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

Responding, Anyim granted the team an extended period of two weeks and noted that the details of the "interim report" would not be disclosed until the final report.

He commended the efforts of the committee and urged them to stick to the terms of reference, which include review of all issues of security challenges in the zone and proffer solutions/recommendations which would bring about a speedy resolution of the crisis; to serve as a liaison between the Federal Government and the State Government, where necessary.

They are also to liaise with the National Security Adviser (NSA) to ensure that the security services discharge their respective assignments with optimal professionalism; consult with stakeholders from time to time for suggestions and to ascertain the true state of affairs; and consider any other initiatives that will serve to engender enduring peace and security in the area (Borno State/North-east).

It would be recalled that the seven-man panel headed by Mr. Usman Galtimari was inaugurated on August 02, this year to create a forum for a pool of suggestions that would guide the federal government on whether to negotiate with Boko Haram or not.

The panel was given two weeks to submit its report. Galtimari, however requested that they be allowed more time beyond the August 16, this year deadline and as well co-opt a few hands to ensure a comprehensive work in a final Report to Government.

He gave the assurance that if given enough time, the committee would get to the root of the problem, saying that the security challenge posed by Boko Haram was not insurmountable.

He also called on the members of the Islamic sect to embrace the peace efforts of the federal government and promised that their 'genuine grievances' wiould be given due considerations in their recommendations.

"I assure them that all their genuine grievances will be addressed by the committee and appropriate recommendations made. The members of the sect are our children and grand children. They should appreciate the fact that the government is not against them and the society is not at war with them," he said.

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

Nigeria Police Arrest Islamist Sect's 'Explosives Supplier'

AFP20110819651003 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1602 GMT 19 Aug 11

["Nigerian police arrest Islamist sect's 'explosives supplier'" -- AFP headline]

KANO, Nigeria, Aug 19, 2011 (AFP) - Nigerian police on Friday arrested a man they say supplied explosives to an Islamist sect blamed for dozens of attacks, including materials used in a failed "suicide bombing" of a police building.

"We have arrested a man... who has been the source of explosives Boko Haram has been using in the bomb attacks in the city of Maiduguri," said Borno State Police Commissioner Simeon Midenda.

He said police were able to trace the source of explosives that were to be used in the "botched suicide bombing" of Borno state police headquarters this week to the suspect's shop in Maiduguri.

According to Midenda, the shop had ammonia nitrate, which he said was "the major ingredient the sect used in manufacturing the homemade bombs they have been using."

He alleged that sales receipts found in the suspect's shop revealed transactions between the suspect and sect members.

The military and police have come under increasing pressure over their inability to stop the sect's near daily attacks.

On Monday, police said they shot dead a "would-be suicide bomber" who sought to drive an explosives-laden car into state police headquarters in the violence-torn city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.

The Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb blasts and shootings, mainly in the country's northeast.

There have been growing fears that the sect has sought to form links with Islamist groups outside of Nigeria, including Al-Qaeda's north Africa branch.

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

Constant Police Checkpoint Killings Fuel Boko Haram Plan Notion in Anambra State

AFP20110824619002 Lagos The Source in English 22 Aug 11 - 29 Aug 11 32-33

[Report by Okechukwu Obenta: "Tension Over Police Killings"]

Police extortion, brutality and killing of innocent citizens at check-points heighten tension in Anambra State

The popular Nwagu junction in Agulu, the country home of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State was the spot of an ugly scene on Saturday, 13 Aug as hundreds of people, including the aged and youths gathered there bemoaning the sight of a young boy lying in the pool of his own blood.

Onyeka Agupugo, 26, a bricklayer was sent to his untimely death by one of the mobile policemen at the Nwagu junction. Before he was gruesomely murdered, he was in one of the beer-drinking joints around the Nwagu roundabout cooling off the evening with some friends.

An end to his journey here on earth, however, began when he looked out from where he was seated in the beer joint and saw one of his friends, a commercial motorcycle operator , otherwise, called, Okada rider entangled in an argument with one of the mobile policemen at the checkpoint.

The policeman had allegedly demanded their normal illegal N20 "toll-gate" collection from his friend but he could not settle. The issue soon turned into a long argument. So, he rushed out to mediate.

It turned out to be a fatal mission. The apparently trigger-happy policeman became infuriated by Agupugo's gut and he instantly pumped four bullets into his head and he dropped dead. The sound of the gun shots sent everyone within the vicinity scampering for their dear life.

