Curfew in Bauchi, North East Nigeria Over Religious Clash afp20090727614002 Abuja Hot fm in English 26 Jul 09

[Description of Source: Lagos The Guardian Online in English -- Website of the widely read independent daily, aimed at up-market readership; URL: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/]

Nigeria: Borno Governor Denies Allocating Land To Deceased Islamic Sect Leader

AFP20090813578004 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 2300 GMT 12 Aug 09

[Report by Gbenga Akingbule: "I Never Gave Land to 'Boko Haram' Leader, Says Borno Gov"]

Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State yesterday denied ever giving Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, any plot of land in the state.

Boko Haram, the religious group that preaches against western education and civilization, unleashed mayhem in some Northern states in which at least 800 people were killed late last month.

Sheriff was alleged to have allocated 80 kilometeres of land to Yusuf for farming but which the latter turned into a training ground for members of his sect in various camps. It was also alleged that attempts by security agents to prevail on the governor to revoke the allocation were rebuffed.

But Sheriff declared that the allegation was not only baseless but "very malicious."

Speaking through the Secretary of the Borno State Government, Ambassador Ahmed Baba Jidda, the governor said he was not aware that "Yusuf had even a plot of land in the whole of Borno State, not to talk of Maiduguri. Eighty Kilometres of land will almost be the entire stretch between Borno and Yobe states. In fact, it will be more than five local governments put together. So, where will the Governor get such a large expanse of land and what excuse would he give for giving out such? Let anybody who claims that Yusuf had any piece of land anywhere in the entire state come out with the evidence."

Ambassador Jidda explained that when the report "attributed to a faceless security source came to our attention, the governor ordered the relevant ministries to check their records and bring the documents.

"It turned out that the land in question which was the headquarters and camp of the Boko Haram sect near the railway station in Maiduguri belongs to Yusuf's father-in-law, Alhaji Baba Fugu Alhaji Mohammed, the same man in whose house he went to hide when the heat was turned on him after he had set Maiduguri ablaze.

"According to the documents from the Ministry of Land and Survey, it was acquired in 1973. Where was the Governor in 1973 and where was Yusuf? If he died at the age of 39, it then means he was a mere five-year-old-boy by 1973 and remember he was not an indigene of Borno."

The SSG further explained that: "From available records, Alhaji Fugu made an application for the grant of a right of occupancy on January 20, 1973, an application which was granted by the Borno State Commissioner of Works and Housing on January 23, 1978. The instrument was registered as No 218 at page 218 in Volume 6 (Certificates of Occupancy) of the Lands Registry in the Office at Maiduguri and the land in question is 1.173 hectares. The Certificate of Occupancy No is NE/1422. In fact, Alhaji Baba Fugu personally signed to say that he received the original title deed on January 31, 1978. All the documents are there and most of those who were in charge then are alive, so these facts can easily be cross-checked. And if the governor did not give the man any plot of land, how could the security people prevail on him to revoke a non-existent allocation as being reported?"

[Description of Source: Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English -- Website of the privately owned newspaper close to former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili; URL: http://www.compassnewspaper.com]

Nigeria: Investigators Interrogate 'Suspected' Members of Islamic Sect

AFP20090813578005 Abuja Daily Trust Online in English 13 Aug 09

[Report by Isa Umar Gusau: "Investigators Grill Sect Suspects, Visit Trouble Spots"]

Fourteen investigators who arrived Maiduguri from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Nigeria Police headquarters in Abuja to probe the recent crisis in parts of the north have interrogated suspected members of the Boko Haram sect who are in custody at the state police headquarters, security sources told our correspondent yesterday.

The investigators, led by a commissioner of police, Adeola Adeniyi, recorded statements of the over 40 suspects.

The detectives have also visited some areas that were most affected during four day crisis that erupted in parts of Borno State, leading to the death of over 700 people including policemen and soldiers.

The team which came to Maiduguri on Sunday was said to have visited the destroyed Ibn thaimiya, which used to be the residence of the late leader of the sect, Malam Mohammed Yusuf which also served as enclave of the sect at Unguwar Doki near the railway terminus in Maiduguri on a fact finding mission.

Sources also said the team also visited the Maiduguri new prisons and numerous police stations and other public buildings that were destroyed during the crisis spread across Gamboru, old Maiduguri, Low cost, Kasuwan Shanu, Abbaganaram, Galadima among other parts of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Local Government Area.

It was gathered that the team is likely to visit Potiskum in Yobe State and parts of Bauchi where similar crisis involving the sect members and security men took place and will likely re-interrogate suspects in police custody. It was not clear if the team is visiting Kano or whether a different team would be deployed by the force headquarters.

President Umaru Yar'Adua had ordered a comprehensive probe into the crisis which began in Bauchi on Saturday 25th July, 2009 and spread to Borno, Yobe and Kano the following day. The crisis lasted four days in parts of Borno during which soldiers battled the sect members.

