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

[Description of Source: Lagos Ray Power 2 Radio in English -- privately owned independent radio station]

Nigeria: Borno Police Arrest Islamic Sect's Bomb Expert Trained in Afghanistan

AFP20090903565001 Lagos This Day Online in English 03 Sep 09

[Report by Michael Olugbode: "'Boko Haram Bomb Expert Trained in Afghanistan'"]

The Borno State Police Command has discovered a bomb specialist sponsored by fundamentalist Boko Haram sect for training in Afghanistan.

Boko Haram, which means Western Education is Sin, caused an uprising in July that left some 700 people dead.

Abdulrasheed Abubakar, aged 23, confessed to the authorities that he was sent to the country by the sect's late leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and was promised the sum of N5.5 million [Naira] upon return.

He learnt how to manufacture local bombs for the group's use, the police disclosed.

Previously, a Christian by name Jeremiah Samuel, the Boko Haram faithful was converted to Islam seven months ago by one Mallam Umar in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

Abubakar claimed that he had a Diploma in Theology from Christ Disciples Bible Church, Enugu. He was influenced by the Ramadan preaching of Yusuf that was recorded on a tape, he said.

According to him, "I was introduced to Mohammed Yusuf by a friend, having listened to some of his preaching. I was really fascinated by the Islamic teaching not the Boko Haram ideology," he confessed.

Abubakar continued: "The sect leader took me to the Abuja airport from Maiduguri in a Toyota Sienna bus. I travelled with another man who identified himself as Ali Mohammed and underwent a three-month training in Afghanistan."

Information made available to THISDAY shows that he was arrested by the police at an undisclosed hideout in Yola and brought to Maiduguri where the headquarters of the sect (Markas) was located, on his return to Nigeria.

He said he took off from Nigeria to Afghanistan through South Africa, claiming that all the travelling documents were retrieved from him as soon as he came back from the trip in late July. He did not name the airline which he boarded from Nigeria to South Africa before connecting to Afghanistan.

Narrating his journey, Abubakar said: "Mohammed Yusuf gave the two of us who went for the training some telephone numbers of our trainers and we called them as soon as we arrived Afghanistan. I can't recollect the town or place where the training took place because they covered our faces and led us to a house where we spent about three months," he explained.

The Borno State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdul, told journalists that the suspected bomb specialist was picked up in Yola by the police following intelligence reports.

Abdul disclosed that some arms including seven hand-made rocket propelled grenades, over seven locally made pistols, rifles and casting pistols were recovered from Boko Haram hideouts.

He said that the police would be proactive in discharging its duties.

Abubakar was born in Numan, Adamawa State. He comes from the Bachama tribe. He claimed that he speaks Hausa, Fulfude and Igbo.

He said that he was adequately briefed by the sect leader of his mission before he was sent to Afghanistan.

The sect's leader died in July, in an incident decried by some as summary execution. The authorities previously stated that Yusuf lost his life during a shoot-out with the police.

A picture showing him in handcuffs emerged, casting doubt on the statement issued by police authorities.

It also emerged that the police received several warnings and tip-off about the activities of Boko Haram. One of its leaders was also arrested but later released on bail.

The issue came to the fore when the group attacked a police station in Bauchi. The altercation between the police and members of the sect spread to Maiduguri and Yobe States, leading to the destruction of properties and loss of lives.

Some Christians detained by the group were later released. Details of the death of some were released to newsmen too.

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

Niger State Police Says Nigerian Government Approved Islamic Sect's Dislodgement

AFP20090909565006 Lagos The Guardian Online in English 09 Sep 09

[Report by John Ogiji: "Police Defend Relocation of Islamic Sect Members in Niger"]

The Niger State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Michael Zoukomou, has said that the dislodgement of a religious fundamentalists called Daru-Islam from its enclave in Mokwa last month by his men had the approval of the Federal Government, as their continued stay poses a threat to peace and security of not only the state but the country.

Briefing newsmen in Minna on the successful completion of the evacuation exercise, the Commissioner of Police disclosed that the action was taken in order to forestall the reoccurrence of the Boko Haram crisis and other similar religious uprisings that the country had witnessed in the past.

According to him, there are elements of religious cultism in the Daru-Islam as it was discovered from their activities that "it was a republic within a republic and the nation was sitting on a keg of a gun powder waiting to explode."

The commissioner, who was part of the committee set up by the government to carry out the relocation of the sect members, maintained that the government strongly believed that the continued stay of the group would lead to something that might be difficult to control in future because, according to him, similar groups that were allowed to operate in the past later metamorphosed to a dangerous institution.

Zoukomou said that the fundamental rights of the sect members were not in anyway violated by the government as being insinuated in some quarters because of their peacefulness, moreso that no arms was found with them during police search on their abode. He pointed out that experience has shown that such group usually start peacefully but later ended disastrously.

