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

Broad based consultations

"There were broad-based consultations on the outcry for the withdrawal of military. But in the light of this discussion, the meeting generally agreed that it is premature to withdraw the military. What was needed was that if there are cases of individual misbehavior by members of the Joint Task Force, the authorities will look into those cases", he said. He added that "right now we know that one or two soldiers who were found to have done things in excess are being questioned by the relevant authorities. What is important is that the army is playing a great role and with the situation we are in now, if you withdraw the army, we don’t know what will happen."

According to him, "what is most important is to manage the military until such a time that it is clear that some of the potent threat are lowered." He said: "The President this afternoon held a broad-based consultation with leaders from Borno State, the North East and Arewa Consultative Forum on the security situation in Borno State and other parts of the north. This meeting was broadly attended by political leaders. The meeting explored different options; consulted widely on what we can do together to bring about peace and security in Borno State and other affected areas. The meeting was very fruitful and indeed, this is the beginning of further dialogue to find solution to this problem.

[Description of Source: Lagos Vanguard in English -- Independent widely read daily]

Government Reportedly Agrees to Some Boko Haram's Demands

AFP20110722619002 Lagos The Source in English 18 Jul 11 - 25 Jul 11 36-37

[Report by Chidiebere Onyemaizu: "Boko Haram: The secret deals"]

Former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff is fingered as the big masquerade behind the insurgent Islamic sect, Boko Haram. But the former governor says he is unjustly being maligned

Like a web, the Boko Haram saga appears to be fast entangling the immediate past governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff. Hard as Sheriff tries to free himself, more allegations tumble in of his links to the dreaded sect. The latest came from the chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum [ACF], Jerry Useni, a retired General.

Before Useni’s bombshell on Sheriff, it was being mooted in hushed tones that the former Borno governor actually created and used the militant sect to prosecute his electoral battles in the past. But last week, the ACF chief pointedly declared that Boko Haram is Sheriff’s brain child.

Useni had disclosed that as deputy national chairman of the All Nigerian People’s Party [ANPP], he once visited Borno and saw youths hawking petrol on the streets of Maiduguri and when he inquired from Sheriff why he allowed the situation, he told him (Useni) that they (the youths) were useful.

"I asked him (Sheriff) why he allowed them to be selling on major roads like that and he said ‘No, no, leave them. They are very useful. During election, we can use them to turn everywhere. So, it means that they were used during the elections, so that was how it all started."

At the beginning, the relationship between the sect and the former governor was so cordial that the sect allegedly nominated one of its members, Buju Foi, into the Sheriff cabinet as commissioner for religious affairs.

But the Boko Haram’s alliance with the former governor allegedly thawed when Sheriff turned down their demand that Borno State be Islamized. The worsening relationship between the two parties, it was alleged, climaxed with Foi quitting the Sheriff government.

Both Foi and Boko Haram’s leader, Yusuf Mohammed were killed in August 2009 during government’s offensive on the sect’s headquarters. At the time of his brutal end, Foi was said to be Boko Haram’s financier.

The controversial killing of Yusuf, Foi and other top Boko Haram cadres in 2009 is now being linked with the high caliber of individuals behind the sect’s emergence. The theory is that the men were finished off to prevent them from revealing other high profile members.

After the government’s assault on its stronghold in 2009 with Sheriff’s tacit support, Boko Haram, allegedly became convinced that the former governor had indeed used and dumped them. And from then on, the sect never hid its anti-Sheriff stance.

In June, the sect gave the trial of Sheriff for the alleged killing of its leaders in 2009 as one of the conditions for dialogue with the government. Before the 2011 election, the sect visited what it perceived as Sheriff’s sins on his younger brother, Mudu Gubio, who was the ANPP gubernatorial candidate for Borno State. Gubio was assassinated in January by the sect.

Questions are now being asked as to whether Sheriff’s apology to the Boko Haram on 29 May 2011 was principally because, deep inside him, he knew that the sect had every reason to be angry, having been used and dumped.

In Sheriff’s apology to the group, he had said; "I wish to publicly tender my apology to Jama’atulAhliss-SunnaLadda’ await Wal Jihad (Boko Haram’s real name) and other groups I might have offended in the course of discharging my duties as the executive governor of Borno State. It is human to err but divine to forgive."

Apparently to get to the root of the former governor’s alleged fraternity with Boko Haram, the State Security Service [SSS], last week, grilled him for several hours. Sheriff was also summoned to Aso Rock last week by President Goodluck Jonathan to explain his alleged role in the formation of the sect.

But the former governor’s camp has since denied that their principal was invited or arrested by the SSS. They insist that Sheriff went there on his own volition to offer advice on how to curb the Boko Haram menace. They also denied that Sheriff had any hand in the formation of the rampaging Islamist group.

