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

[Description of Source: Abuja African Independent Television in English -- privately owned independent television station]

Nigeria: Islamic Group Members Kill Lawyer, Civil Official in Borno State

AFP20110622581005 New York Sahara Reporters in English 2301 GMT 21 Jun 11

[Unattributed report: "Boko Haram Fatally Strikes ANPP Lawyer"]

Militant group, Boko Haram reportedly shot and killed Peter Adebayo, a lawyer for the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). The Boko Haramislmaist militants also shot and killed 22-yr old Civil Defense worker, Baba Usman at the Lawan Bukar ward in Maiduguri on Monday night.

This is the latest in a series of attacks, in which the militant group has been targeting officials, traditional rulers and Islamic clerics in the state. Authorities have confirmed that yesterday's attack, which left six police officers dead, was also linked to the group.

SaharaReporters has also learned that the money looted from a PhB bank in yesterday's raid was allegedly distributed amongst the poor in the region.

A bomb was also found planted at the Galadima junction in Maiduguri yesterday.

[Description of Source: New York Sahara Reporters in English -- Nigerian Diaspora human rights-oriented news website; URL: http://www.saharareporters.com]

Nigeria: Northern Group Urges Islamic Sect To Embrace Dialogue With Government

AFP20110624598005 Lagos The Guardian Online in English 2300 GMT 23 Jun 11

[Report by Saxone Akhaine, Joke Akanmu, Hendrix Oliomogbe and Charles Akpeji: "North Moves Against Bombing, Violence; Ex-Military Chiefs To Prepare Report on Menace"]

The efforts to restore law and order in the North got a boost yesterday as leaders from the region expressed their readiness to work with the Federal Government to end the recurring incidences of bomb blasts and violence in some states in the zone.

The campaign to end terrorism in the North and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) led by the Boko Haram Islamic sect is being championed by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

Arewa, which is also wooing all the 19 northern state governments to join the initiative, has set a committee of former military officers, including retired service chiefs, former inspectors-general of police, former national security advisers, and others to prepare a security report on the region for presentation to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The group pleaded with the Islamic sect to sheathe their sword and embrace dialogue.

Arewa Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, who spoke in Kaduna yesterday on the security problems in the country, said the bombing of police headquarters in Abuja and other explosions in some parts of the North were worrisome, stressing that effort should be made by the Federal Government to end the menace.

According to him, the ACF had earlier directed its security committee to probe the unfortunate incidences of bomb blasts in the country, saying that the report would be made available to the government and states in the north with a view to combating the ugly security threat.

Sani said: "You see, we cannot approach the Federal Government without having concrete report; if we say government, you don't know what you are doing or national intelligence, you are not doing enough, we should be able to advance superior argument on the issue, otherwise we would become non-consulting citizens.

"So, with the tension now, it will make us put pressure on our security committee to produce its report so that when we are meeting the federal and state governments, we will talk from the position of informed situation. Beyond that and as it is now, we cannot do anything.

"But our security committee should be able to tell us how to go about it. And from there, we will go and tell the President, Sir, this is how we think we should go about it in containing the situation. That the suicide bombing has triggered off concern, we will put pressure on the security committee to submit their report," he said.

Sani continued: "You see, the committee is already in place and now there was suicide bombing and there was bombing even during the 50th Independence celebration. So, the committee members knew about bombing in the country then. The bombing had been on in Borno and Niger states. So, it is part of the problem.

"In fact, it was the bombing that even made us to call for the meeting, because bombing is a new thing in the North and it is frightening us.

"All those behind it should know that it is frightening us and we are pleading with them that they should lay it to rest. We know that they exist, we don't need to destroy the country because of their grievances.

"In every situation, there are grievances and after that you go to peace conference and after that you resolve and come together and live together, because no society survives on the basis of victory or defeat of a particular person...ultimately we must reconcile, otherwise there may be no Nigeria or northern Nigeria".

"We have to reconcile, it is not a matter of choice. It is task that must be done. And I believe, even the Boko Haram they know that we have to reconcile and live together as people."

Also, the Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima yesterday in Abuja disclosed that his administration would create 100,000 jobs for the state citizens to check restlessness among the youths.

Shettima, who maintained that military option is not the only way to check insurgency in the country, said the government should embark on massive job creation to take the youths from armed struggle.

Shettima disclosed this during a visit to the Mana ging Director of Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) in Abuja, Mr. Sina Agboluaje. He said: "Military solution is not the only option of fighting insurgency. We hope to create not less than 50,000 to 100,000 jobs".