According to him, the government could not fold its arms till there is an explosion before acting, because it might be too late and the public would turn around to start blaming government and by extension the police.

Earlier, the Chairman of the relocation committee and Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ibrahim Sule, said that the state government spent N77 million [Naira] for the dislodgement of the group with N58 million of the amount going for compensation to members of the sects.

[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: Bauchi State Police Arraign Islamic Sect Members Over 8-Count Charges

AFP20090915583001 Lagos This Day Online in English 15 Sep 09

[Report by Segun Awofadeji: "Boko Haram Suspects Arraigned for Treasonable Felony"]

Two months after security agencies quelled a violent religious crisis in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State, by a sect, Boko Haram, the state police command at Chief Magistrate's Court 11 yesterday slammed a total of eight count charges on the 184 suspected members of the religious group.

Their offences include treasonable felony, criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of firearms and culpable homicide.

Other charges read out to the first batch of suspects, which comprise a female, include public disturbances and unlawful assembly, which violently caused the death of two persons in Bauchi.

After taking arguments for bail and jurisdiction from the prosecution counsel and the counsel to the accused persons, Chief Magistrate Aliyu Usman ordered the accused persons to be remanded in prison custody pending the transfer of the case to a court of competent jurisdiction within the state.

Prosecution counsel, ASP Bandawa, said the offences committed by the accused persons are not bailable and are punishable under Sections 221 and 441 of the Penal Code and Section 3 of the Robbery and Fire Arms Law Cap 146 of the Laws of Nigeria 1990.

He pleaded with the court to transfer the case to a court of competent jurisdiction.

However, counsel to the accused persons, Mr. Abubakar, argued that continuous detention of the accused persons violates their rights under Sections 41 of the Constitution since they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Abubakar also sought bail for his clients to enable them receive proper medical attention, saying their incarceration visibly exposed them to catarrh and other illnesses.

Chief Magistrate Usman, in his ruling, ordered the accused to be reminded in prison custody pending proper application for transfer of the case to a court of competent jurisdiction and directed the police to ensure that they have proper medical attention.

While briefing newsmen on the arraignment of the accused persons, the state Police Commissioner, Alhaji Yusuf Atiku Kafur, disclosed that after rigorous investigations, 11 of the suspects, including a female, were released when it was discovered that they had nothing to do with the religious sect and were only arrested because they were at the scene of the crime at the time of the incident.

Kafur further explained that 10 out of the 11 released were discovered to be athletes in the employ of the state Sports Commission and were practising Taekwondo at the IBB Square when security personnel raided the area in search of members of the sect.

He said the female, Rukayyatu Abdullahi, is a minor who was forcefully taken by Adamu Abdullahi, a member of the sect, from Liman Katagum without the consent of her parents.

The police boss said the delay in arraigning them was to ensure that no loopholes were left in the prosecution process, adding that "if you don't prosecute well, an offender will get away with the offence at the detriment of the entire society."

About two months ago, violent religious crisis orchestrated by Boko Haram sect had engulfed some states in the North, which led to loss of lives and destruction of property.

Members of sect, which means Western education is sin, had clashed with policemen in Bauchi, leaving many dead in the wake of the attack.

The violence soon spread to Borno, Yobe and Kano States with even more casualties recorded. The Maiduguri enclave of the sect was levelled by the Nigerian security forces. Though the military men had taken control of the headquarters of the sect, however, the fleeing members of the group were alleged to have set ablaze the Makera Police Station in the suburb of Maiduguri.

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

Nigeria: Ethnic Group Rules Out Possibility of Militant Leader's Surrender

AFP20090914565012 Lagos Vanguard Online in English 14 Sep 09

[Report by Emma Amaize: "Tompolo Won't Surrender Arms, Says Ijaw Youth Group"]

IJAW youth leaders in the Niger-Delta, under the auspices of the Ijaw Youths Leadership Forum (IYLF), weekend, said militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, was fighting the cause of Ijaw people and ruled out the possibility of his surrendering arms when the federal government has not commenced feasible development of the coastal communities.

Leader of the forum, of which Tompolo is an active member, Mr. T.K Ogoriba, who was flanked by other youth leaders, told newsmen after a meeting of the IYLF at Effurun, Delta state, that surrendering of arms was an issue.

"Surrendering is not an issue here. What you have to know is that Tompolo is doing what he is doing for his people.

What are the issues bothering the people that have brought about non-development of the region?

"Everybody knows the issues that are bothering the people of the Niger Delta and everybody wants development.

"Because amnesty is what they are talking about, that brought about the issue of Tompolo but you can't talk about him without the issue of May 13, everybody knows, and it is now history. But how can we forget about it like that?

