Video: Boko Haram Terrorist Showing Off Weapon Stolen From Army Barrack Raid

Islamist militants of the dreaded Boko Haram sect display weapons they purportedly captured from the Monguno Barack after they carried out a raid. The militants spoke in Hausa language. But seriously if they stole this weapons from an army barracks, that is a serious security lapse

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BAGA Crisis: Some Displaced Persons Still Hiding In The Bush – NEMA

 

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says some of the displaced persons during the recent Baga crisis in Borno are still hiding in the bush. This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Abdul kadir Ibrahim, the NEMA Information Officer in the North East Zone, in Yola on Monday.

According to the statement, following the return of normalcy and on arrival into Baga town, the agency discovered that most of the displaced persons are still scattered in the bush.

“Other people are taking refuge in the homes of their relations in the neighbouring communities,” it said.

He said that humanitarian workers led by the agency had commenced distribution of relief items to displaced persons affected by the crisis.

“This is in line with the President Goodluck Jonathan directive to the agency that immediate relief materials should be given to the people.

“The Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi had dispatched a team of officers with the relief and medical items to affected persons in the area,’’ Ibrahim said. “The major task before NEMA is to ensure that people in the bush are relocated to temporary camps,’’ the statement quoted NEMA Director, Search and Rescue, Air Commondore Charles Otebagde as saying.

It also revealed that an immediate rapid assessment was being conducted in collaboration with Red Cross and other voluntary organisations. According to the statements, relief items are being distributed while those with minor injuries are being treated at a temporary camp clinic opened in the area.

The statement said that the communities affected were Bayan Bulabulin, Anguwa Gajagaja, Aliya, Musarin Baga, Kasuwan baga, Layin Yannono.

It appealed to the people to remain calm as no meaningful development could be achieved without peace. The items distributed by the officials together with other humanitarian workers included medical, sanitary, food, household materials and tents.

Meanwhile, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai, has appealed to humanitarian organisations, corporate organisations and public spirited individuals to provide more relief materials to Baga victims.

Ibn Garbai made this known on Monday in Baga during a sympathy visit to the people of Baga, Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno. He said that the victims were in dare need of urgent support due to the magnitude of the disaster.

Ibn Garbai, who presented a cash donation of an undisclosed amount to the victims, commended the state government for its assistance to the victims. Senator Maina Ma’aji, the Senator representing Borno North in the Senate also made similar calls. He urged the Federal Government to deploy doctors and medical supplies to the various camps in the town.

NAN

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ANSARU Reveals Why They Take Foreign Hostages

 

For those that dont know, Ansaru, is a breakaway militant group from Boko Haram. They were responsible for kidnapping seven foreign construction workers in Bauch recently. Ansaru has explained why the group abduct foreign hostages, saying it was meant to send a message to the western powers on the kind of advice they give to Nigerian leaders.

A young member of the group who called himself Mujahi Abu Nasir while speaking on the group’s activities also said their sympathizers are everywhere in Nigeria but that the group avoid the killing of fellow Nigerians.

Having split off from Boko Haram - the dominant Nigerian extremist group responsible for weekly shootings and bombings — this new group, Ansaru, said it eschews the killing of fellow Nigerians.

The West, which has often regarded the Islamist uprising as a Nigerian domestic issue, has been explicitly put on notice by Ansaru, adding an international dynamic to a conflict that has already cost more than 3,000 lives.

Ansaru is believed to be responsible for the December kidnapping of a French engineer, who is still missing, and for the abduction of an Italian and a Briton, both construction workers, who were later killed by their captors as a rescue attempt began last year.

It is also likely that the group was involved in the February kidnapping of a French family on the Cameroon-Nigeria border. They were released on Friday, under conditions that are unclear, as well as the kidnapping of a German engineer in Kano killed during a rescue effort last year.

“Any white man who is working with them” — meaning “Zionists,” — “we can kidnap them, everywhere,” said Mujahid Abu Nasir.

He had slipped into Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, with a bodyguard, travelling hundreds of miles from Ansaru’s secret headquarters in the north.

He said he had come under the authorization of Ansaru’s leader, Khalid al-Barnawi, who the United States said has close ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and has designated a global terrorist.

For three hours, with chilling precision, Abu Nasir, in a neatly pressed shirt and polished shoes, laid out Ansaru’s philosophy, after reciting a verse from the Koran promising “hell fire” for nonbelievers saying “opponents would be killed; Al Qaeda sympathizers were everywhere in Nigeria; and Westerners would be kidnapped”.