Before they reconnected themselves and came back to the scene, all the mobile policemen had fled the place leaving Agupugo lying in the pool of blood.

When the Magazine arrived at the scene less than 20 minutes after the incident, people were wailing and pronouncing curses on not only the police officer, but, indeed, on the Nigeria police force as an institution.

Hundreds of youths in the area who trooped out in search of the policemen at the checkpoint when they couldn't find them, blocked various entry points leading to the roundabout and making born-fire.

Agupugo is popular in Agulu, especially among his peers as a hardworking and honest boy. His father is already late and his mother is a petty trader. So, he was a major support to the family.

Shedrack Ifedugbo, Agupugo's age-mate told The Source that "he is my childhood friend, he is a good boy and hardworking, I'm surprised to see what happened to him" Ifedugbo stated amidst wailing and tears rolling down his checks.

Most of those who spoke were angry that the police are always busy collecting N20 from Okada riders and other commercial motorists while kidnappers are having a field-day in the state.

Meanwhile, the trigger-happy police officer, a sergeant, had already undergone departmental trial and will soon be charged to court for murder. Emeka Chukwuemeka, the image-maker of the state police command told The Source that though the action of the police officer was condemnable, it was one of the hazards of the job.

"This is why we have been conducting training and retraining for our men on the use of firearms. The commissioner of police has gone round the 36 divisions talking to our men to always be tolerant with members of the public because once you pull the trigger it is difficult to control," he said.

Many lorry drivers have had their career terminated abruptly as a result of their encounter with the police at checkpoints where the police sometimes poke the nozzle of their guns into their eyes for refusing to give them the amount of money they demand from them.

Apparently because of the growing suspicion, members of the public say that most of the police officers who normally carry out the torture, extortion and sometimes kill at checkpoints, being mainly from the Northern part of the country, they might therefore, be agents of the Islamic Boko Haram sect.

It is therefore, in order to avoid any possible reprisal attack the police command has refused to avail the name of the erring police officer to the press.

But tongues are already wagging just as fears are being entertained by some people in the state that some of the police officers, especially those who are Muslims might be secretly carrying out the Boko Haram agenda because of the manner they extort money, torture and even kill people at checkpoints at the least provocation.

But Chukwuemeka would not agree that a police officer can be a member of the Boko Haram sect. He would rather attribute the occasional shooting of an innocent person by a policeman as one of the "hazards of the profession."

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

Report Says Northern Ethno-Religious Crises' Victims Planning Reprisal Attacks

AFP20110823619003 Lagos National Standard in English 22 Aug 11 - 29 Aug 11 30-33

[Report by unattributed correspondent: "Armageddon in the north"]

Human Rights Watch said that about 800 people died in the April 2011 post-electoral violence. Scary as the figure is, a deep-seated ethno-religious cacophony still ravages the Northern part of Nigeria. In an exhaustive 14-day investigation, National Standard reveals among other things, the plights and pains of the victims and most crucially, factors that may still plunge the north into further chaos.

Until a fortnight ago, Akhwat Akwop, a militia group claiming to fight for northern Christians, existed only in the imagination of its initiators. Warming itself into the nation's consciousness, Akwat Akwop dropped threat leaflets in 10 northern states with stern warning to the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

"The Boko Haram is hereby warned that if it carries out any further attacks on Christians anywhere in the north, our commandos will unleash deliberate attacks on selected targets in cities with majority Muslims populations in the far north and your people will see and experience what you have been doing to others first hands," the group stated.

Indeed, since it started its guerrilla attacks on security operatives and other members of the public, the Boko Haram has extended its tentacles beyond Maiduguri where it has inflicted worst atrocities. Barely few days after the sect threatened to carry out "fiercer" attacks across the 19 states of the north and Abuja, it pulled a masterstroke when it bombed Nigerian police headquarters.

National standard investigation however revealed that Akhwat Akwop might not have been prompted by the Boko Haram insurgence after all. The group biggest challenge before now has been how to unify its renegade members, many of whom operated in isolation.

Many Hausa-Fulani Muslims who reside within southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa axis have had bitter pills from uncoordinated members of the group. That is why the Akhwat Akwop brags that it has its reasons and that "the Boko Haram must not involve in the internal politics of Kaduna State. Kaduna state and the middle belt are no go area for Boko Haram," the group stated.

Security experts feared that unhealthy rivalry between the Boko Haram and tje Akhwat Akwop can only worsen the security situation in the north. Plateau state for instance, has witnessed enough turbulence in recent time and there appear to be little or no respite in sight.