"Government feels that if Tompolo surrenders his arms, every other militant would surrender his arms. The point we want to hammer on is that before any other thing they should start developing our area.

"What we are trying to say here now is that the way they are going about all this is to cow us down and it is a further perpetration of oppression, enough of that".

So long as there is peace and development in our area, nobody needs to carry arms. So we don't have to welcome disarmament.

"What we want is to dialogue with the people that are oppressed and address the issue that made them start to carry arm, everybody knows about it.

"And if you are disarming the people of the Niger Delta, it is not only the Ijaws that are the people carrying arms; the Itsekiris are there, Urhobos, Ilaje and others are there, all carrying arms, even in the North, we saw the Boko Haram, MASSOB are carrying.

"After the civil war till today, there was no disarmament, so why are you so particular about the Ijaws or do you have an agenda to continue to suppress the Ijaws in perpetuity?

"We want to send a word across to the federal government that we stand strong and very strongly behind the young man called Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, and the open letter he wrote to the President must be considered very strongly.

"Without dialoguing before disarmament and amnesty, it will not go anywhere. Since everybody is talking about peace, development must have to start at the appropriate course of the peace and that is the essence of what we are talking about."

Corroborating Ogoriba, Niger-Delta activist, Annkio Briggs said: "We are saying don't call Tompolo or anybody else to come out for amnesty when the issues that led to the carrying of arms have not been addressed.

"None of those things have been addressed. For instance, we are hearing that the NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] under the authority of the federal government has been instructed to build three gas stations in Katsina; where are the gas going to come from when there is no one gas station in the entire Niger Delta state?

"You can see the perpetration of injustice. While the federal government is saying it is looking for a way out of the Niger Delta crisis, no matter what you are doing, it does not show that you are sincere.

"After five weeks, we are saying that we are not convinced about the issue of the amnesty; it is not in the favour of the Ijaw people because it is only the Ijaw people that are being asked to surrender their arms.

"OPC, Ibos, many people have carried arms in the country, they have not dropped their arms, why are we talking about the Ijaws?

"I am not saying that the Ijaws should go on running around with arms; we are saying that they have criminalized the Ijaws for their struggle for survival. We are not happy about the process of the amnesty and ending it in October is not acceptable to us (Ijaw).

"Nobody is going to advise Tompolo to do anything other than what he wants to do. There must be dialogue. One of the things we requested during the peace process was that the President should visit the Niger Delta.

"It is not going to Bayelsa State to commission project, go to the creeks and see what the people are going through. We will take you to Oloibiri and show you what we have suffered so that you can have gas going to Katsina."

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

Nigeria: Police Release 11 'Boko Haram' Detainees

AFP20090916686015 Port Harcourt Niger Delta Standard in English, English - Psl 16 Sep 09 P3

[Unattributed report: "Police Release 11 'Boko Haram' Detainees"]

The Bauchi State Police Command has released unconditionally 11 of the 195 suspects arrested in connection with the July 26 Boko Haram mayhem. The commissioner of Police, Mr Atiku Kafur, told newsmen in Bauchi on Tuesday that the suspects, 10 men and a woman, Rukayya Abdullahi, were released, based on the legal advice from the Ministry of Justice.

He said investigation had revealed that the suspects had no link with Boko Haram disturbances and were also not prosecuted. Kafur said the 10 men were members of a Taekwondo group attached to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and were at Babangida Square for training when they were arrested. He said the female suspect was forcefully taken by a member of the Boko Haram sect from Liman Katagum village and locked up in a room without the consent of her parents. ``She was released because she committed no offence," he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria [NAN] reports that the police had on Sept. 14 arraigned 184 suspected members of the Boko Haram sect for alleged treason and murder. The Magistrate's Court, however, ruled that it lacked locus standi to entertain the case, and ordered the police to hasten prosecution of the suspects before a court of competent jurisdiction. The court also ordered the suspects to be remanded in prison custody. No fewer than 50 persons lost their lives during the shoot-out between members of the sect and the police.

Five members of the sect were killed on July 26 when the group attacked a police station in Dutsen Tanshi area of Bauchi metropolis, while others lost their lives during gun duel between the group and security agents. More than 180 abducted women and children were also freed by security agencies at a school belonging to the Muhammad Yusuf led- Boko Haram sect in Maiduguri.

[Description of Source: Port Harcourt Niger Delta Standard in English -- Rivers State owned daily]

France: Jihadist Reportedly Trains in Afghanistan To Make Explosives

AFP20090915638003 Paris Jeune Afrique in French 06 Sep 09 - 12 Sep 09 p 7

[Unattributed Confidential Report: "Nigeria: A Taliban Made in Afghanistan"]

Investigations continue on the bloody clashes in the north of Nigeria in July between the security forces and the members of Boko Haram's Islamic sect (leaving more than 700 dead).