The former governor himself has personally debunked insinuations making the round that the Boko Haram was his creation. He also denied being summoned to Aso Rock saying that as a former governor, he has the right to see the president.

He regretted that Useni linked him with the sect, saying "I respect him and I also believe that he should always be cautions when speaking in public, otherwise the age and the position he has earned would be in question."

Sheriff also clarified his apology to Boko Haram, saying "I didn’t apologize to the Boko Haram, I apologized to every citizen of Borno State when I was leaving office in my 29 May speech."

Meanwhile, the group is not giving up in its campaign of terror in Maiduguri. Last week, its bombing campaign claimed many lives including those of its own combatants.

The Joint Military Task Force deployed to the city to hunt down members of the group has also stepped up its operations, engaging in house-to-house search for possible insurgents.

But a group calling itself "Committee of Borno Elders and Leaders of Thought" issued a statement during the week accusing the task force of deliberately targeting innocent youths in the guise of smoking out the insurgents.

The group thus called for the withdrawal of the soldiers and their replacement with the police. The task force denied the allegation and blamed the Boko Haram for indiscriminate burning of houses and killing of innocent civilians with improvised explosive devices.

To restore calm to the troubled Borno State and other parts of the North ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, the minister of police affairs, Caleb Olubolade, last week, hinted that the federal government may dialogue with the sect.

"We will explore dialogue with any aggrieved groups so that peace will reign in Nigeria. We will look at what we can do to guarantee peace," he had said.

Keen followers of the unfolding Boko Haram saga are however wondering if the dialogue will be on the basis of the group’s demand for the Islamization of 12 Northern states and its rejection of Western values.

Already, the federal government appears willing to open discussion with the sect and end the growing insecurity in the North which has forced many to flee the worst affected areas. A major casualty of the sect's offensive is the University of Maiduguri which has been closed down following threats of attack by the group.

But the Boko Haram group reacted to the closure last week in a public statement claiming that: "We were surprised to hear the rumor that we are planning to attack the university. This is to us belittling and it is as if people are underrating us when we are aiming at the Aso Rock Villa."

However, the national security adviser, Andrew Owoye Azazi, has confirmed that the government would hold talks with all aggrieved individuals and groups to foster peaceful co-existence in the country.

Sources informed The Source that the government may have agreed to meet some key demands of the sect including punishing the killers of Yusuf, granting immunity from arrest and prosecution, and halting the current military operations in their strongholds.

These are some agreements, The Source affirmed, the government expects to yield results in the days ahead.

[Description of Source: Lagos The Source in English - independent weekly news magazine]

Nigeria: Army Kills Suspected Islamic Insurgent After Failed Bomb Attack

AFP20110722678013 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1018 GMT 22 Jul 11

KANO, Nigeria, July 22, 2011 (AFP) - A gun battle between Nigerian soldiers and suspected Islamists that broke out after a failed bomb attack in the country's troubled northeast left one extremist dead, the military said Friday.

"Around 6:50 pm on Thursday an explosive device was hurled at a military patrol team by some suspected members of Boko Haram," Lt. Col. Hassan Isijeh Mohammed told AFP of the incident in the violence-wracked city of Maiduguri.

He said the explosive missed its target and detonated without causing any casualties, prompting the attackers, suspected to be from the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, to open fire on the patrol.

"The soldiers responded and one of the attackers was killed in the shootout, while the rest fled," he said.

Mohammed said there was a second blast at a garbage collection site in the city, but no one was hurt.

"From all indications, the device exploded prematurely. We still don't know what the target was and nobody has been arrested," he added.

Boko Haram has been blamed for a wave of gun and bomb attacks, targeting military and police personnel, community and religious leaders as well as politicians in the past year.

The sect launched a short-lived armed rebellion in 2009 in a doomed bid to establish an Islamic state in parts of the north.

The uprising was crushed by the military, leaving hundreds, mostly sect members, dead and the sect's mosque and headquarters in ruins.

Hundreds of troops have been deployed to Maiduguri in recent weeks in a bid to stop the intensifying violence.

Soldiers have been accused of shooting civilians and burning their homes over residents' alleged cooperation with the extremists, which the military denies.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Kano Residents Maintain Rampage Accusations Against Nigeria Soldiers

AFP20110725678001 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1203 GMT 25 Jul 11

["Residents again accuse Nigerian soldiers of rampage" -- AFP Headline]

KANO, Nigeria, July 25, 2011 (AFP) - Residents on Monday accused Nigerian soldiers of shooting civilians and burning homes following a bomb blast blamed on Islamists over the weekend, but the military denied the claims.

