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

It was confirmed on Wednesday that the government appeared to have concluded on the need to release the names of those indicted so far, while some of them could be secretly interrogated.

"We are getting signals indicating that certain so-called big masquerades who are said to be backing the Boko Haram sect would be unveiled soon. The names were originally compiled after the raid on the home of a sect leader in Minna, who poses as a businessman in Lagos. What the government has avoided is a situation where it would be seen as orchestrating a crackdown on certain categories of Nigerians."

It was also gathered that the decision by the sect to strike in Maiduguri and Yobe was as a result of apparent inactivity on the planned talks between it and the Federal Government.

The Federal Government had received the report of its committee, which looked into disturbances in the North-East two months ago.

The committee had recommended talks between the government and aggrieved groups. While some factors in the sect were said to be disposed to talking with the government, a section of the Boko Haram was said to be in favour of continued attacks.

But a source said though the division in the group had led to some sort of discordant tunes, more than two thirds of its members were actually looking forward to holding peace talks with the government.

The source said prolonged delay in bringing the willing sect members to the table apparently led to the renewed attacks.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Wednesday, accused the United States of complicating the security challenges currently facing the Nigerian government.

The NLC said the recent warning issued by the US Embassy about impending attacks by the Boko Haram had further created fear and heightened the tension in the country.

Its vice-president, Alhaji Issa Aremu, in a statement in Kaduna, said rather than aggravating the current security situation in Nigeria, the US should have offered the country creative and constructive suggestions on how to effectively tackle the worsening insecurity.

Aremu, therefore, enjoined the Federal Government to ensure that it took effective security measures that would forestall the realisation of the prediction of the US that Nigeria would disintegrate by 2015.

He also enjoined Nigerian leaders to ensure the provision of good governance.

"The reported warning by the United States Mission in the country about impending attacks in three luxury hotels in Abuja, namely Transcorp Hilton, NICON and Sheraton, ostensibly for its citiz ens, is completely unhelpful, scary and unacceptable to all Nigerians.

"Any further scare about Nigeria's security challenge is one scare too addictive and too unhelpful. What will be refreshingly new and healing for Nigerians (and particularly from the friends of Nigeria, including America) are creative constructive suggestions and ideas on how to put an end to the security challenges," he said.

The NLC boss said the warning statement was certainly not refreshing to Nigerians, but, on the contrary, complicated the security challenges for a country striving to cope with the challenges of development.

[Description of Source: Ibadan Nigerian Tribune Online in English -- Website of the privately owned daily; URL: http://www.tribune.com.ng]

Nigeria: Police Confirm Arrests of Some Suspects Involved in Yobe State Bombing

AFP20111110565014 Abuja Daily Trust Online in English 0400 GMT 10 Nov 11

[Report by Hamza Idris and Kabiru Matazu: "Yobe Bombings: Police Move Boko Haram Suspects to Abuja"]

Yobe State Police Commissioner Suleimon Lawal yesterday confirmed that some suspects have been arrested in connection with the Friday, November 4 bombing of police and federal government formations in Damaturu and Potiskum in Yobe State. He said all the suspects have been been transferred to Abuja.

The confirmation came in the wake of complaints from residents of "Jerusalem", a Christian dominated area in Damaturu over poor security arrangement in the area.

However, a top military source who spoke in confidence said "many soldiers" have been deployed to Damaturu from the 241 Reece Battalion in Nguru.

"We have sent more soldiers in order to increase the number of security personnel in the state capital," the source said.

The police commissioner who said people should stop panicking added: "The combined efforts of the Police, Army and State Security Service (SSS) have yielded positive result that led to the arrest of some members of the Boko Haram that carried out multiple attacks in this (Yobe) state.

"We picked them in their hideout in Gujba and have completed our investigation. We have taken the suspects to Abuja for further interrogation. Whoever wants more details on what we have done should contact the Force Headquarters," the commissioner said even as he declined to mention how many suspects were arrested.

Our correspondent who visited 'Jerusalem' yesterday reports that most of the residents have moved away to more secured places.

"We are not fleeing out of the state because nobody can tell what will happen in any other part of the country. We are only moving to safer locations," Jerimiah Saleh, who moved to Nassarawa area of the metropolis, said.

"We would definitely come back to Jerusalem when adequate security arrangements are completed," he said.

Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Garba Idi told Daily Trust that officials of the association had in a meeting in Damaturu yesterday noted that they were not comfortable with the security arrangement in Jerusalem, the area that is dominated by Christians. "We are calling on all Christians in the state to be calm," he said.

Few shops opened for business in Damaturu yesterday while many civil servants who travelled out to their villages are yet to return as few people were seen at the state and federal secretariats.

