Nigeria: Report Gives Details, Says Terrorist Groups Gaining Foothold in Nigeria

The state of insecurity in the state worsened yesterday as five suspected armed robbers killed a policeman and three members of staff of Shani Local Government area and carted away millions of naira that was meant for the salaries of the local government employees.

Witnesses said the police had escorted the staff of the finance department of the local government who withdrew the unspecified amount of money at a bank in Biu town but were intercepted at Marama junction, along the Biu-Shani road.

Chairman of the local government, Modu Wallama, confirmed that the armed robbers, who drove in a white Starlet saloon car, intercepted the staff and killed them.

He revealed that "they brandished sophisticated guns and shot the victims before they took away all the money that was withdrawn from the bank."

He said he had informed top officials of the Borno State government and security agencies.

"We have also recovered the dead bodies for burial," he said.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Lawan Abdullahi, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident.

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

UK Security Agents Uncover Al-Qa'ida Plot To Operate From Nigeria

AFP20110706598001 Lagos This Day Online in English 04 Jul 11

[Report by Paul Ohia, Michael Olugbode and Shola Oyeyipo: "UK Security Agents: Al-Qaeda Plans To Operate From Nigeria"]

British spy chiefs said at the weekend that they had uncovered a plot by Al-Qaeda to make Nigeria their headquarters from where they could carry out attacks on Europe.

Also, members of the fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, were on the prowl at the weekend as they killed two brothers and another person in Maiduguri, Borno State, during an alleged house-to-house search for non-Muslims.

London-based newspaper, Mirror, reported Sunday that Prime Minister David Cameron had been alerted by the spy chiefs on the determination by the terrorist group to make Nigeria a base for plotting terror attacks on the West.

The report aligned the intention of Al-Qaeda with the attacks by Boko Haram whom they described as "dramatically stepping up their campaign".

Mirror quoted an unnamed British official as lamenting that "there are dozens of flights every day from Lagos to London. We either help stop the terrorists here, or we will be dealing with them on the streets of Britain."

However, there are only three direct flights to London everyday - by Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Arik Air.

On Christmas Day in 2009, before Boko Haram became very threatening, an alleged young Nigerian Al-Qaeda operative, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to bomb a United States Delta airliner on its way to Detroit but was stopped by the plane occupants.

Last year, Reuters reported that an Al-Qaeda group in North Africa had offered to give Nigerian Muslims training and weapons to fight Christians.

"We are ready to train your people in weapons and give you whatever support we can in men, arms and munitions to enable you to defend our people in Nigeria," the statement by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said, according to the news agency.

It was signed in the name of Abu Mus'ab Abdel-Wadoud, who was described as the "emir" or leader of the group and appeared on Islamic websites that often carry statements from groups using the Al-Qaeda name around the world.

"You are not alone in this test. The hearts of Mujahideen are in pain over your troubles and desire to help you as much as possible in the Islamic Maghreb, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya," it said.

Last Saturday's attacks by the Boko Haram group began at about 11pm and lasted till midnight at the Bulabuli-Ngaranaram area of Maiduguri, the state capital.

Witnesses revealed that the attack was carried out by three unidentified gunmen who scaled the fences of the houses in selective search for non-Muslim residents.

At the end of their attacks, three persons, comprising one Abba Panam, a local mason and two blood brothers - Sani Umar, 35, and Apagu Umar, 30 - were killed at different locations.

During the attacks, an ex-soldier, Pa Joseph, managed to escape with several bullet wounds.

The wife of late Panam, who spoke to journalists on the attack amidst sobbing and wailing, said the three men jumped into their compound around 11pm and asked everyone in the house to come out for checks. They thereafter separated the women from the men and asked her husband to lie down.

According to her: "They asked if my husband will stop being a Christian and become one of them (Muslim) and my husband told them that 'no, I am already a Christian'. Then they shot him in the head. I came out after they had gone and saw my husband, the father of my nine children, dead with wounds in his head."

She added that the men that killed her husband were dressed like soldiers, but that their trousers were not all that very long.

In the home of Umar, which was a stone's throw from Panam's, the eldest brother of the Panam brothers told THISDAY that he was informed by those in their house that the gunmen attacked at about 11:45pm and left within 10 minutes as his two younger brothers were also killed.

He said: "When they entered the house, they asked for money from the youngest of my brothers, Apagu, who is 30 years old and an oil business man. His wife immediately entered into th e house to bring out the money in the house while they held my brothers down at gunpoint. When they got the money, they said that was not only what they came for and then shot both of them in the head."

He added that apart from the suspicion that they were killed by Boko Haram members, he also suspected that his two brothers' assailants might be those that owed his junior brother Apagu some huge amount of money from the transactions he had with them in the past.

