart in a blaze of glory. I was one of the worst critics of JTF operations in the Northeast, but even I must acknowledge that they had cleaned up their acts and fought a much cleaner war after the controversial Baga revenge killings. Even without evidence of Mallam Shekau’s death, the JTF still deserves plenty of accolades.

    Both the presidency and the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) are chary of being drawn into the controversy. They needn’t feel queasy. In Nigeria, when government’s lies are exposed, no one is punished, and apparently even the voters do not exact revenge on their deceivers in subsequent polls. So, the government and its agencies can safely lie without fear of retribution. And, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has discovered, no one flinches when the government unabashedly and routinely dishonours its word.

    In the matter of Mallam Shekau, deceased, living or injured, I think the JTF merely allowed itself the luxury of deductive reasoning. Apart from other sources which told of Mallam Shekau’s death, the most potent, to me, appears to be the last YouTube video released by the sect. In it, Shekau stated he could never be captured. Now, not even Osama bin Laden, the late Al-Qaeda leader, ever made such a boast, not even as a confidence building tactics. I therefore deduced from Mallam Shekau’s supremely confident assertion that since he is/was not a ghost, he could not say so confidently he was above capture, if he was not already dead.

    If another YouTube video does not surface in the next few weeks showing clear proof that the Boko Haram leader is alive, we may have no choice but to respect the JTF’s deductive reasoning and come to the same unproven conclusions as they hastily did last week. Nonetheless, the departing JTF, the incoming army division, the presidency and anyone who has analysed the Boko Haram phenomenon surely understand that killing the leader of a terrorist group does not amount to extirpating the menace. It is often no more than a morale booster, especially when not accompanied by a mass arrest or interdiction of its other leaders.

  • Is Shekau dead or alive?

    Is Shekau dead or alive?

    His grainy internet picture shows him wearing a turban. This is the only photograph of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau that is often used by newspapers. Nobody has seen him in public, except perhaps, members of his group, who are privileged to come in contact with him in the line of their deadly business. Thus, Shekau is more of a spirit than a human being. But he has a reputation of being a hard hearted and non – compromising fundamentalist.

    There is a $7million reward on his head for the atrocities committed by Boko Haram, but Shekau seems unperturbed. He (or is it his ghost?) still comes out once in a while to either  issue threats or claim responsibility for some attacks carried out by the sect. He spoke nine days ago, but the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) wants us to believe that it was not him that appeared on video posted on Youtube on August 13. The JTF claims that Shekau may have died of gunshot wounds in Amitchide in Cameroon on August 3.

    If Shekau is dead, JTF should be able to prove to the world beyond reasonable doubt that this dreaded human terror is no more. The irony of it all is that the JTF itself is not sure whether Shekau is dead or alive. Its statement on Shekau’s well – being did not serve the purpose for which it was issued. The statement, I believe, was issued to clear the air over the death or otherwise of the Boko Haram leader, but it ended up confusing the public the more.

    Until the statement was issued, the public knew nothing about the fate of Shekau. We didn’t know that there was an encounter in which he was allegedly shot but escaped with wounds. The JTF believes that he must have died from those wounds. What informed the JTF’s belief? We don’t know; all that we know is what is contained in its statement, which the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has described as hasty because the circumstances from which JTF drew its conclusions do not ‘’add up’’.

    The military is not known to do things haphazardly. It takes its time to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in life and death matters before it comes out with its position. When it concerns the death of a person, the military is even extra careful because it knows the implication of saying a person is dead when that person’s death is not confirmed.  The military double checks its facts to ensure that they are correct before pronouncing a person, whether a soldier or a bloody civilian like Shekau, dead. That is the military tradition. And JTF, we believe, is  operating under that rule.

    Shekau is not just any member of Boko Haram; he is its linchpin. He is to Boko Haram what the late Osama bin Ladin was to Al Qaeda before he was killed by the United States (US) Naval SEAL 5 in May, 2011. Shekau is not a small fry whose death should not be confirmed before it is made public. In breaking the news of the death of such a person, there is no need to rush things. Such a death  can only be confirmed after a thorough and painstaking exercise.

    If Shekau has indeed been killed, what Nigerians expect is a categorical statement from the authority, detailing how, where and when he was killed. The statement should not be equivocal.  It must be clear, succint and unambiguous. As it were, the JTF statement cannot pass muster. This was the dilemma we found ourselves at our editorial meeting on Monday evening when we got the JTF statement. Do we take it at its face value and run with it that Shekau may have been killed as claimed by JTF? Do we do our independent findings to ascertain the true position of things?

