JTF Arrests 120 Terrorists In Maiduguri

About 120 terrorists have been arrested on Monday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, as they organised a burial ceremony for one of their commanders who died in an encounter with soldiers.

Defence spokesman, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, in a press statement disclosed that the arrested insurgents were in the custody of the Joint Task Force (JTF) where they were being interrogated.
More details later.

Source: Punch Nigeria

2015: Jonathan Must Contest, Clark Tells Northern Leaders

Elder Statesman and former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark said yesterday that the Southern part of the country would still produce President in 2015 election, adding that it was not yet the turn of the north.

He also said the intrigues of power shift from the south in 2015 was improper at this period of the country’s march to nationhood.
Clark who said this at the third conference of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, noted that the constitution was clear on the number of terms that every president can contest.
He further said the people of South-South believe that the return of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 would mean well for the unity of Nigeria.
His words: “The South-South believe that it is in the interest of Nigeria and the unity of our country that Jonathan should contest and no one should shut him out. Movement of power or power rotation is not proper at this time. In the constitution of Nigeria, every president has two elections to be contested. Shagari did it in 1979 and 1983.
“In 1999 Obasanjo did it and 2003. In 2007 Umaru Yar’Adua of blessed memory did it and if he had remained alive he would have done it again in 2011, so Jonathan is not a different person, He’s a Nigerian and he has the right to contest again.”
He further said that the country belongs to all citizens, noting that there is nobody that owns or has stake in the country more than others.
“Nigeria belong to all of us and there is nobody who is superior to another. If you are talking about peace, peace for who? There is an incumbent who has not done a second term, so northerners have no place. It is not yet the turn of a northerner. They have the right to contest as Nigerians, yes, in other parties”.
Continuing, Clark said, “So, if a northerner does not rule this country, there won’t be peace? They have ruled for over 38 years, we have only ruled from the south for less than 14 years. When Lord Lugard united this country, he didn’t say the north is superior to the south, we are all equal in this country, and anybody can aspire to the highest position in this country, so nobody has the prerogative to rule others.”
In addition, he said, “having noted the negative effects of our divisiveness it is important that we clearly define the fundamental objective of our coming together which is to expand trust, solidarity, shared commonality and commit ourselves wholly to uniting our people for our common good.
“In our efforts to build an enduring legacy of one united family for the first time in the almost 100 years of our existence as a country, let us deliberately cultivate and imbue in members of our generation and beyond the attributes of tolerance and love for one another.
There can be no alternative to building a loving family because love is the fulcrum of survival and life. A house where love flourishes will usually resolve issues that cause disaffection and disharmony internally. Outsiders are regarded as pariahs.
“As earlier noted our inability to act as one concentric and impermeable family provided the leeway for the North to undermine and exploit us. The inexplicable outcome was that the North successfully pummeled us to endorse their leadership of the country for 38 years compared to the 14+ years the South has ruled the country.
“Today, all we hear on daily basis is that power must return to the North. Whether such hues and cries have the endorsement of Nigerians is left to be seen. We are nonetheless encouraged by our renewed solidarity and shared commonality to say that as people who have consistently been driven by the thrust of equity, justice and fairness, we must seek to balance the observed disparity in the leadership paradigm.
Consequently, we are inclined to state that power shift culminating in the transfer of the presidency to anywhere outside the confines of the southern hemisphere would be an aberration this Assembly should not endorse. It may perhaps be apposite for anybody holding a contrary view to say so now.’’
Similarly, former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Dipriye Alamieyeseigha, stated that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock, saying that President Jonathan will remain the Commander-in-Chief beyond 2015.
Alamieyeseigha said: “Aso Rock is not vacant. The northern agitators will all at the appropriate time join the moving train. They may have their opinion but I can assure you that President Jonathan will remain as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2015″.
Speaking on the presidential pardon granted to him by the Council of State, Alamieyeseigha said it was a negotiated deal and that it is in order. It started during Late President Yar’Adua.
He said: “It was a pardon that was negotiated. This pardon was negotiated and if I fulfil my own part of the bargain, why shouldn’t the Federal Government fulfills its part? People who don’t know what happened are the ones talking. But if I opened my mouth, those who are talking will keep quiet.
He said: “President Goodluck Jonathan was part of the negotiating team. There is no person in this country that knows issues surrounding Alamieyeseigha better than Mr President. He was my deputy governor and all that transpired were known to him. I’m already writing my memoir. At the appropriate time, you will know.”
Asked whether late President Yar’ Adua was privy to the pardon, he said, “without Yar’Adua, I would have died by now. Otherwise they would have even killed me. The person behind it is somebody all of you know. Somebody used the phrase, Oga at the top. You know him and he will be exposed at the right time.”