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

Suspected Islamists Attack Police Post, Govt Office in Northeastern Nigeria

AFP20111110309011 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1344 GMT 10 Nov 11

["Suspected Islamists attack Nigerian police post, govt office" -- AFP Headline]

KANO, Nigeria, Nov 10, 2011 (AFP) - Suspected Islamists have attacked a police station and government office in northeastern Nigeria, destroying both buildings, but authorities denied a resident's claim of police casualties.

Suspected members of the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram on Wednesday night stormed the village of Mainok, some 75 kilometres from the city of Damaturu, which was hit by coordinated attacks last week that left some 150 dead.

"It's true there were attacks on a police outpost in Mainok village," said Simeon Midenda, police commissioner for Borno state, where Mainok is located.

"It was burnt down by the attackers suspected to be members of Boko Haram, but there were no casualties because that particular outpost was shut down long ago and the policemen there were redeployed to Maiduguri."

A resident however told AFP that about 20 gunmen attacked the police station, throwing explosives inside, before moving on to a federal road safety office, which was also destroyed along with vehicles parked there.

"They killed four policemen and freed suspects from cells and carted away guns and ammunition from the police station," the resident said.

A federal road safety official for Borno state confirmed that the office was hit.

"Our office in Mainok was attacked by gunmen and burnt down," said James Christopher. "None of my men there were affected but one of our operation vehicles was also burnt in the attack."

Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of attacks in Nigeria, including the August bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja that killed 24 people.

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

Nigeria: Army Official Says Islamist Sect Increasing Links With Global Jihadists

AFP20111111598024 Lagos Business Day Online in English 2300 GMT 10 Nov 11

[Unattributed report: "Nigeria Islamists Joining With Global Jihadists - Army"]

A violent Islamist sect responsible for scores of killings in northeast Nigeria is increasingly linking up with global jihadist movements like al Qaeda, a military commander in the area told Reuters on Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, a senior military official in the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), was speaking at a government house at the end of dusty track in Maiduguri, the heartland of the Boko Haram insurgency.

"Boko Haram is al Qaeda," he said.

"I see perfect links. It cuts across boundaries. Al Qaeda has no boundary, Boko Haram has no boundary. All terrorists, one problem," said Mohammed, dressed in camouflage and flanked by armed soldiers.

Many analysts and Nigerians doubt the extent to which Boko Haram has global ambitions -- the group's avowed aim is to introduce Sharia across Nigeria -- but it seems to be growing in sophistication and it is thought they have made contact with al Qaeda's north African affiliate.

They are becoming a growing security headache for president Goodluck Jonathan, who on Thursday tried to assure investors at an economic summit in the capital it would be short lived.

"Anybody who doesn't want to come and invest in Nigeria now because of these incidents of Boko Haram will really regret it because this is very temporary," he said.

The sect claimed responsibility for multiple gun and bomb attacks that killed 65 people in and around the city of Damaturu on Friday in its deadliest attack yet, which left bodies littering the streets and reduced police stations, churches and mosques to smouldering rubble.

The attacks followed multiple bomb blasts earlier the same day in nearby Maiduguri, including a triple suicide bombing of a military headquarters and three roadside bombs, all shortly after Friday prayers, according to the military.

Mohammed said he had unconfirmed reports two suicide bombers involved in Friday's attacks were trained in Afghanistan.

Nigeria's remote northeast, on the threshold of the rocky Sahel, borders several other African countries, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger, the latter having its own problems with the Sahara-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.

Mohammed suggested these porous borders were making it easy for militants on either side to move in and out of Maiduguri, a rubble-strewn city of boarded-up shops and soldiers gripping Ak-47s nervously behind sandbagged sniper positions.

The city suffers frequent shootings and bombings usually targeting religious and authority figures or police.

"Maiduguri has been a harbour for people from Chad, from Niger, from Cameroon. Now... the people they have invited have now become a source of terror," he said, agitatedly, declining to sit down during the whole interview.

Nigeria's police said on Tuesday they had arrested some suspected militants behind Friday's violence, and last week were searching door to door for weapons.

"I can tell you many people have been co-operating with us and we have collected many arms," Mohammed said, as two soldiers kept guard. "Maiduguri is no longer a safe haven."

Nigerian security forces have been criticised for failing to prevent attacks, but Mohammed insisted the military was "on top of the situation".

Efforts to fight Boko Haram in the past have achieved little and heavy-handed police tactics in the northeast have radicalised youths against the state.

"I must admit the sometimes men exhibit some excesses, but... We have handed over people to the police who will be prosecuted," Mohammed said.

In a sign the insurgency has spread beyond the northeast, a bomb attack on the Nigeria headquarters of the United Nations in the capital Abuja in August killed 26 people. Security experts said it bore the hall marks of an al Qaeda-style strike.