The governor said leaders have not given Nigerians what they need in terms of provision of basic amenities, adding that we do not need outsiders to help us get things right in the country.

He said that plans were under way to bring the Banki Export Free Zone to reality and to also establish new one at Gamboru area, which is a border to Cameroun and Chad, noting that such route creates avenue for outsider to infiltrate the country.

Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) has commiserated with the victims of the recent bomb blasts in Abuja and other parts of the North.

In an online statement, NDLF, a splinter association from the mainstream Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), assured that for the peace of the region, it would not go back to the routine bombing of oil installations in the volatile Niger Delta region, no matter the degree of provocation and temptation.

The statement, which was signed by the group's spokesman, Mark Anthony, hailed the re-appointment of Chief Kingsley Kuku as the Chairman of the Federal Amnesty Committee and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters.

He pleaded that all NDLF fighters under the leadership of John Togo who recently engaged the Joint Task Force (JTF) in a skirmish should also be pardoned.

But the former Security Adviser to the Taraba State Governor now the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly, Mr. Charles Maijanka, has said "dialogue or negotiation may not be the surest way out of the nation's security predicament.

He described the recent victory of the Boko Haram attack of the police headquarters as "a minus for the Nigerian security operatives."

[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: Islamic Sect States Condition To Hold Dialogue With Government

AFP20110624598012 Abuja Daily Trust Online in English 0159 GMT 24 Jun 11

[Report by Hamza Idris: "Boko Haram Gives Conditions for Dialogue"]

Leaders of the Jama'atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, have told Daily Trust in an interview that the dialogue being offered to them will not be possible under atmosphere of the threats of use of force by security agencies.

Spokesman for the group Abu Zaid said, "A true believer will not allow himself to be attacked twice."

The interview was conducted by phone and email in Hausa language. A Daily Trust reporter who has been reporting the activities of the group gave the questions by phone to Abu Zaid, who has been speaking on behalf of the sect.

The group has claimed responsibility for last week's deadly bomb attack on the police headquarters in Abuja and persistent gun raids in Maiduguri, Borno State, prompting calls for dialogue between the government and its leaders.

Responding to these calls, Abu Zaid said, "We have been signing agreement with them (government) but they have been reneging and now they want us to surrender our arms whereas they are terrorizing Islam and Muslims just like what happened two years ago.

"The Inspector General of Police recently said that he will deal with us within two weeks because he believes he controls our lives. And look at how the governor of Borno State (Kashim Shettima) donated 10 armour personnel carriers to the police while the Nigerian President (Goodluck Jonathan) directed that more soldiers and mobile police be deployed to attack us. Is this move aimed at achieving a dialogue?"

He added: "I think they are equipping themselves more and they want us to surrender our arms. Despite these contradictions, they (authorities) are telling the public that they want to engage us in dialogue. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him said a believer should not allow himself to be attacked twice in one place."

He acknowledged that Islam encourages dialogue when certain conditions are met. "It is mandatory for Islam to have a sovereign land where Sharia is being practiced in the strict sense so that the dialogue will be between the Islamic country and the country of the unbelievers," he said.

He said the sect members will not also lay down their arms even as he claimed responsibility of the attacks launched in parts of the North and Abuja.

"Some unpatriotic scholars gave them misleading justification on the need to attack us and the Federal Government under Umaru Yar'adua gave the open directive to attack Muslims which led to the destruction of their mosque and desecration of the Holy Qur'an as well as ill treatment of innocent women and children.

"We want people to know that the Federal Government fought us and therefore, by the grace of Allah, we would continue fighting until we succeed or die in the process," he said.

Abu Zaid said the sect members would continue to trail former governors of Borno and Gombe states as well as the Bauchi State governor until they apologise for approving attacks on the Boko Haram sect.

"We would not relent in our efforts of searching for them until they come out publicly and apologize. They must also distance themselves from this illegal democracy and give unalloyed support towards entrenching Sharia system," he said.

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

Al Jazeera.net: Bomb Blasts 'Kill 25 in Nigeria'

GMP20110627966003 Doha Al Jazeera.net in English 2140 GMT 26 Jun 11

["Bomb Blasts 'Kill 25 in Nigeria'" -- Al Jazeera net Headline]

[ Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention ]

(Al Jazeera net) -

Authorities in Nigeria have said that three separate bombs explosions in the country's northeast have killed at least 25 people and wounded 12 others, the AP news agency has reported.

The bombs targeted outdoor beer gardens the city of Maiduguri on Sunday.

Authorities have accused the Islamist group Boko Haram of being behind the attacks.