Source: Naij.com

Source: Vanguard

Total War

Where is the report of the panel that probed the 2009 insurgency in Bauchi, Yobe and Maiduguri? Also, where is former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s report on how to end the Boko Haram menace in Borno? What about the most recent one submitted by Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, who chaired the Presidential committee on insecurity in the North-East? Have the recent emergency rule slammed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states was capable of resolving the Boko Haram crisis?

 

The source exclusively said that unless and until some of these reports are looked into with “all sincerity” by the government, the soldiers currently deployed to the troubled spots would only succeed in “killing some innocent Nigerians, including a few of the insurgents”, adding that the aftermath would be counter-productive.

 

According to the source, the “real combatants would go into hiding, striking once in a while. But once the emergency rule is over, they will come out again in full force. Mark my words, that will be disastrous,” the source added with a tone of finality.

 

Asked what should be the way out, the security operative said: “I believe the government should have given the new committee a chance, while studying other previous reports with a view to applying some of the recommendations.”

 

Speaking in the same vein, Barrister Solomon Dallung, a human rights activist and lawyer resident in Jos, who is also a leading member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the group that succeeded in persuading President Jonathan to consider granting amnesty to Boko Haram, told Sunday Sun that, “For me, declaration of emergency rule, as it is, within the Nigerian context has remained a political tool in the hands of government that cannot provide serious answer to security issues. It has been done in the past, it did not change anything. So, Mr. President has done his own just to make Nigerians believe he has taken action. There is no single state you go today in the North that you don’t see military check-points. What is more of a state of emergency than that?

 

“When it was declared in Plateau, it achieved nothing. Rather, it left the people worse than they were and in a state of regret, because it has exposed them to more danger, given the spate of killings going on there today.

 

“Mr. President should stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians. This latest move is just to blackmail the North and return to power in 2015. It is also to further widen the gulf between Muslims and Christians in the North. Otherwise, why did he not include Nasarawa and Benue, where over 80 policemen and over 40 lives were lost, respectively last week? Or why did he not include Bayelsa, his home state, where some police men were killed recently? Like the Emergency rules before this, the current one is not likely to achieve anything. Instead, allocation to the affected councils would be shared in the name of security vote,” the source said.

 

Although, all the previous reports, submitted to the Federal Government on activities of the Boko Haram could not be immediately accesed, it however, stumbled on snippets from the report of the probe panel instituted by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua shortly before he took ill, and the one constituted by the former Borno governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, shortly after the 2009 insurgence.

 

The panel, which was constituted by the then National Security Adviser (NSA) to the late President, General Sarki Mukhtar (retd), had 11 members, which included former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike;  Alhaji B. U. Maitambari, Major General B. M. Monguno, DIG A. O. Ajao, Y. M. Bichi, Ambassador Haruna Wando, Brig. Gen. M. Bala Ali, and Mr. M. Sani. One Mr. S, Haliru served as secretary of the panel, while another Mr. T. A. Othman was deputy secretary.

 

The probe panel, Sunday Sun further gathered, was saddled with the responsibility of examining the incident of 2009 in all its ramifications with a view to determining the culpability of individuals and groups in causing and or preventing its resolution. The panel was further tasked to examine the adequacy or otherwise of responses by security forces and to identify the logistics, administrative or operational lapses that hampered quick resolution of the crisis. The probe panel was further tasked to establish the “likely correlation between the Boko Haram sect and any other radical organisations in the country”, and to also identify any possible foreign interest and the level of foreign involvement in the crisis.