[Description of Source: Abuja Daily Trust Online in English -- Website of the independent pro-North daily; URL: http://www.news.dailytrust.com/]

Nigeria: Yar'Adua Orders Investigation Into Killing of Religious Sect Leader

AFP20090805578003 Abuja Nigeriafirst in English 1509 GMT 04 Aug 09

[Unattributed report: "Death of 'Boko Haram' Religious Sect Leader Under Probe"]

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has ordered an investigation into the alleged killing of leader of the fanatical religious sect Boko Haram and the events that led to the recent religious unrest in some parts of the country.

At a joint news briefing he held on Tuesday August 4 with his counterpart from the Benin Republic, Mr Boni Yayi, at the end of the bilateral talks at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, President Yar'Adua said government will act decisively on the findings.

The President will get the report in one week.

President Yar'Adua explained to the nation that at a security meeting on Monday which he summoned shortly on arrival from Brazil, he directed the National Security Adviser with other security agencies "to carry out a post-mortem of the recent religious unrest and the events that unfolded as a first step towards during the crisis".

The President said the investigation is expected to review how Malam Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the Boko Haram religious sect was killed and the circumstances under which he was killed.

"We will examine this report to determine what actions to take; whether we need to carry out further investigations into the entire matter because it is really a very serious issue. I have been emphasizing since this administration came into power on our uncompromising stand for the rule of law. Everybody in this country and all officials are aware, clearly ad unambiguously, on the stand of this administration on the issue of rule of law", the President said.

President Yar'Adua also explained further that it was not in the best interest of the nation for hasty decisions to be taken in such sensitive matters

"Things like this when they happen, you do not rush to take precipitate actions. We first try to investigate, confirm and make sure that we get to the facts as they happen.

"Now this is the action I took as soon as I came back from Brazil yesterday. I met with all the security agencies and decided on this cause of action".

[Description of Source: Abuja Nigeriafirst in English -- Website of the Nigerian Government Office of Public Communications; URL: http://www.nigeriafirst.org]

Nigeria: Official Says 'Unemployment' Responsible for Recent Sect Violence

AFP20090814578011 Lagos Daily Independent Online in English 14 Aug 09

[Report by Chibuzor Emejor: "NDE Boss Blames Boko Haram Mayhem on Unemployment"]

Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Abubakar Mohammed, has observed that youth unemployment and poverty were responsible for the recent destruction of lives and property by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, in some northern states.

Mohammed stated this when he led the management of the NDE to inspect and assess the extent of damage of the agency's office complex, vehicles and other vital documents in Maiduguri, one of the centres of the mayhem.

He expressed sadness over the unfortunate incident that resulted in the burning of the ground floor of the directorate's office complex, four operational vehicles, and administrative records.

The DG wondered why the agency saddled with the responsibility of creating jobs for the unemployed populace should be the target of Boko Haram's attack.

He, however, commended the staff of Borno office for their resilience and dedication to duty in spite of the un-conducive environment they have been exposed to.

Earlier, the state Coordinator of NDE, Wakil Kalanga, had narrated how some members of the religious sect camped in the NDE office for four days.

[Description of Source: Lagos Daily Independent Online in English -- Website of the privately owned independent daily; URL: http://www.independentngonline.com]

Nigeria: Detectives in Borno State to Probe Boko Haram Leader's Death

AFP20090815614006 Abuja Hot FM in English 11 Aug 09

Fourteen detectives from the criminal investigation department of the Nigeria Police Force have arrived in Maiduguri, Borno State in compliance with President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s directive to probe the sectarian crisis in Borno State.

The team which is led by a commissioner of police, Adeola Adeniyi, is expected to conduct full investigation into causes of the crisis and whether or not the leader of the Boko Haram sect was executed by the police as widely reported.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua last week stated that the federal government could not take action on the alleged extra judicial killing of the Boko Haram leader, Yusuf Mohammed, until an investigation is conducted on the issue.

However, calm has returned to Borno State after days of violence that claimed hundreds of life.

Meanwhile, Sokoto State Police Commissioner Mohammed Abubakar says his officers and men were still at alert after the recent Boko Haram religious uprising in some Northern states.

Abubakar told newsmen in Sokoto Monday that intelligence officers have been deployed on foot patrol in the metropolis and the local government areas.

He explained that their duty was to monitor the conduct and behavior of the people.

The police chief said mosques, banks, markets, and other public places have also been provided with sufficient personnel to effectively mange the security situation.

Abubakar added that the command would continue to evolve security strategies aimed at improving security in the state.

Abubakar assured the people that the police were ever ready for action as far as maintaining law and order in all parts of the state with concern.