[Description of Source: Lagos Business Day Online in English -- Website of the privately owned Nigerian online business news portal; URL: http://www.businessdayonline.com]

Nigeria: Clash Between Police, Islamist Group Claims 42 Lives in Bauchi State

AFP20090727583010 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 2300 GMT 26 Jul 09

[Report by Theophilus Remi: "Scores Killed in Police, Fundamentalists' ClashGovt Declares 9pm - 6am CurfewOnovo Ordered To Restore Law and Order"]

Scores of people were killed yesterday in Bauchi in a gun duel between security forces and a radical Islamist group, Boko Haram. The clash, which... dislodged many from their homes, came less than six months after a sectarian battle between Muslims and Christians claimed at least four lives.

Dozens of people, who attacked the Dutsen Tanshi Police Station in Bauchi, the state capital, were repelled and many seized by the anti-riot policemen deployed to keep the peace.

Many resident-settlers have fled to army barracks for fear that the crisis might again turn sectarian.

Bauchi police spokesman, Mohammed Barau, said the militants belonged to Boko Haram, a group seeking the imposition of sharia law across the country.

Islamic law has been in operation in the state since 2001.

A nurse in a government hospital, Awwal Isa, alleged that as many as 42 people were killed in yesterday's clash.

One of the dead was a soldier, according to the nurse. Scores of people were also reported to have been injured.

The police spokesman said the situation had been brought under control and that members of the gang were being detained.

One gang member, who gave his name as Abdullah, said yesterday's attack on the police barracks was a reprisal.

He said the group had retaliated because authorities had been arresting its leaders.

The man was also quoted as saying that the group wanted to "clean the (Nigerian) system which is polluted by Western education and uphold sharia all over the country."

Investigation by the Nigerian Compass revealed that the notorious fundamentalists had in the past created panic in the state.

They had questioned the rationale behind the introduction of compulsory education in the state, saying the people should be given freedom to choose and practice their religion the way they dim fit.

For months, the Malam Isa Yuguda-led administration had been preventing them from demonstrating publicly to avoid a total breakdown of law and order.

Reports said that the fundamentalists had in their hundreds trooped to the police station in the early hours of yesterday, chasing away the few officers on duty.

They destroyed everything in sight, except the armoury, which was secured when they struck.

The fleeing policemen had made a distress call to the command headquarters from where a reinforcement was dispatched to dislodge the rampaging fundamentalists.

Infuriated by the rioters' action, the combined military and police patrol teams went round the villages within the Bauchi neighbourhood to rout the fundamentalist's from their camps.

The police spokesman, who confirmed the arrests of more than 100 of them, also informed that the Minister of Police Affairs, Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, has ordered the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ogbonnaya Onovo, to ensure peace and security of lives and properties of innocent citizens across the country.

According to him, the minister stressed the Federal Government's commitment to freedom of religion and that it would not allow the fundamentalists to cause a breach of the law in any part of the country.

Many people condemned the act in strong term, saying it is wrong for any one to attack the police whose duty is to protect lives and properties.

The Director of Press Affairs to the Governor, Mohammed Maigari Khanna, and other top government functionaries were seen at the Police Command Headquarters, yesterday.

Meanwhile, the state government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the state.

It will run from 9pm to 6am during which security agents are to maintain law and order.

[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]

Report Says Federal Government Panics as Boko Haram Changes Gear, Splits Into Three

AFP20111112619003 Lagos National Daily in English 07 Nov 11 - 14 Nov 11 1, 10

[Report by Olutayo Olubi: Panic in Aso Rock as Boko Haram changes gear"]

There was much disquiet at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja at the weekend when the report got to the presidency that the notorious Islamic sect, Boko Haram had carried out another wave of terror attacks in some states in the North, to wit: Kaduna, Borno, and Yobe.

The attacks, according to sources in Aso Rock, caught President Goodluck Jonathan unawares in view of the fact that the weekend falls within the Holy period of Ramadan during which Muslims celebrate the Ed-El-Kabir festival. The enormity of the well-coordinated attacks forced the President to cancel a trip to Bayelsa State for his younger brother's wedding last Saturday.

Aso Rock insiders confided that President Jonathan was "greatly disturbed" by the attack and said that his government was working hard to bring those "determined to derail peace and stability in the country to book." He also ordered security beef up in Kaduna, Borno, and Yobe States.

Massive attacks

The targets of last week's attacks were the headquarters of the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] Operation Restore Hope, Maiduguri, which was set up to contain the activities of the Boko Haram; the El-Kanemi Theological College, Maiduguri; the headquarters of the Police Anti-Terrorism Squad, and that of the Yobe State Police Command, both in Damaturu.

The police gave the casualty figure as 53 including 11 policemen, two soldiers, two Federal Road Safety Corps [FRSC], and one each from the Immigration and Customs.