    We resolved to err on the side of caution by settling for the latter option. We found out that even within the military, the JTF claim was not well received. The military found it difficult to believe the JTF story that Shekau had been killed without concrete proof of his death. Where is the body? Which doctor confirmed him dead? Where was he killed? These are some of the questions begging for answers in the JTF statement. If Shekau actually died in Amitchide, Cameroon, has the JTF visited the place to see the body and confirm that it is really his?

    In the face of the doubts expressed by the DHQ over JTF’s position, that statement is not worth the paper on which it is written, except the task force can convince us  with clear cut evidence that Shekau is dead. We saw proof beyond reasonable doubt when bin Ladin was killed by the Americans. We saw his body being buried at sea. And we saw a confident President Barack Obama, exultantly responding to a question that: ‘’I can assure you that Osama bin Ladin will no longer walk the surface of the earth’’.

    We need this kind of compelling evidence and talk to believe that Shekau is dead. For now, we don’t know what to believe. Is Shekau dead or alive?

    Making of an empress

    First Lady Patience Jonathan

    seems to court controversy

    with her actions.  It appears she enjoys the image she is cutting for herself. No first lady has been this controversial in our 53 years of nationhood. Wherever the First Lady goes, she leaves pain and agony in her trail.  She seems not to care what the people think about her and the pain she inflicts on them whenever she visits their states or holds a ceremony in Abuja.

    A few months ago she was in Lagos and the metropolis was virtually shut down because of her. People were held up in traffic for a whole day.  It was a terrible day for most motorists who swore and sweated in traffic. Till today, Dame Patience has not apologised for her action. Her husband, who is our president, does not treat us the way she is doing. President Goodluck Jonathan, give it to him, takes the people into consideration, whenever he is visiting Lagos.

    Since he understands the nature of the place, he does his shuttle in and around town in a helicopter to avoid a traffic gridlock, which his movement on the road may cause. For all his wife cares, the people can go to hell whenever she is visiting their states. As in Lagos, so was it in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, when she visited a few weeks ago.  The Garden City was at a standstill because of her visit. Last week, Abuja had a dose of this treatment. The First Lady was hosting what she called: ‘’Celebrating Nigerian Women for Peace and Empowerment’’.

    The event was well publicised. Forty eight hours before the ceremony, the people were informed that the access road leading to Eagle Square would be shut to traffic. Motorists thought it would be a minor irritation. But when they got to the road on the day of the First Lady’s event, they got a shocker. There was no movement. They could not get to their offices, which they could from inside their cars. To walk past the stern-looking policemen on the road would be suicidal.

    In short, that day, the Federal Capital City, especially the Central Business District (CBD), was a no go area. It was cordoned off by the stern-looking policemen, who blocked all access routes to the Eagle Square. What the people went through that day is best captured in the words of some of them as reported in the papers last Friday. ‘’I met the traffic right from the Yar ‘Adua Centre and immediately turned away from that road and followed another route only to be confronted by a more serious snarl in the town’’, said a motorist.

    Another said : ‘’I make most of my daily earnings by taking passengers to the Federal Secretariat and Eagle Square but on Thursday, I had to turn down many passengers because all the access routes to the CBD were blocked and there was traffic everywhere..’’ Must the First Lady inconvenience the people any time she so wishes? It is high time the president called her to order, that is if he is not a party to these her  irritating actions.

  • Shekau: Lagos Assembly urges caution

    Shekau: Lagos Assembly urges caution

    The Lagos State House of Assembly has urged the military defence headquarters not to rely on the “hasty speculations” made by the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno States that the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, may have died in Amitchide, a border community in Cameroon, after an encounter with troops in June this year.

    Speaking with reporters in his office at the Assembly complex yesterday, the House’s spokesman and Information Committee Chairman, Mr. Segun Olulade, said given the sect’s sophistication, reliance on the JTF’s speculation can be risky unless there is concrete confirmation.

    He urged the JTF to intensify its operations in Chad and Cameroon borders and Boko Haram concentration camps to curb their activities.

    Olulade said there were many occasions when the death of Osama Bin Ladin was speculated and celebrated even before he allegedly masterminded the bombing of the World Trade Centre in the United States (U.S.) on September 11, 2001, adding that the fact that Shekau was injured during a crossfire with troops in Sambisa Forest was not enough reason to believe he is dead.

    He hailed the JTF men for their exploits, especially the killing of Shekau’s second-in-command, Momodu Bama, and 17 members of the sect, as well as the arrest of 24 members.

    Urging the JTF not to relax, the lawmaker said the war against terrorism must be fought tirelessly to ensure peace and development.