The police have uncovered that one of Boko Haram's fighters had received training in Afghanistan.

Christian, recently converted to Islam, the young man - he is 23 years - confessed that he was sent to the Taliban to learn how to make explosives.

In exchange, the leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf, killed during the recent combats, had promised him $35,000.

The apprenticed religious fighter pointed out that he made a stop over in South Africa, but was not able to identify the training camp in Afghanistan where he stayed; his instructors took care to blind fold him on arrival.

[Description of Source: Paris Jeune Afrique in French -- Privately owned, independent weekly magazine]

Nigeria: Kaduna Police on Red Alert To Avert Reprisal Attack by Islamic Groups

AFP20090920565003 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 2300 GMT 19 Sep 09

[Report by Godwin Isenyo: "Police, Shiite Clash: Kaduna Police on Red Alert; No One Can Crush us, Says Sect"]

To forestall any reprisal attack, the police in Kaduna State said at the weekend that it has placed its officers and men on a red alert to curtail the Shiites Islamic fundamentalists.

The state Commissioner of Police, Tambari Yabo Mohammed, at a media briefing yesterday told reporters that the Command received security reports that the movement was regrouping to attack the police in the state just as the Shiite group vowed to resist any move to sack them.

Following Friday clash between the police and the Shiite group which left two people dead in the ancient town of Zaria, during procession to mark the end of the Muslim Ramadan fasting, the Shiek Ibraheem El-zakzaky-led movement alleged a plot by the government to crash them.

The group claimed that the federal government had mapped out a blue print to wipe out the sect and kill its leader the way the Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf, was killed.

A Shiite member, who craved anonymity told our correspondent that the government was after the sect and that the antics of the government was recently exposed.

"What happened yesterday when the police shot at our members and killed about two of us was a pointer to the truth of our allegation against the government."

He added: "We've exposed their plans of killing and they denied it; but now it's clear to everyone. But they would never crush us."

The organisation wondered why a mere The Qud's day procession turned bloody.

He claimed that the Qud's Day procession was a yearly affair, saying that they were at a loss as to why it turned out to be the last procession for two of their members.

The Qud's Day procession was declared by the late Aya-tollah Khomeini of Iran every year for Muslims across the world on every last Friday of the month of Ramadan in condemnation of Israel occupation of Quds Mosque and Palestinians land.

According to a source, those killed by the police in the clash are, Muhammad Tasi'u Jaji and Abdulrahman Isa Gyallesu, "while four -Musa Usman Cikaji, Iliya Usman Lamban Zango, Mubarak Abdulkadir Magume and Dalhatu Hussaini Gyellesu were seriously in-jured."

"They (police) took the corpse of one of the killed persons to an unknown destination, while they have arrested some of our members. We do not know their whereabouts yet."

But the police said that it was untrue that three Shiites members died during the skirmishes.

Rather, the police said, two Shiites died while two policemen are lying critically ill in hospital following injuries sustained from the attack.

According to him, two of his men, ASP Umaru Buba and Corporal Paul Maigari were injured during the clash, adding that while Buba was shot in the buttocks by the Shiites, Maigari was shot on the head with a catapult.

He said that the police was not leaving any stone unturned, as according to him, "the Shiite members are well armed."

Tambari said that the reports about the planned procession by the Shiite movement was received by the police and the state security council headed by the state governor, Arch. Mohammed Namadi Sambo, about two weeks ago, adding that the council asked the police to allow them conduct their affairs peacefully which they did.

The police boss, however said, "But as they were approaching Kofan Doka, many people had gathered there and policemen were controlling the traffic to allow them easy passage. ASP Umaru Buba who was controlling traffic there was crossing the road to join his colleagues when he was shot on the buttocks and he fell down.

"The Shiites members however removed his gun from him and used the butt to hit him on the head, mouth and every part of his body. It was at this time that a shootout between the police and the Shiites members started. Two Shiites died immediately and Corporal Maigari who was shot on the head with a catapult was seriously injured.

"The Shiites provoked the crisis because in Kaduna, nothing happened because there was a peaceful demonstration. Two people died and no t three and I challenge anybody to bring out the third corpse of the Shiites.

"ASP Buba suffered from excessive hemorrhage and this was exactly what happened. We had no reason to open fire when we were not provoked. Our riffle was snatched and they used the butt of the gun to assault the ASP.

"The Shiites are known to be die hard and they can do anything. We will not take anything to chances. The Shiites have arms and they may be planning a reprisal attack on the police. We have recovered our gun and no gun belonging to the police is with them.

"Before this time, we had ceased all the bayonets people imported from Israel and were using it as part of their dressing everywhere. I am not aware of the number of arrest so far made."