He said Ansaru had been motivated by Al Qaeda itself, trained by its affiliate in the region — Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — and was now following in both their footsteps.

Before speaking or touching anything, Abu Nasir carefully put on black gloves and examined a reporter’s pen to make sure there was no camera hidden in it.

He said he was the son of a Nigerian aristocrat, and he spoke Arabic, which he said he had perfected at a university in Khartoum, Sudan. He understood English perfectly but would not speak it, on principle.

“By taking these hostages, we are sending a message that they should be careful about giving bad advice to our leaders,” he said of Nigeria’s government, which he called a “puppet” of the West.

“They are as dangerous as Al Qaeda,” said Maikaramba Sadiq of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organization. “They have the same training as Al Qaeda. They have the same approach as Al Qaeda.”

Still, the two militant groups, Ansaru and Boko Haram, retain ties. “They are with us now,” Abu Nasir said. “Whenever we hear of oppression, we do operations together.”

At the slightest hint of rescue, mistaken or otherwise, Ansaru appears ready to kill its hostages.

Abu Nasir spoke of his early recruitment by Al Qaeda, rigorous training in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s desert camps, his leaders’ contacts with Osama bin Laden and the current leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, and disagreements with Boko Haram’s indiscriminate methods.

He said he had attended an Islamic college in the northern metropolis of Kano, which has since become a hotbed of Boko Haram radicalism. Then, “for the zeal of seeking knowledge,” he went to Khartoum, he said, where it was “Al Qaeda propagators who initiated me into the clique.”

The recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and then to Mauritania for a rigorous training course by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. For six months, he said, he trained directly under Abu Zeid. Of five who came with him from Sudan, he said, two died during training.

“Everything the security forces get, we get double that,” he said of Ansaru’s training regimen.

Returning to Nigeria in 2008, Abu Nasir said, he went underground in Lagos. “Thousands” are like him, he said, “some who work in government, some businessmen, some teachers.”

“Any leader who does not listen to the warnings of his people, he is going to pay a heavy price,” Abu Nasir said. “We are not going to take one step back.”

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Northern Muslim Youths Warns MEND And Vows To Retaliate If MEND Bombs Mosques

First of all, are “Northern Muslim Youths” all “Boko Haram” members?

Enraged by last Sunday’s threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, to commence bombing of mosques and killing of Muslim clerics as from May 31 over the terror campaign and killing of Christians by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, northern youths yesterday, promised to deal a deadly blow on the militants should they carry out its devilish plan even as former agitators and clerics in the Niger-Delta differed on planned attack.

Although the Arewa youths did not specify their mode of retaliation, they warned MEND not to arrogate to itself the monopoly of violence.

The northern youths’ warning was handed down by the National President of the Arewa Youths Forum, Alhaji Ibrahim Gambo Gujungu in Abuja.

Gujungu made it clear that the threat by MEND would not in any way deter northerners and other Nigerians from fighting back should they attempt to make real their threat.

The AYF leader said,”the most recent threat by MEND is indeed, unfortunate, callous and counter-productive, especially coming at a time when patriotic Nigerians are making strident effort and sacrifices to resolve the current security challenge.

“MEND, as usual, is putting spanners in the works for unpatriotic selfish economic benefits. It is painful that these elements are threatening more violence despite the colossal amount being paid their leadership and the training of Niger Delta youths abroad by the Federal Government to the obvious disadvantage of other Nigerian youths outside the region.

“MEND and its members are hereby warned that they do not have monopoly of ideas, strength or ability. The youths of the north and other Nigerians are united and shall face them to truncate any of their threats which are aimed at separating Nigerians along religious or ethnic divides for their selfish economic goals.

“It is very sad and mind boggling to note that instead of supporting and ensuring that President Jonathan succeeds in finding a lasting solution to the present security challenge in the north, MEND has re-opened another insecurity theatre in the Niger Delta to cause distraction and make him fail.

“The obvious disrespect, which MEND shows to President Jonathan as not being among those they respect enough to intervene in the ongoing debacle, is food for thought, to say the least,” Gujungu noted.

Some ex-leaders of the militant group contacted by Vanguard, yesterday, opted to keep sealed lips with one of  them, saying, “You know our position on this matter. As far as we concerned, MEND is dead, those threatening anything in the name of MEND are paper tigers.”