 

After weeks of meetings and travelling to all the affected states, the panel came up with a report, which the Sunday Sun gathered, has never been looked into let alone consider some observations and recommendations contained in the report. According to the sources, the controversy and intrigues that surrounded the emergence of President Jonathan, first as acting President, and later substantive President made it impossible for the report to be transmitted to him upon assumption of office.

 

In the report titled “The Report of the Post-mortem Committee on Sectarian Crisis in Kano, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno states of August 27, 2009, “the panel traced the history of the sect to one Nigerien named Abubakar Kilakam, who was said to have been deported by the Borno State government in 2008, one clear year before the group declared war on Borno and other parts of the country.

 

According to the report, Kilakam may have indoctrinated the late Mohammed Yusuf and initiated him into preaching against constituted authority.

 

The panel, which was courageous enough to list, at least, 11 persons, which, according to its findings, were sponsors of the group, further submitted that “the activities of the sect had attracted the attention of the governor of Borno State since he assumed office in 2003. When security reports revealed the threat posed by the sect, there was evidence to show that he took steps to check the excesses of the group.

 

“The committee noted that at the initial stage of the group’s activities, the governor convened a security meeting of religious leaders and the security agencies to discuss the issue. Similarly, the Borno State security council met on several occasions to address the simmering threat of the sect and measures were taken by the Borno State government to contain the sect. These included banning of the sect from preaching in the state, as well as the arrest and eventual deportation to Niger Republic of one of the sect’s leaders, Abubakar Kilakam,” the panel noted, adding that “as stated above, the sect’s activities became noticeable by 2007 in Borno State. Towards the end of 2008, when the activities of Mohammed Yusuf and the sect were constituting a major threat to law and order, the State Security Council (SSC) met and banned the group from preaching. One Mohammed Kilakam of Damasak town in Mobar Local Government Area was banned from preaching in the state. So was one Ba’ana of Banki town in Bama Local Government Area. Abubakar Kilakam was confirmed to be a Nigerien national and was arrested and deported to his country.”

 

In another report written by chairman of the Presidential Committee on Security in the North-East, Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, the origin of Boko Haram was traced to the blistering preaching of some clerics in Borno State.

 

The report, was the outcome of a 13-member committee set up by the then Borno State government shortly after the 2009 insurrection.

 

According to the report, the idea of Boko Haram was not a new phenomenon in Borno State. It noted that the idea had been there for several years before the late Mohammed Yusuf, who it seems only met a fertile ground and capitalized on it to spread his gospel.

 

The report further traced the remote causes of Boko Haram insurgence in Borno State to the levity with which the media in that part of the country gave prominence to the preaching of fiery Islamic scholars, and the leverage society gave such preachers to propagate anti-government messages, even as the report added that the Boko Haram group derives its messages largely from the ideology of the al-Qaida, following the contacts its leader, the late Mohammed Yusuf, had established with the late Osama bin Laden.

 

It was the view of the 13-member committee that the frequent arrests and release of the late Mohammed Yusuf without conviction, before he was extra-judicially killed, contributed in no small measure to the strength and growth of Boko Haram in the state and beyond.

 

Meanwhile, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, pleaded with members of the Boko Haram to embrace dialogue and give peace chance.

 

In a state-wide broadcast to the people of the state last Wednesday, the governor said, “I will seize this opportunity for the umpteenth time, to call on our brothers in the Jama’atu ahliss Sunnah lil Da’awatu wal Jihad to embrace dialogue so that we can solve this problem on the table through collective bargaining, offers and compromises. I am glad to note that the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution is still working round the clock as also emphasized by the President.

“I believe, like I have always said since 2011 that at the end of the day dialogue will be the last resort. Let us embrace the spirit of live and let’s live. May I also add, at the risk of sounding repetitive, that the best way to fight crime is to provide jobs through integrated agriculture and industrial growth; we are very conscious of the fact that there is mass poverty and unemployment, and as you may have confirmed from our ongoing programmes across the state, we are creating jobs and will continue to do so. I urge you to fervently pray for the return of peace in our dear Borno State and all other parts of Nigeria, so as to pave the way for rapid recovery and socio-economic transformation we so desperately seek to put in place as a government.” 

Source: The Sun

State Of Emergency: Northern Senators In Marathon Meeting

Ahead of debates on the declaration of State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states by President Goodluck Jonathan today,  senators from the north under the aegis, Northern Senators Forum  were yesterday locked in a marathon meeting.