However, the Nigerian Red Cross put the figure at 65 and the Jamatu Nasir Islamiyya gave their figures as 93. Even at the figure of 53 given by the police, this is the highest number of people killed in a single attack by the sect.

The State Police Command headquarters, State Anti-Terrorism Squad, the offices of Immigration and Customs Departments, and the FRSC were attacked by the rampaging gunmen. They did not spare the First Bank and United Bank for Africa branches in the town. The Federal Government Secretariat in the town was also burnt.

The Commissioner of Police, Borno State Police Command, Mr. Simeon Midenda said that one of the bombs went off around noon outside the El-Kanemi Theological College where parents had gathered. Midenda said that others had gone off inside the college during the Jumat at a mosque there.

The casualty figure was not immediately known, but unconfirmed reports said that about six people were injured while those who targeted the military base were killed as the bomb went off.

The JTF spokesman, Lt Col Hassan Mohammed, confirmed the attack on the headquarters of the force. He explained that some suicide bombers driving in a Jeep attempted to gain entry into the base but were prevented by the soldiers at the gate who ensured that they moved away to about 15 meters from the gate and in apparent frustration, detonated the bombs killing themselves in the process. He said that no soldier was killed and also confirmed the other explosions in the town.

Another explosion occurred in Old Maiduguri, Bulukutu area and in Gomari Area on Jos Road. Though nobody has claimed responsibility, it is strongly suspected that the bomb attacks were carried out by the Boko Haram sect.

Graphic details

The Damaturu siege began at about 5.30 pm last Friday and lasted about 90 minutes. An unnamed local government official in Damaturu was quoted as saying that hundreds of wounded people were being treated in hospitals.

Gunmen then engaged in running battles with security forces after invading police stations and shooting indiscriminately. Business activities were abruptly stopped as people ran for their lives.

A Roman Catholic parish priest said that his church had been burnt down and that eight other churches were also attacked. He described gangs of young men roaming the streets throwing improvised bombs into the churches.

A Damaturu resident, Mamman Mohammed said: "We are all indoors while the fighting is going on. Damaturu and Potiskum my home town are under siege. The Boko Haram sect has taken over the towns and the security men are battling them. No one is safe."

A lawyer who visited the Damaturu General Hospital looking for a missing friend said that he counted 60 bodies in the morgue.

"I have seen 60 dead bodies in the hospital all brought in yesterday from the attacks, I am here to look for my friend who didn't return home." He said that anxious relatives were flocking to the hospital in search of loved ones.

Also, six bombs went off in different parts of the town the main targets being the 360 Housing Estate, the Anti-Terrorism Squad office and the Police headquarters.

At least, one church - St Mary's Catholic Church was burnt by the rampaging men. The parish priest was reportedly taking refuge at a police station. Gun shots shook the town for much of last night forcing residents to stay indoors.

The violence destroyed federal offices, public buildings, and an immigration office, said Aliyu Baffale Sambo, an official with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

Bulama said that the Nigerian Red Cross statistics showed at least 63 people died in and around Damaturu. Sambo said that government estimates suggested that as many as 70 people could been dead there.

Only on last Thursday, a day before the blasts, the military announced that its men had, in a house to house search, seized about 5,000 assorted arms and ammunition in Maiduguri.

Most of the arms and ammunition were recovered from members of the public who gave them up voluntarily in view of the October 31, deadline set by the JTF for the public to surrender any weapon in their custody.

Apart from those seized, there were others allegedly dropped at refuse dumps at some locations in the Maiduguri metropolis by unknown people. Some of the arms, in particular, AK47 rifles were said to have been recovered from refuse dumps along Baga Road and Abaganaram Housing Estate and Jajeri ward.

Lt Col. Mohammed said that the house-to-house search would continue in Maiduguri and appealed to members of the public to support the task force to bring peace to the weary state. He also revealed that Boko Haram had on Thursday shot and killed a soldier guarding a market.

Churches under siege

In Kaduna, many Muslim faithful remained indoor as they celebrated the Ed-El-Kabir festival amidst tension and fear of a reprisal attack following the two succession of attacks by unknown men in a church at Tabak Village, near Zonkwa town in Zangon Kataf local government area of the state.

It will be recalled that unknown gunmen struck twice in two separate churches in Tabak village, near Zonkwa town in Zangon Kataf local government area of Kaduna State even as church service was on at about 11.45pm the last Thursday.

The gunmen who were said to have arrived Saint Joseph Catholic Church in the area while worshipers were holding night vigil prayers, succeeded in killing two persons and injuring 11.According to an eye witness, the injured ones are currently receiving medical attention at Saint Louis general hospital, Zonkwa.

As if that was not enough, the following day, another church was attacked, leaving one person dead and several others injured. Since after the attack, tension and fears have gripped the entire state as people are scared of either reprisal attacks from the other religious sect or more attacks from the suspected Boko Haram sect.