[Description of Source: Doha Al Jazeera.net in English -- Website of the Al Jazeera English TV, international English-language news service of Al-Jazirah, independent television station financed by the Qatari Government; URL: http://english.aljazeera.net ]

Xinhua: At Least 30 Killed in Nigeria Drinking Spot Attack

CPP20110627968046 Beijing Xinhua in English 0735 GMT 27 Jun 11

[Xinhua: "At Least 30 Killed in Nigeria Drinking Spot Attack"]

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria June 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 30 people have been killed and several others seriously injured by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect in a drinking joint in northeast Nigeria's Borno State on Sunday, according to security sources.

There was no official confirmation from the police or government in the state so far.

Security sources told Xinhua that the sect members were said to have attacked a local drinking joint in Maiduguri, the state capital on Sunday night, killing about 30 people.

A resident of the area told Xinhua that about 10 sect members had stormed a popular drinking joint located at Dala Kwamti in the city at about 6:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) on Sunday in a convoy of two cars.

The gunmen were said to have started shooting as soon as they got near the joint.

But another source said the gunmen rode to the area on motorcycles from different direction to beat the heavy security in the city.

The source could not however ascertain the number of motorcycles used.

"They rode on motorcycles from different direction to beat the soldiers and police at a junction close to the area. They started firing shots into the joint from different direction and there were many people who had come to relax at that time since it was weekend," a resident of the area who did not want his name mentioned for security reason told Xinhua on phone.

Police chief in the state Mohammed Abubakar and the state spokesperson Abdullahi Lawal could not be reached as their mobile line were unavailable on Sunday night.

But the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it is mobilizing relief materials for the victims of Sunday's bomb explosion that rocked a drinking spot in Dala, a suburb of Maiduguri, Borno where some people were feared dead.

Yushau Shuaibu, spokesperson for the agency said the agency was aware of the explosion and had started responding to the situation.

More than 50 other people, mostly security personnel, had so far been killed by suspected Boko Haram militants since July 2009, when they launched attacks on individuals.

The Boko Haram launched the first arm of insurrection in the state in July, 2009, during which many were killed and wounded while properties were destroyed.

The sect's leader Mohammed Yusuf and his alleged financier Buji Foi were killed in a counter attack by the security operative.

Members of the sect staged an uprising in Maiduguri in 2009, attacking symbols of the government authority including prisons, police stations and schools, leading to clashes with security forces in which an estimated 800 people were killed.

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

AFP Profile of Nigeria's Islamist Sect Boko Haram

AFP20110627651008 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1614 GMT 27 Jun 11

["Boko Haram: Nigeria's deadly radical Islamist sect" -- AFP headline]

LAGOS, June 27, 2011 (AFP) - Since 2009 when it launched a short-lived uprising in some parts of the north that was brutally crushed by the military, Boko Haram has intensified its violent campaigns in Nigeria.

That military assault left more than 800 people, mostly sect members and its leader Mohammed Yusuf, dead and its headquarter mosque in the capital of Borno State razed to the ground.

The sect then went on a low-key insurgency attacking police officials, politicians, community or religious leaders opposed to its ideology.

The sect's gun and bomb attack on a beer garden in Maiduguri on Sunday that left at last 25 dead and dozens injured, was the latest of such in the country of 150 million people, almost evenly distributed between Christians and Muslims.

The violent campaigns which were initially based in the north, are now spreading to other parts including the capital Abuja where it targeted the national police headquarters on June 16.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is a sin", wants the establishment of an Islamic state in the north and the strict application of Sharia law.

The group said this month that some of its members had received training in Somalia, indicating some ties with Al-Qaeda-linked groups such as Al Shabaab. Some of sect's members are also believed to have been trained in Algeria and Afghanistan.

Security analysts have long believed that the group has links with some of Africa's northern-based terrorists.

Initially made up of university graduates and dropouts from wealthy and middle-class families, Boko Haram, which initially went by the name the "Nigerian Taliban" made its debut in January 2004.

Drawing inspiration from the Afghan Taliban, a group of around 200 sect members set up camp in the village of Kanamma on the Nigerian border with Niger in northeastern Yobe State it called "Afghanistan". From there it launched attacks on police stations, killing policemen and carting away ammunition.

A two-day military crackdown left scores of sect members killed including their leader then nicknamed Mullah Umar, after the fugitive Taliban spiritual leader.

Some of the Islamists were arrested while the rest went underground. Eight months later 60 survivors launched new attacks on police facilities in the neighbouring Borno State on the border with Cameroon.

Another military onslaught in the Mandara mountains along the Cameroon borders left 28 sect members dead, several arrested while others went into hiding.