"My brother had told me that some of his business associates are those suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect; and since after the attack on them in 2009 most of them ran away without paying him his money. He told me some three months ago that some of them came back and paid him his money while some others refused to. I believe those that killed my brothers did so because of the money they owed," he said.

Confirming the development, the military Joint Task Force (JTF) said the incident involved an ex-soldier, Joseph. It also said it was shocked because none of their sectors on patrol in the Bulabuli-Ngaranaram area heard any gunshot that led to the killing of the other three.

In another incident, barely an hour after the Caretaker Chairman of Jere Local Government Area, Alhaji Mustapaha Ba'ale, was shot dead in his house in Maiduguri by suspected members of Boko Haram, the group was alleged to have bombed another local drinking joint in the town leaving several persons dead and many injured.

Although the casualty figure could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report, but accounts revealed that many persons were killed in the blast, which occurred right in the middle of the usually congested drinking joint.

One of the witnesses said five persons were already dead and that many others were rushed to the hospital.

Confirming the attack, JTF spokesman, Col. Victor Ebhaleme, told journalists on phone that "we have just got the report; we are on our way there, and we will get back to you".

A witness, Mallam Abdullahi, who spoke on phone with journalists, said: "The bomb went off right in the middle of the Wulari Mammy market, near one Jummai Watanda shop. It is a popular joint within Wulari market."

He added that he saw the security people evacuating the victims - some dead and many wounded.

"We saw soldiers open fire on a Volkswagen Golf car that they asked to stop but refused to stop... We really don't have the full picture of happenings there because the soldiers have cordoned off the whole area," he said.

Ebhaleme said: "It was gathered that the Boko Haram gunmen now resort to muffling their guns with pillow-foams so that the sound will not be heard by anyone."

He added that some suspected members of the sect were arrested yesterday morning following a tip-off and they were undergoing interrogation.

In the attack on Ba'ale, it was learnt that he was killed in his house around 4pm.

According to witnesses, the deceased council boss, who was appointed by Governor Kashim Shettima two weeks ago, was attacked in his Madinatu house in Old Maiduguri by unknown gunmen who opened fire on him and left him dead.

JTF officials confirmed the incident to journalists at about 4.35p.m, also yesterday.

The Chief of Staff to Governor Kashim Shettima, Hon. Abubakar Kyari, also confirmed the development on phone.

Although details of the killing remained sketchy, news of the incident went round the state capital and outside that the popular politician who represented Jere State constituency in the last House of Assembly, and contested and lost the House of Representatives election for the same area on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) had been killed by the fundamentalists.

The death of Ba'ale, who was in his early 50s, added to the list of prominent individuals killed by the group including Awana Ali Ngala (ANPP Vice-Chairman, North-east), Modu Fannami Gubio (former ANPP gubernatorial candidate) and Abba Anas El-Kanemi (th e brother of Shehu of Borno).

In a related development, detachments of security agencies were at the weekend dispatched to secure the Jamata Bridge on River Niger, along Lokoja-Abuja Road and Itobe Bridge, linking Ajaokuta with the Eastern flank of Kogi State following intelligence reports that Boko Haram was planning to detonate bombs on the bridges linking the West and East to the Northern parts of Nigeria.

While confirming the presence of security agents at the bridges, the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, said it was part of proactive arrangement by the command to forestall any form of security breach. He assured citizens that Kogi State was not under any security threat.

"Security in Kogi is not under any threat. The security presence you noticed is part of proactive arrangement by the command to forestall any security breach," he said.

However, a highly placed security officer, who confided in journalists, revealed that all security formations had been put on alert so as to prevent the state from attack and prevent the Boko Haram from settling down there.

According to him, following the clampdown on the Boko Haram up North, members of the sect were believed to be planning to infiltrate Kogi, Nassarawa and Niger States.

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

Nigeria: Police Raid Camp of Radical Islamic Sect

AFP20110706686004 Port Harcourt The Port Harcourt Telegraph in English 06 Jul 11 p 7

[Unattributed report: "Police Raid Boko Haram Hideout in Bauchi"]

Three people were confirmed killed yesterday, while several others sustained injuries, when police raided an alleged hide-out of Boko Haram at Anguwan Kura in Jahun ward in Bauchi State. Our correspondent gathered that the sound of the gunshots caused pandemonium among residents in the area particularly in Dutse Tanshi, Danjuma Goje Street, Federal Low Cost Housing and Games Village.

The police operation which lasted almost six hours was said to have been a pro-active action aimed at smoking out the Boko Haram outlets in the state.

Speaking to our correspondent, an eye witness account said that he saw one man that was shot on his stomach and another man shot on his hand and legs.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mohammad Barau, said that, "the police received information that criminals were hiding in one house in Anguwan Kur and that based on this information, a team of police men cordoned the house and the people inside the house opened fire on the police. The police attacked them and overpowered them".

Mohammed Barau explained that the police searched the house and found guns and ammunitions, while those who were injured were arrested and taken the injured to the hospital.