Vanguard gathered that the meeting which started at 8.55pm yesterday took place at hearing room1,white House, Senate wing and ended at 10.30 pm.
The meeting which was held behind closed door and presided over by Chairman of the forum, Senator Umar Dahiru, PDP Sokoto  south discussed among others, the declaration of State of emergency as they were said to have thrown their weights behind it as the way forward to the insurgency.
Vanguard gathered that the meeting which had over twenty senators from the north in attendance, however resolved that President Jonathan must not jettison his planned amnesty programme for members of the Boko Haram sect as a way of nipping in the bud the problem in the country.
The senators, a source at the meeting told Vanguard thst they were prepared to vote in favour of the state of emergency today,with a call on the military to thread on the part of caution especially with regards to democratic values and democracy.
 Also present at the meeting were Senator Mohammed Magoro, PDP, Kebbi South; Senator Zainab Kure, PDP, Niger South;Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, PDP,Taraba North; Senator Nurudeen Abatemi- Usman; Senator Ali Ndume, PDP, Borno South; Senator Shaaba Lafiagi,PDP,Kwara North, among others.

Source: Vanguard

Armed Youths Kill Bar Manager, Three Others

When on May 13, 2013, Olusegun Dawodu opened a bar in Lagos State, his hope was to take care of his aged mother, who sponsored his education alone.

His dream was however cut short after he was killed two days later by some hoodlums during a shoot-out on University Road, Akoka, Lagos.

Our correspondent, who visited the area on Monday, learnt that three others were killed while four people sustained gunshot wounds.

A friend of the deceased, who craved anonymity, said the incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday.

He said the deceased, who was a manager at E-Bar and Restaurant, Lekki Phase 1, usually closed late from work

He said, “Around 1am, some youths wielding guns stormed University Road and were shooting indiscriminately. The area was not completely deserted because people were celebrating the outcome of the football match between Chelsea Football Club and Benfica.

“Dawodu was driving home in his Toyota car and on getting to University Road, just about 100 metres from University of Lagos, he was hit by a stray bullet. Subsequently, he lost control and rammed into someone’s compound.

“Three other people were killed in the process while about four others sustained gunshot wounds. From what we gathered, Dawodu did not die on the spot but was shouting for help. However, no one came to his aid as everyone had run for cover.”

PUNCH Metro learnt that the hoodlums terrorised the area for about an hour without being challenged.

Our correspondent, who spoke to some residents, learnt that Dawodu was already engaged.

A resident, Mrs. Olatoke Famuyiwa, said, “Olusegun (Dawodu) was just 33 years old. His mother lived in the area and she raised him and his four siblings single-handed after their father died. I really feel for the mother.

“I cannot imagine what she is going through right now. Just last week we were congratulating Olusegun for setting up his own business and now a week after, we are mourning him. He did not even have any child of his own.”

Famuyiwa lamented the high level of insecurity in the area. She said most of the shootings were perpetrated by suspected cult members.

She said on the day of the killing, she called the police but the policemen fled on seeing the hoodlums.

She said, “Bariga, especially Ilaje and Fola Agoro, have become a hotbed of criminals and cultists.

“The killers are cult members in the area who go about intimidating people any time from 7pm. On that day Segun was killed, there was a police van around Underground Confectionery.

“We told them of the shooting but they said the weapons of the hoodlums were superior to theirs. They just fled and did nothing.”

Our correspondent learnt that the matter was being investigated by Sabo Police Division.

A police source, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said preliminary investigations revealed that Dawodu was not robbed but killed.

A friend of the deceased told our correspondent that Dawodu was not the target but was killed by stray bullet as his valuables were not stolen.

He said, “His two phones were intact while he had about N20, 000 in his pocket. The only thing missing was his car key. I do not know how that disappeared but he died inside the car.”

It was learnt that Dawodu, who studied Industrial Relations and Personnel Management at the Lagos State University, had been buried at Atan Cemetery.

When contacted on the telephone, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, requested that our correspondent call her back.

Subsequent efforts to contact her were unsuccessful as she did not pick her calls.

 

Source: Punch Nigeria