However, the spokesperson of the defunct Niger-Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, “Captain” Mark Anthony, threw his weight behind the planned action by MEND, while a prominent activist, Mr. Augustine Ogedengbe, cautioned against retaliatory attacks by any group from the region.

In the words of “Captain” Anthony, “If MEND can carry out their threat, it will be a welcome development, the Christians Boko Haram roasted with bombs in hundreds are human beings. While we were in the creek, we made preparations to pay Boko Haram in their own coin, but Niger-Delta politicians pleaded with us never to carry out operations in the land.

“Now, my hands are tied as Federal Government has granted me amnesty and my group, NDLF, and I have sworn to an oath never to engage in violence. I am now a toothless bulldog and cannot bite,” he said.

Rev Usifo, who opposed the plan by MEND to take up the gauntlet for Christians said, “They should not burn mosques and kill Muslim clerics, I am not in support of that. But I want to say that Christians should arm themselves and also seek the services of security agencies to guard their churches. In a situation where people come to attack them and burn their churches, they should defend themselves”.

Activist, Mr. Ogedengbe, said he would want MEND and any other group claiming to represent Niger-Delta to be mindful of the fact that Boko Haram was fashioned to frustrate the Federal Government, headed by a Niger-Deltan and carrying out reprisal action could precipitate more bloodbaths.

Nigeria is heading for disintegration unless ——Southern Mandate

Meanwhile, the Southern Mandate has warned that sponsors of the sect must halt their activities forthwith, or else the insurgency will plunge Nigeria into disintegration.

The group said in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, that the sustained explosions were targeted at discrediting the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“We foresee that there are no two ways about it –the consequence of Boko Haram’s present activities is the disintegration of our dear country in the near future”.

“In the circumstances, we wonder why some Nigerians could still regard Boko Haram as an enemy only to President Jonathan and his government. However, it is time to tell ourselves the bitter truth: the earlier all Nigerians from the North and South realize and confront Boko Haram as a common enemy, the better for the unity of Nigeria”, the group said in the statement signed by the group’s President-General and South/South Coordinator,  Tito Zuokumor and Dr. Wilson Omene, respectively.

The group condemned those who blame President Jonathan for the prevailing insecurity without considering the attendant result of sitting on the fence and allowing sectional violence as a tool to score political goals, with which some political figures have been identified.

“Let the truth be told that there is no region or ethnic nationality in Nigeria that is weak. The West, East and South-south all have the capacity to create a similar scenario of deliberate insecurity in their zones to make any administration ungovernable just to score political points.

“And if such acts of artificial insecurity are perpetrated by a group or groups of persons from a part of the country without resolvable aims and objectives other than to waste innocent lives just to deny a particular region the right to attain the presidency or complete the constitutionally stipulated tenure of office, then we have got to check ourselves, apply restraint in whatever we do, and not acting with impunity as is presently the case with some self-seeking politicians fuelling the Boko Haram activities. Otherwise, we are all heading for the doomsday.

“We are all not unaware of the political aim of Boko Haram, but we fail to see beyond the kite which the group and their sponsors are flying in the air and progressively piloting us to disintegration”, Southern Mandate insisted.

It added that “the serial bomb explosions and death of innocent Nigerians are receiving applause from certain quarters today because those behind the barbaric acts believe they are winning the battle against Dr. Jonathan’s presidency, unmindful of the fact that they are laying landmines for the nation’s disintegration.

“The determination of a few selfish individuals seeking the highest political office to “do everything possible, whether good, bad or terrible to unseat President Jonathan” for fear of becoming too old to occupy the presidency if Dr. Jonathan is allowed to remain in office for two terms, must be stopped”.

The group urged all good-spirited Nigerians to support the federal government in tackling the present menace in order to avoid similar bombs exploding from other parts of the country tomorrow.

It claimed that Nigeria’s unity was being preserved by the petro-dollars from crude oil in the Niger Delta region and that the people of that region had borne the brunt of oil production for several decades in the interest of the entire nation.

Destination of all suicide bombers is hell——Sheik Gumi

In a related development, renowned Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Mahmud Gumi has said hell is the destination of all suicide bombers. The cleric, in a sermon monitored yesterday pointed out that while young men commit suicide, they ought to reflect that those leaders who send them to their deaths do not commit suicide or send their children to die in the same way.