Aminu Tashen-Ilimi, one of the sect's commanders, told AFP in January 2006 that "the last has not been heard of us and whoever thinks we have been defeated is only deceiving himself".

Boko Haram's attacks are typically carried out by motorcycle riders who shoot and speed off or hurl home-made bombs.

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

Nigerian Military Pledges To Unveil New Strategies To Tackle Islamic Group

AFP20110629598001 Lagos This Day Online in English 28 Jun 11

[Report by Paul Ohia, Michael Olugbode, Senator Iroegbu and Wole Ayodele: "Army: Boko Haram Tactics, Strange to Us"]

The Nigerian Army has said the tactics employed by the Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram, in its operation is strange to it, but assured Nigerians that it is equal to the threat, adding that it will soon unveil strategy to tackle the group.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-General Azubuike Ihejirika, who made this revelation at the opening of the Second Quarter Chief of Army Staff Conference in Abuja Monday, said: "The tactics they employ is relatively new to the country," and vowed to stop them.

He promised to unfold new strategies that would effectively end the growing security threats posed by the sect, who had been terrorising some sections of the country.

He said: "Nigerian Army having studied the method of operation (in collaboration with other security agents), very soon the country will notice improvement and new security agreements."

The COAS said the presence of soldiers at strategic places in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) since last Thursday was part of the emerging strategies to enforce and maintain security in the current atmosphere of terrorism caused by the spate of bombings across the country.

He advised the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents to brace up for the unintended inconveniences being created by the recent joint security stop-and-search checks led by the Army, effectively taking the task of securing lives and properties in the nation's capital from the Nigerian Police Force.

"The enforcement of security at the hands of soldiers on vehicles is because they are being proactive, while there will be searches on the road. Nigerians should be able to adapt to the temporary security measures," he said.

Ihejirika further disclosed that one key item of the meeting which was purely security measures would be a closed door meeting as general officers commanding (GOCs) and commanders would receive briefing on how to confront the menace of Boko Haram once and for all.

He emphasised that the purpose of the conference was to take stock of the first and second quarter activities especially in the areas of security responsibilities in various commands.

According to him, the meeting would also discuss ways of improving elections and analysis of areas of improvement.

Speaking earlier, the Chief of Policy and Plans, Maj-Gen O. Akinyemi, noted that the current security challenges, especially the problem of Boko Haram in some parts of the country, was one of the contemporary challenges that needed to be immediately addressed.

Akinyemi said that deliberations during the conference would come up with recommendations and strategies towards addressing these challenges.

He noted that the presentations and discussions during the first quarter conference as well as the implementations of the decisions arrived at during the conference contributed in no small measures to the successes achieved by the Army in support of the election process as they had received accolades from various quarters for its conduct during the elections.

"Some lessons must have been learnt which could assist the Army to improve in possible future internal security tasks," he said.

Meanwhile, another explosion Monday in Maiduguri, Borno State claimed the lives of two child hawkers and injured several others including two Customs officers.

The blast followed a similar one that was detonated in the same city a day earlier that left 25 dead and 12 injured.

Monday's explosion, which was as a result of detonated bombs planted around the Customs office building in Maiduguri occurred at about 2.30pm.

THISDAY gathered that the bombs were targeted at the Customs office and a hospital located at the centre of the ancient town.

Confirming the incident, Commandant of the Joint Military Task Force, Maj-General Okechukwu Nwaogbo, said the child hawkers were killed in the blast. He also disclosed that several other persons were injured.

The commandant of the Joint Military Task Force established by the Federal Governm ent to checkmate the menace of the Islamic fundamentalist sect, had earlier revealed that the mayhem visited on the state on Sunday by alleged members of the group was an ambush and not bomb blasts as earlier reported.

Nwaogbo, who refused to give the figure of casualties, said investigations revealed that between eight and 10 members of the group came on about seven motorcycles to the local drinking joint, set the place on fire and took strategic positions.

He said during the attack, which took place between 5 and 6.30pm on Sunday, the group shot at anyone that tried to escape the raging inferno.

The commandant of the task force tagged "Operation Restore Order", said he would not be able to give the number of casualties as the figure might increase as there were still some persons on critical list at the hospital, but said: "We lost lives there but not as high as being reported."

Nwaogbo also disclosed that two persons were in custody and were assisting the taskforce in its investigations. He said the two persons were sent by some people to go on surveillance of churches in Maiduguri.

He said intelligence on the group revealed that they were asked to mingle with worshippers and bring report back to their principals but were lucky to be apprehended by church members who brought them to his men.