Troops deployed to the northeastern city of Maiduguri, hit by scores of attacks, have previously been accused of killing civilians and burning their houses after alleging residents cooperated with the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

On Monday, residents of an area of Maiduguri hit by the bomb blast on Saturday said soldiers went on a rampage after the attack, shooting indiscriminately and torching homes and shops, resulting in a number of deaths.

Military officials on Saturday said suspected Boko Haram members bombed its patrol team in Budum, wounding three soldiers.

A military spokesman dismissed the residents' accusations as "outright lies", insisting that no civilian casualties were recorded on Saturday.

"The fire that burnt homes, shops and vehicles was caused by the impact of the explosion of the bomb detonated by the Boko Haram attackers," said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Isijeh Mohammed, spokesman for the military unit deployed in the city.

The attack occurred in an area near the palace of the Shehu of Borno, an influential traditional and religious leader, though it did not seem the palace was targeted.

"Soon after the bomb went off, military vehicles arrived and soldiers besieged the neighbourhood, shooting indiscriminately and setting houses and shops in and around the market on fire," one resident told AFP.

"They went about burning vehicles and in some cases along with the occupants."

He claimed dozens of people were either killed or missing, though the allegations could not be independently confirmed.

A nurse at the Maiduguri University Teaching Hospital who asked not to be named said five bodies were brought to the morgue late Saturday.

Another resident said his house was among those gutted.

"Almost all the houses in the area have been burnt by the soldiers and not less than 60 shops and stalls were burnt in the attack, which were reprisals for the Boko Haram attack," he said.

An emergency source confirmed officials had received such reports, but they remained unverified and rescue workers were focused on assisting those in need of help.

Thousands of residents have already fled Maiduguri out of fears of further violence.

Amnesty International has said at least 25 people were killed during a military raid in Maiduguri after a bomb blast earlier this month, with many others reported missing.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria: Boko Haram Sect Spokesperson Denies Alleged Plan Attack on Maiduguri Hospital

AFP20110725614005 Abuja NTA Television in English 2000 GMT 13 Jul 11

Still on security matters, the Boko Haram sect has refuted claims that they plans to attack the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital or any public institutions.

Spokesperson of the sect, Abu Said, told journalists in Maiduguri on telephone that the sect would never attack innocent citizens.

The spokesman who called for the withdrawal of soldiers from the Borno State capital regretted that the ban on motorcycles has forced people to relocate and render many of them jobless.

The spokesperson urged constituted authority to be more concerned about the plight of the masses.

He commended the mediatory role been played by the media in the ongoing crisis and emphasis that the Boko Haram sect have no foreign sponsorship.

[Description of Source: Abuja NTA Television Abuja in English--state-owned, government-controlled television]

Nigeria: Ex-governor Denies Link With Boko Haram Sect

AFP20110725614009 Abuja Radio Nigeria-Abuja in English 2100 GMT 13 Jul 11

The former governor of Borno State, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, has denied any link with the Boko Haram sect as it is been insinuated.

In an interview with state house correspondents in Abuja, Alhaji Ali Sheriff explained that the sect had been in existent before he became the governor.

He described the allegations against him as been the facilitator of Boko Haram as false.

[Begin Sheriff recording] People make comments on what they don’t know and at a level in life, you don’t speak on matters that you are not very competent, whosever feel that I am a mentor of Boko Haram is most unfortunate and there is no truth in the statement. [End recording]

Alhaji Alli Sheriff said the current security challenges in Borno State require the urgent attention of all stakeholders to bring the situation under control.

[Description of Source: Abuja Radio Nigeria-Abuja in English -- Federal government-owned, independent radio]

Xinhua 'Roundup': 8 Killed, 53 Shops, 28 Vehicles Destroyed in Nigeria's Weekend Blast

CPP20110725968192 Beijing Xinhua in English 1706 GMT 25 Jul 11

[Xinhua "Roundup": "8 Killed, 53 Shops, 28 Vehicles Destroyed in Nigeria's Weekend Blast"]

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Eight persons died, 50 shops and 28 vehicles were destroyed while many wounded in Saturday's bomb explosion in a northeastern city of Maiduguri in Nigeria when the Boko Haram Islamic sect threw an explosive at a military patrol vehicle.

Though the Joint Task Force troops deployed by the Nigerian government to the north eastern state of Borno had claimed only three of its soldiers sustained injuries, residents maintained eight people actually died in the explosion and the ensuing gun battle between the Boko Haram men and the military troops.

Sources told Xinhua said some members of the Islamic sect had thrown an explosive at a patrol vehicle of the troops in Budum, a settlement located behind the Shehu of Borno Palace.

The Shehu, a popular Nigerian king, is the vice chairman of the Islamic Council in Nigeria, next to the Sultan of Sokoto.

Batima Bukar, a 45-year-old victim of the incident told Xinhua that his hand was broken when he attempted to save an old woman who was almost trapped in the area during the shoot out with the sect.