Gumi who has been critical of the Boko Haram sect, said in the sermon: “The prophet said the way to Paradise is easy for those that follow his path. Despite this ease of entering Paradise, those that commit suicide for whatever reason have guaranteed for themselves the Hell Fire forever”.

According to him, “People are forbidden to wish for death talks less of committing suicide. Islam is a practicable religion. Whoever therefore will be taken by fanaticism or sickness or depression to kill himself, he has condemned himself to eternity in the hell fire”.

He stressed that whoever will explode himself with explosives for whatever reason or disguise will also continue to be in his explosion in hellfire forever, stressing that this is what the hadith teaches.  Suicides, he warned, are tormented by the same means they employ to kill themselves.

“Today we see young men killing themselves with explosives in the name of Jihad yet they never reflect that those ‘leaders’ that send them to such adventure never commit suicide nor send their children to commit it.”

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Presidency Alleges Buhari Major Sponsor Of The Terrorist Group Boko Haram

The presidency has finally come out to acknowledge what every forward-thinking Nigerian has concluded a long based on antecedents of Maj. Gen Buhari. The Presidency has described former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), as the major sponsor of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram and a leading protagonist of violence.

It said that apart from his ambition to rule the country again, Buhari had refused to contribute meaningfully to actions capable of ending insecurity in the country. Buhari, a National Leader of the CPC, had, on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, said that the Federal Government should be blamed for the lingering security challenges in the country.

According to Punch Newspaper, Buhari also flayed the Goodluck Jonathan administration for what he called “poor handling of insurgency” that had led to the death of many Nigerians and destruction of properties. While reacting to this, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said it was unfortunate that such a statement could emanate from Buhari.

Describing Buhari as a man he respects so much, Okupe added that he had no option but to reply to his accusations against the Federal Government and the President.

He reminded Nigerians that Buhari had previously been credited with a statement that he would make the country ungovernable if the last presidential election did not favour him. Okupe said, “Everybody in this country knows that it was Buhari who vowed that if he did not win the election, he would make the country ungovernable for this President Goodluck Jonathan.

 It was this same Buhari who said during the electioneering period that if the votes were counted and he lost, people should go for blood.

He is not in any position to apportion blame on the issue of violence in the North or in Nigeria in general. He is a protagonist of violence. The only solution he sees to his not being President is to call for violence. This government has tried to contain some of the repercussions of the unguarded statements made by Buhari and I don’t think anybody in Nigeria will take him seriously on this allegation.”

The presidential aide added that if there were those to be blamed for the insecurity in the country, the name of Buhari should top the list. Okupe wondered why the Katsina State-born general had refused to visit states like Borno and Yobe despite the fact that he hails from the northern part of the country.

He said, “As a former Head of State, have you ever seen him (Buhari) visiting Borno or Yobe States?

 Have you ever seen him show sympathy to people, either Christians or Muslims that have been killed during these attacks by Boko Haram? Have you see him as a leader, a man who traversed the entire length and breadth of the North especially to canvass for votes seeking an end to the violence? Why is it that he cannot use that same clout that he has to get leaders together and say we must put an end to this carnage? He finds it comfortable to shift the blame to other people.

What has he done as a leader, who is from that region to help Nigeria and the North out of this unfortunate development? Nigerians should ask him, as a former Head of State and stakeholder in the Nigeria project and a man who wants to be President again, if he would want Nigeria to be destroyed up to a point before he can try to wade in? It does not work that way.”

Okupe said that as a leader, Buhari should stop apportioning blame, but should do something crucial to bring the carnage in the country under control.

He reminded the former military ruler that during the crisis in Niger Delta, leaders from the region went into the creeks and discussed with the militants to lay down their arms. “Has Buhari done that? When Christians were killed, he kept quiet, when mosques were bombed, he did not say anything. He doesn’t have any other interest in Nigeria but his inordinate ambition to rule,” he added.

In his reaction, Buhari said there was no way he could be involved in the discussion on how to end the carnage since he was not part of the problem. Buhari, who spoke through the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, also said it was apparent that those responsible for the crisis in the Niger Delta were the ones that volunteered to end it.

He said, “When the Niger Delta militancy reached a crescendo, some notable people from that region went into the creeks as he (Okupe) alleged. The question is: ‘Who were the people who started the Niger Delta imbroglio ab initio?’ If the people that initiated and executed a problem decided to resolve it, what can anyone do about it? This is totally different from the Boko Haram palaver.”

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