The Nation Newspaper

Tag: terrorist group

  • Middle Belt Forum seeks declaration of herdsmen as terrorist group

    The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) yesterday urged the Federal Government to declare killer- herdsmen as terrorists and to set in motion necessary security measures to end killings.

    In a communique after its meeting yesterday in Abuja, the MBF said: “The most frightening part of it is that government, security and law enforcement agencies merely look the other way rather than chase, track and arrest the herdsmen militia to face prosecution.

    “As such, in the middle belt region, lives of human beings are now cheaper than cows. Our communities have become endangered under the full watch of the Federal Government.

    “In fact in Nigeria, herdsmen are worse than Boko Haram. They have killed more people than Boko Haram did in the last two years. Despite the atrocities of this group, however, this government has refused to declare them a terrorist group.”

    The communique was read by its chairman Bala Takaya, who added: “Do we as a people deserve to go through all this? What is our sin?  Who will save us from this menace?

    The MBF also lamented that the troubled states were witnessing: “willful pogrom by the way of ethnic cleansing by the “foreign” Fulani herdsmen just to enable them wipe off all nationalities from their ancestral land. For if not ethnic cleansing, what do we make of unprovoked night marauders attacking our sleeping villagers at midnight by setting their houses ablaze. Shooting down occupants, whether male, women and children fleeing for dear life. Burning to ashes all food barns or arrogantly feed such harvested grains, yam tubers, etc to their animals?

  • Three female suicide bombers killed in Gwoza

    …Kidnappers arrested in Kaduna

    A major attack by terrorist group Boko Haram was averted by soldiers in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state after three female suicide bombers were neutralized.

    According to Army Headquarters, the female suicide bombers had attempted to attack a military location in the town.

    The troops were alerted by the members of the vigilante group who noticed that the three women looked suspicious and walked awkwardly with bulging hijab distinct from other female farmers.

    According the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, the suicide bombers noticed they were been observed and attempted to detonate the bombs at the military location.

    “When the suicide bombers noticed that they were being observed, they hurriedly ran towards troops aiming to detonate it on them. The troops neutralized two of the female suicide bombers, while the other ran back into the bush but was pursued. Unfortunately, a soldier sustained injuries due to the impact of the explosion. The wounded soldier is currently receiving treatment at a military medical centre and he is in stable condition,” Usman said.

    Meanwhile troops of 1 Division Nigerian Army stationed in Anchau, Kubau Local Government Area of kaduna State, also arrested two kidnappers in the process of collecting ransom from a kidnap victim’s family in the area.

    The arrest followed a tip off by well-meaning Nigerians that the kidnappers had arrived Dutsen Wai for ransom collection from their victim’s family. Troops were said to have trailed the kidnappers in an unmarked car.

    Army spokesman, Col. Usman said the kidnappers who were operating along Abuja-Kaduna road fled towards Zaria in a Honda car with registration number AJ 183 ABJ when they realized that they were being trailed.

    “Consequently, the pursuing troops alerted the police stationed in Soba. In the process fleeing, the kidnappers overran the police checkpoints at Soba and Maigana and proceeded to Zaria where they were finally apprehended,” he said.

    Items recovered from the suspected kidnappers include:  Honda Accord car, one mobile telephone handset, 4 MTN, 1 Airtel Subscribers identified module (SIM) cards, 1 micro SD card, a national identity card, an INEC voters registration  card, a Miyetti Allah cattle Breeders’ Association of Nigeria Identity Card, United Bank for Africa and Keystone Bank Debit Cards, cash sum of Twelve Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten Naira (N12,710.00k) and a Notebook containing several names, addresses and telephone numbers of kidnap victims families and
    relations.

  • Book Haram: Pupils desert schools in Cameroon border towns

    The 2014-2015 academic year began in Cameroon with thousands of students and teachers deserting schools in towns along the border with Nigeria’s Borno State, which is home to the Boko Haram terrorist group.

    With some schools either destroyed or occupied by the militants, Cameroon officials said they will relocate populations to more secure areas.

    In Kolofata this week, 1,000 children were expected to start in government schools, but only a few students showed up.

    Foncha Rene, 17, who was one of the few who arrived, said Boko Haram attacks in the area have scared his fellow students away.

    “There is no way we can go to school. Some time ago the Boko Haram kidnapped some students in Nigeria and they have been attacking schools in the border zone of Cameroon,” Foncha said.

    Foncha’s school was attacked two weeks ago. Walls were knocked down in an armed confrontation between the Nigerian insurgents and Cameroon soldiers.

    English teacher Pamela Singeh, who works at the government school in Kolofata, spoke to VOA while taking refuge in a military camp.

    “I cannot advise any child to go to school in the border zone because it is dangerous,” Singeh said. “Look at some classrooms, they have been destroyed by Boko Haram. They even come here to pray, so I would not advise or allow any child to go to school in this area.”

    In Mora, 100 of the 700 expected students showed up only to find more than 2,000 Nigerian refugees in their school building.

    The area’s senior administrative official, Babila Akao, said he has asked the Ministry of Education to postpone the beginning of the school year.

    “So what we are expected to do is to make proposals to the ministers of basic and secondary education to postpone the date of the school year here. People are suffering; the situation is a bad situation,” Akao said.

    Kolofata and Mora are just two of the 25 localities on the border with Nigeria’s Borno State.

    Cameroon Secretary of State for Secondary Education Monouna Fotsou said the government plans to move students for security reasons.

    “Where the situation is so bad, we will de-localise some schools,” Fotsou said. “At that moment also, we will bring the staff and the students to the new sites. The objective of this Boko Haram is to traumatise our citizens.”

    Boko Haram group has massacred, kidnapped and looted villages along Cameroon’s 2,000 kilometer border with Nigeria – with attacks becoming more frequent as the group has gained momentum in its fight for its own caliphate in northern Nigeria.

    Military action by Cameroon and Nigeria armed forces has done little to stop the violence.

  • ‘SOSCAN not a terrorist group’

    The National Coordinator, South-South Community Association of Nigeria (SOSCAN), Reverend David Idabor has said the group was neither a terrorist organisation nor militant movement.

    Idabor, in a statement issued by the group’s media director, Sulaiman Soyombo stated that the group, which at the weekend inaugurated its Osun State chapter, was geared towards unifying the people of the South-South region.

    “SOSCAN is a body for all indigenes of south-south, integrating political, economic and religion interests to help promote Niger-Delta interest; nd her people.

    “The mission is to plan south-south community and produce one global identity for the Niger Delta people and make them role models of society.

    “The body is not a militant movement nor a terrorist organisation and does not belong to any political party,” he said, urging south-south people to join the crusade for the unification of the region.