He disclosed that two corpses were found at the Budum Market roundabout on Sunday morning while another two were discovered at about 6 a.m. local time same day adjacent the area.

Another resident who craved anonymity told Xinhua that she lost her husband and a neighbor, adding that while her husband was hit by stray bullet, their neighbor was a victim of the blast.

The Saturday incident has compelled many of the residents of the area to flee their homes.But the Joint Task Force (JTF) through its spokesperson Col Hassan Mohammed insisted nobody died in the incident.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the worsening security situation in north of Nigeria was disturbing.

The agency the standard of living of the people was daily deteriorating due to the inability of the residents to engage in their economic activities since the Boko Haram uprising heightened in the state.

Northeast zonal information officer for the agency Ibrahim Farinloye said the Boko Haram crisis and face off with the security agencies has brought untold hardship on the people.

He said the federal government through NEMA and other humanitarian actors was reaching out to all the distressed people in the communities in order to cushion the adverse effects of the crisis on the people while equally ease the financial constraint of distressed Muslims for the month of Ramadan.

He disclosed that the agency had been directed by the Federal Government to commence comprehensive relief package to reach out to the distressed people irrespective of religious, ethnic or political affiliation in their present places of residence.

The exercise which was expected to commence on Monday would focus on residents at Abbaganaram, Kaleri, Simari, Dala, Budum, London chiki as well as various villages in and around Maiduguri.

[Description of Source: Beijing Xinhua in English -- China's official news service for English-language audiences (New China News Agency)]

Nigerian Forces Kill at Least 23 After Bomb Blast: Amnesty

AFP20110725650002 Paris AFP (World Service) in English, Accounting 25 Jul 11

[[" Nigerian forces kill at least 23 after bomb blast: Amnesty " -- AFP headline]]

LAGOS, July 25, 2011 (AFP) - Nigerian security forces killed at least 23 people after a bomb blast blamed on Islamists over the weekend, allegedly randomly shooting and burning a market, Amnesty International said on Monday.

The allegations were the latest against Nigerian security forces operating in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, which has been hit by scores of bomb blasts and gun attacks blamed on an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

"The Nigerian authorities must immediately put a stop to unlawful killings by security forces," the rights group said in a statement.

"...At least 23 people were killed by police following a bomb blast on Saturday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri."

Amnesty said the Joint Military Task Force, assigned to Maiduguri to deal with the wave of attacks, responded to the bomb blast with heavy force. The military has said the blast wounded three soldiers.

"According to reports received by Amnesty International, the Nigerian Joint Military Task Force responded by shooting and killing a number of people, apparently at random, before burning down the market," it said.

Residents of the neighbourhood had earlier made similar accusations against security forces in interviews with AFP.

A military spokesman earlier dismissed the residents' accusations as "outright lies," insisting that no civilian casualties were recorded on Saturday.

"The fire that burnt homes, shops and vehicles was caused by the impact of the explosion of the bomb detonated by the Boko Haram attackers," said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Isijeh Mohammed.

It was not the first time troops were accused of abuses in Maiduguri.

Amnesty has previously said that at least 25 people were killed during a military raid after another bomb blast in Maiduguri earlier this month and many others were reported missing.

At the time, Amnesty said that "reports say members of the security forces have repeatedly threatened to shoot everyone in the area if they fail to tip them off about future bombs."

Residents reported then that soldiers accused them of cooperating with the Islamists.

The military also denied those allegations, but elders from the area had afterward called for the troops to be withdrawn. The government has resisted calls to pull out the troops, saying the situation would only worsen.

Thousands of people have already fled Maiduguri out of fears of further violence.

The city has been extremely tense in recent weeks, with bomb blasts and shootings occurring almost daily.

Saturday's blast shook an area near the palace of the Shehu of Borno, an influential traditional and religious leader, though it did not seem the palace was targeted.

"Soon after the bomb went off, military vehicles arrived and soldiers besieged the neighbourhood, shooting indiscriminately and setting houses and shops in and around the market on fire," one resident told AFP.

"They went about burning vehicles and in some cases along with the occupants."

The sect claims to be fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of some 150 million people, roughly divided between Christians and Muslims.

But its source of financing and support remains unclear, and there has been widespread speculation over whether some of the attacks have been politically linked.

It also remains unclear whether Boko Haram has links with Islamist groups outside of Nigeria -- an issue that has drawn the attention of Western nations.

The sect launched an uprising in 2009 that was put down by a brutal military assault which left hundreds dead and destroyed the Islamists' mosque and headquarters in Maiduguri.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria: More Members Join Dreaded Islamic Sect

AFP20110726686004 Port Harcourt The Tide in English 26 Jul 11 p 3