[Description of Source: Abuja Hot FM in English - privately owned, independent radio]

Nigeria: Boko Haram Vows To Continue Religious War

AFP20090815606002 Abuja Punch in English 14 Aug 09 p 1

A new twist has emerged in the Boko Haram crisis, with the new leadership of the sect threatening to launch attacks that would make Nigeria ungovernable. The group, which claimed to have ties with Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, said it would wipe out non-Muslims and turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. In an email to Punch, titled, "We speak as Boko Haram," the Acting Leader of the group, Mallam Sanni Umaru, said the sect was opposed to Western civilization. Umaru said the sect had started a Jihad to ensure what he described as "the rule of the majority Muslims" in the country. He wrote, "We will teach Nigeria a lesson, a very bitter one. From the month of August, we shall carry out series of bombings in Southern and Northern Nigerian cities, beginning with Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, and Port Harcourt. The bombing will not stop until Shari’a and Western Civilization is wiped off from Nigeria. We will not stop until these evil cities are tuned into ashes."

But speaking at a news conference in Lagos on 14 August, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the current effort by the federal government to address the Boko Haram uprising in some states in the North as "a flight into escapism." Soyinka explained that until the core issues bordering on "corruption, inequality, social injustices and the lack of educational opportunities, religious intolerance and arrogant claim to interdict the dissemination of religious beliefs in some part of the country are addressed," Boko Haram would continue to be a recurring event in the polity.

Umaru said the killing of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, "in a callous, wicked, and malicious manner will not in any way deter us. They have lost their lives in the struggle for Allah." According to him "Boko Haram lost over 1000 of our martyr members killed by the wicked Nigerian army and police mostly of Southern Nigeria extraction; that the Southern states, especially the infidel Yoruba, Igbo and Ijaw infidels will be our immediate target." Umaru refuted the common belief that Boko Haram means "western education is a sin." "Boko Haram actually means ‘Western Civilization is forbidden.’ The difference is that while the first gives the impression that we are opposed to formal education coming from the West, that is Europe, which is not true, the second affirms our belief in the supremacy of Islamic culture [not Education], for culture is broader, it includes education but not determined by Western Education."

[Description of Source: Abuja Punch in English - independent news daily]

Nigeria: Religious Sect Leader Vows To Continue Waging Religious War

AFP20090815578004 Lagos This Day Online in English 15 Aug 09

[Report by Joseph Ushigiale and Segun Awofadeji: "Boko Haram: We're Ready for Battle, New Leader Says Soyinka Links Crisis to Prevailing Impunity"]

The emergent leader of the controversial Boko Haram religious sect, Sanni Umaru has vowed to continue waging a religious war "in Nigeria which no force on earth can stop." Umaru in an e-mail sent to newsrooms said his group's aim "is to Islamise Nigeria and ensure the rule of the majority Muslims in the country," adding that "we will teach Nigeria a lesson, a very bitter one."

But speaking at a news conference in Lagos Friday, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the current effort by the federal government to address the Boko Haram uprising in some states in the North as "a flight into escapism." Soyinka explained that until the core issues bordering on "corruption, inequality, social injustices and the lack of educational opportunities, religious intolerance and arrogant claim to interdict the dissemination of religious beliefs in some part of the country are addressed," Boko Haram would continue to be a recurring event in the polity.

In the statement, "We Speak as Boko Haram", Umaru outlined a six-point agenda which he said the sect is ready to unleash on both the Northern and Southern parts of the country beginning this month.

According to him: "from the Month of August, we shall carry out series of bombing in Southern and Northern Nigerian cities, beginning with Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt. The bombing will not stop until Sharia and Western Civilisation is wiped off from Nigeria. We will not stop until these evil cities are turned into ashes."

Umaru said the killing of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, "in a callous, wicked and malicious manner will not in any way deter us. They have lost their lives in the struggle for Allah."

According to him "Boko Haram lost over 1000 of our martyr members killed by the wicked Nigerian army and police mostly of Southern Nigeria extraction; that the Southern states, especially the infidel Yoruba, Igbo and Ijaw infidels will be our immediate target."

Meanwhile recent statistics released by the Bauchi State Police command reveal that death toll in the recent religious disturbance in the state has risen to 52. Spokesman of the State Police Command, ASP Muhammad Barau, confirmed that the number of the sect's members killed during last month's clash with the police in Bauchi metropolis has risen to 52.

Police had earlier announced that 39 people were killed in the clash which erupted when members of the sect attacked a police station in the state capital on a Sunday morning. The crisis was to later spread to other neighboring states of Borno, Yobe and Kano.

The state police public relations officer said the death toll rose following the death of 13 additional members of the sect who previously sustained life threatening injuries during the crisis and were receiving treatment at the state's specialist hospital in Bauchi

He said the victims were given mass burial to prevent the possible outbreak of an epidemic after their families failed to come forward to claim their bodies for burial.