When newsmen asked whether the suspects were members of the Boko Haram sect, the police spokesman said he could not yet establish if they were members of the group or not and added that the team that carried out the raid just came back from its operation and was yet to make a detailed report.

Meanwhile senators met with service chiefs in camera yesterday to discuss the Boko Haram onslaught claiming lives and property in the North, particularly in Kaduna, Maiduguri, Borno, and Bauchi, where the police have attacked the hideout of the jihadists.

But Boko Haram piled on the terror in Maiduguri, killing seven persons, including two policemen, one soldier, one Customs officer, and three civilians.

One of the policemen, Babagana Angus, was attached to the Criminal Investigation Department [CID] at the Gwange divisional police station. Gunmen stormed his residence at about 11 a.m. on a motorcycle and disappeared as soon as they accomplished their dastardly mission. The other policeman was mowed down at the same Gwange at about 3.30 p.m. The soldier was killed at London Chiki at about 4 p.m.

Joint Task Force [JTF] Commander, Major General Jack Nwaogbo, confirmed the murder of the soldier.

In attendance at the meeting in the Senate were National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi; Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin; Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, and State Security Service [SSS] Director, Ita Ekpenyong.

Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba told reporters later that the meeting covered all security challenges, including the Boko Haram phenomenon. "Questions were asked, clarifications sought, and they were given. The security chiefs assured Nigerians that they are on top of the situation and that these challenges, especially the challenge of Boko Haram, will be contained sooner than later," he said. He added that the security chiefs said arrests have been made.

The initial concern of the security chiefs was on an enabling law to arrest suspects but that has been laid to rest with the Anti Terrorism Act. Suspects were arrested in the past only for them to be released because there was no law under which to charge them to court. "But with the promulgation of Anti Terrorism Act we now have appropriate legal framework within which we can deal with the situation. The Act has also made the international community to have confidence in our readiness to fight terrorism," Ndoma-Egba noted.

Back in Bauchi, three persons were killed on Tuesday and several others injured when the police attacked the hideout of Boko Haram in the Anguwan Kura area of the metropolis.

Gunshots caused panic among residents, particularly around Dutse Tanshi, Danjuma Goje Street, Federal Low Cost Housing, and Games Village. The police operation, which lasted about six hours, was a pro-active action to smoke out Boko Haram members from their strongholds in the state.

The meeting in the senate forced the shifting of screening of ministerial nominees to today.

President Goodluck Jonathan has replaced on the list the name of Tonye Cole with that of former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now World Bank Managing Director.

Those who were to be screened yesterday included Olusegun Aganga, Obadiah Ando, Bassey Ewa, Abba Moro, Samuel Ortom, Bukar Tijani, Mike Omolememen, Barth Nnaji, Iris Umar, and Viola Onwuliri.

Bello Mohammed, Bolaji Abdullahi, Olugbenga Ashiru, Akinwumi Adesina, Olusola Obada, Olajumoke Akinjide, Lawan Ngama, Bashar Yuguda, and Zainab Kuchi.

[Description of Source: Port Harcourt The Port Harcourt Telegraph in English -- Rivers State owned daily]

Nigeria: Police Arrest 15 Suspected Islamic Sect Members in Taraba State

AFP20110707565009 Lagos The Guardian Online in English 2300 GMT 06 Jul 11

[Report by Chuks Collins, Charles Akpeji, Ali Garba, Obire Onakemu, Njadvara Musa and Terhemba Daka: "Four Soldiers Injured in Fresh Boko Haram Blasts; Police Arrest 15 Suspected Sect Members in Taraba; Explosives Discovered in Bauchi Bank"]

As clues continue to elude the Federal Government as to how to tame the prowling Boko Haram, the group yesterday launched a fresh attack on security operatives, injuring four soldiers.

But the police have arrested 15 suspected members of the sect in Taraba and discovered explosives in a bank in Bauchi.

The bombing of a military patrol vehicle by the suspected Boko Haram members, which injured four soldiers yesterday at the Maiduguri New Prison, has forced the Joint Taskforce Operation Restore Order (JTORO) to condone off five wards in the Maiduguri metropolis.

The condoning, according to the commander of JTORO, Maj.-Gen. Jack Okechukwu Nwaogbo, was "unavoidable and necessary" to massively hunt for the fleeing armed sect members that have been terrorising and killing Maiduguri residents and members of the taskforce for over three weeks. He said that soldiers were able to arrest a prime suspect of the blasts in Abagaram ward.

He said with the arrest of the suspect, he would be an asset to the security taskforce on "information and intelligence" gathering on the identities and locations of other sect members living in the five affected wards.

Two explosives, suspected to be bombs, were discovered on the premises of a first generation bank in Toro Local Council of Bauchi State at about 9.00 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state Command, Mr. Mohammed Barau, confirmed the incident to The Guardian.

According to him, a bomb was also planted by unknown gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.

A top official of the council, who asked not to be identified publicly, said one suspect detained in Toro Police cell for stealing a goat was freed by the gunmen.

The incident created panic among residents and students of former Toro Teachers College now known as Government College Toro. Out of fear, most of them slept in the bush while classes and administrative work were suspended for security purposes.

The PPRO revealed that a team from the command's anti-bomb blast squad was immediately deployed in the area.

In Taraba, the police arrested 15 persons suspected to be Boko Haram members.

Also interrogated in connection with the activities of the sect was a top serving government functionary.

The suspects, our correspondent learnt, were raided in their hide-out located along Mile Six in the state capital by the police following a tip-off by some residents of the state.

Confirming the report, the Police Commissioner, Mrs. Chintua A. Onu, agreed that some suspects of the Boko Haram were in the police custody but he refused to comment on the top government functionary that was being interrogated.

She said: "It is an issue that I cannot discuss because we are not sure. Even if we are sure, it is the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) that will speak on the issue and not me. "

Also answering questions from The Guardian on the same issue, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Group Captain Agyu Sule Gani (rtd), said his office had been informed of the police breakthrough.

He said: "I was informed by the Commissioner of Police that some people believed to be members of the Boko Haram have been arrested." Like the commissioner, he denied knowledge of the government's functionary who was invited for interrogation.

Further down South yesterday, five persons have been confirmed killed in a renewed violence by a militant group in Anambra State.

The group, with the ironic name, Adike Peace Foundation (APF), according to a statement presented to the Anambra Police Commissioner, Muhtari Ibrahim by the Obosi community in Idemili North Local Council of the state, has since 2006 intimidated and harassed virtually every resident of the town while seizing and converting their lands, buildings and other chattels.

In a two-page document signed on behalf of the traditional ruler, HRM Igwe Josiah Nwakobi, Eze Obosi, by two palace chiefs, Chief Ernest Ojiaku, the Iyasele and Dr. Patrick Osakwe, the Odu Nkata-ukwu, the community supported the police boss who paid a courtesy call on the monarch yesterday, in a bid to check the APF assault on the citizens.

According to the presentation, "Obosi has been noted for peace and hospitality, discipline and decorum until 2006 institution of a group called Adike Peace Foundation who were originally formed to ward off possible encroachers from Obosi lands. However, the group of several hundreds of boys was hijacked from the official control of the Igwe-in-Council by one of our sons... who turned APF into his private army, and since then Obosi has not known peace."

Muhtari asserted that the APF was already outlawed before he assumed duty in the state some months back. He also reiterated that security was not a monopoly of the police, but that of everyone. He, therefore, urged the residents to work in concert with his command in the interest of the state.

Besides, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has called on Nigerians resident outside their states of origin to always live in peace with their host communities irrespective of their religious or political affiliations.

Tambuwal, who noted that Nigeria's sovereignty had never been so threatened following the insecurity in the country, also warned that there was no country in Africa that would accommodate refugees from Nigeria arising from an outbreak of war.

Addressing a delegation of the Arewa Consultative Forum, South-South and South-East geo-political zones in his office in Abuja yesterday, the Speaker said God created Nigeria and imbued it with various peoples, tendencies, inclinations, tribes as well as beliefs, hence the need for all to live together for the country's development.

In the same vein, the President of Christian Welfare Initiative (CWI), Archbishop Magnus A. Atilade, has stressed the need for the Federal Government to beef up security nationwide.

In its general meeting held yesterday in Lagos, Atilade stressed that the bombing of the Police Headquarters in Abuja was a grievous security breach and an affront to the government.

[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: Bar Union Faults Security Body for Not Prosecuting Islamic Sect Members

AFP20110707565023 Lagos This Day Online in English 07 Jul 11

[Report by Tobi Soniyi: "NBA Faults SSS on Boko Haram Suspects"]

The Nigerian Bar Association Wednesday in Abuja faulted the decision of the State Security Services (SSS) not to prosecute the arrested members of the Boko Haram sect for alleged terrorism.

Addressing a press conference to herald plans by the association to hold an international conference on criminal justice reforms in the country, the association's President, Chief Joseph Daudu SAN said the decision to prosecute or not lies with the Attorney General of the Federation and not the SSS.

He pointed out that SSS was not in a position to decide on whom to prosecute, adding that it would amount to usurping the constitutional duties of the AGF for the SSS to start deciding on whom to prosecute.

According to him, SSS should only be seen and not heard.

He advised agencies and institutions of government to learn to keep to the limit of their duties and stop dabbling into what did not concern them.

He also denied the claim that he was appointed an honorary special adviser to the President but said that NBA gave informed opinion on issues to the government which government could either take or disregard. The association also expressed concern at the state security in the country.