Umaru refuted the common belief that Boko Haram means "western education is a sin." "Boko Haram actually means 'Western Civilisation is forbidden.' The difference is that while the first gives the impression that we are opposed to formal education coming from the West, that is Europe, which is not true, the second affirms our belief in the supremacy of Islamic culture (not Education), for culture is broader, it includes education but not determined by Western Education."

Soyinka who spoke during an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos said he was "worried by some satanic language which tend to lull society into a sense of insecurity," adding that "Boko Haram and other ambiguities of anti-humanistic offences are a grab-back of other anomalies of the realism of our existence."

Citing serveral cases of religious crises mostly in the North that culminated in scores of deaths, Soyinka noted that "in all these incidents both government and the citizenry had exhibited complacency in the matter of extra- judicial killings".

The Nobel Laureate stated that "I abhor all forms of extra-judicial killings and there is no evidence of a rigorous attempt by government to pursue the killers and everyone went to sleep and these again went unchallenged. So these are the root causes of Boko Haram where language of appeasement has been used to encourage it or these things are happening with government's tacit support."

[Description of Source: Lagos This Day Online in English -- Website of the independent daily; URL: http://www.thisdayonline.com]

Nigeria: Report Says Borno Governor to set up Preaching Censors Board

AFP20090815619004 Lagos TheWeek in English 10 Aug 09 - 17 Aug 09 pp 27-30

[Report by Sunny Nwankwo: "A Controversial Death"]

Muhammed Yusuf, the Controversial leader of the Boko Haram Sect is killed under controversial circumstances after being captured by the military. But will his death end sectarian crises in Northern Nigerian?

After five days of terror unleashed upon the northern region of Nigeria by an Islamic sect that he single-handedly built with the vile of his tongue and suspected charm of his esoteric wizardry, Muhammed Yusuf the self-styled leader of the infamous Boko Haram Islamic Sect had met his waterloo in the arms of the security forces.

He was killed along side hundreds of his other followers, even though many others had been on the run on hearing that Yusuf the mighty baobab of his invincibility was suddenly picked up in a goat pen and shot dead.

Although the Boko Haram Leader’s death had raised a dust of controversy within and outside the country where in extra-judicial killings were being alleged, the people of Maiduguri and environs had heaved a heavy sigh of relief about his demise. However, following international outcry, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is said to have ordered a probe into the death of the militant leader.

Even though his suspected disciples have hitherto faced the wrath of the raging police which is leaving no stone unturned to see that the Boko Haram sect members are extinct once and for good. The arrest and killing of a former commissioner in the Ali Sheriff first term, Alhaji Buji fai, had really shocked the entire state.

Fai who was a former commissioner for religious affairs had suddenly resigned his appointment in 2007, gave up political life and devoted his time to the promotion of the Boko Haram sect’s ideology and his little business. He was said to have been one of the chief financiers of the sect until his death.

Upon hearing of the killing of their leader, Fai took to his heels and the police were said to have trailed him to his village in Fai, where he was a political figure, but was said to have been rejected by those whom he had been their benefactor. He returned to Maiduguri and on a tip off, the police surrounded him in one of his buildings where he continued to engage the security team with fire until he ran out of bullets.

He was simply picked up and chained. He demanded that he must see the state governor. The curious commander of Operation Flush took him to the government house but unfortunately the governor was not in the office. He was then taken to the police headquarters where he was shot.

Meanwhile, impeccable sources from within the security team who participated in the operation that led to the arrest of the dead Sect leader, revealed that Muhammed Yusuf was actually arrested, riddled alive and even interrogated before he eventually faced summary execution in the hands of the angry police and soldiers who had allegedly riddles his body with about 100 bullets.

During the brief interrogation, unremorseful Yusuf defended his order that his men should arm themselves and even make explosives. According to him, "that is the only way I can defend myself from you the police and soldiers who are after my life."

Though the killing of Yusuf has given the tormented residents of Maiduguri and environs some degree of rest of mind and assurance that the nucleus of the sect had been busted, a fresh controversy had since crept into the way and manner the sect leader was killed.

The Human Rights Watch led by Eric Guttschuss has demanded an investigation in to what they described as the extra-judicial killing of Muhammed Yusuf in police custody, which they described as "shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for the rule of law."

Other right activists added that the Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for this unlawful killing and any others associated with the recent violence in northern Nigeria.

This allegation had set the men of the Nigerian police and the army against one another as they tried to clear themselves of the alleged extra-judicial killing.

Colonel Ben Ahanotu, who commanded the military operation against Boko Haram, claimed that he personally captured Yusuf, who was met unarmed and he gave himself up willingly, "All I know is that in the attack, I was able to pick him up from his hideout and handed him over to police," he told the BBC. "I asked him why he did what he has done and his response was that he would explain to me later. But he was OK. As I got him alive, I handed him over to the authorities."