Plateau without peace

"Bike man, can you take me to 3 Container in Angwa Rukuba?" a commercial motorcyclist was waved down. "Kai, walahi I no dey go that kind area," the cyclist said as he zoomed off. Minutes later, another cyclist emerged. "Abeg Aboki, you fit take me to 3 Container on Bauchi Road?"

‘'Dan buro ubah! You mean I should take you to Angwa Rukuba make dem slaughter me?' Before any other explanation, the cyclist has disappeared. And so did the third, fourth, and fifth cyclists.

"If you stop 100 cyclists, for as long as they are Malam (a nickname for the Hausa in Jos), none of them will convey you there," a commercial telephone operator, who later identified himself as Henry, hollered to the reporter who has been standing on the same spot for almost one hour.

"But why?" a question was posed to Henry. "You are asking me why? Don't you know that if you are a Mengua, an Hausa nickname for Berom-Christians, you cannot enter Angwa Rogo, dominated by Hausas? Even if you are a Yoruba-Muslim, you dare not enter the community.

Some of them will tag you Zadawa (someone who can hardly be described as a Muslim or Christian). They can kill you for being a Zadawa. But if you think I'm lying, walk into that street over there (He pointed at a street beside Bauchi motor park, adjacent to the University of Jos entrance gate), if you come back alive, I will clap for you," Henry said sarcastically.

Henry is not clowning even if he has sounded like one. His disclosure is the brutal reality of what Jos, the famed tin city, has become. On the surface, all appears calm. But within that fragile calmness, lies a seething disquiet.

Mutual suspicion pervades the atmosphere. There are many "no-go areas" in the city, depending on the individual’s tribe, religion or faith. A visit to Angwa Rukuba, a Christian dominated area in Jos North, opens a can of worms. Within this community is Dutse Ukwu, a small neighborhood of Hausa-Muslims.

The orgy of violence unleashed there by Christian youths on 26 Dec, 2010 was all that it took to reduce Dutse Ukwu to a ghost town. Though a handful of military officers are stationed there, the atmosphere is still tense.

From one section of the once-blossoming community to the other, it is not uncommon to see notices like, "Malam, cross here if you want to die", "Civilian zone ", among others. Such cautionary notes are deemed magnanimous in other parts of the city. In such areas, sudden disappearance is the norm.

Some Hausa butchers who were patronizing a local abattoir in the Gring area of Jos have vanished in such circumstances just as many others are still missing. The bone of contention was clear. The indigenes felt that the dominance of Hausas in a money-spinning abattoir located within their territory was an assault on their sensibilities.

One after the other, the Hausa population was depleted. Today, the indigenes are in charge of the abattoir. "Not long ago, I received the list of four young men missing in our community. I receive such information on daily basis.

Most pathetic is the fact that you never get to see such victims again," Sheikh Ibrahim Masali, the president of the Jasawa group (an umbrella body of Hause-Muslims in Jos) told National Standard. What Masali perhaps failed to add was the fact that his people have also not relented in taking their pound of flesh.

From Nasarawa Gwom to Bukuru, Dilimi to Rikkos, and Dogo Na'Awah, the indigenes, alongside Yoruba and Iqbo - Christians have falling victims of Hausa-Fulani atrocious acts. In Dogo Na'Awah, Jos South LG, over 500 Berom-Christians were massacred when Fulani invaders launched a midnight attack on the village in March 2010.

So were hundreds of Igbo-Christian traders, slaughtered like rams in the Dilimi area of Jos North when some Hausa rioters pounced on them. "What we have is a ding-dong affair. If you do me, I do you, God no go vex.

If they claimed to be losing their people, let them tell us the number of our people who strayed into their communities and came back alive?" Bitrus Gwom, a Berom youth leader, quipped.

In Kaduna, home is hell

The incessant rupture of the Plateau State capital hasn't spared its equally volatile neighbors like Kaduna and Bauchi States. But in an unusual twist of fate, the tin city was spared when its neighbors got caught in the post-electoral violence that rocked some northern states.

Beyond the facade of politics, National Standard discovered among other things, the age-long ethno-religious crises rupturing peaceful co-habitation in the affected states. The post-electoral catastrophe only came in handy.

Abdulahi Salihu, a sport equipment trader, whose shop was among those razed in the Kafanchan main market, claimed that the attack on Hausa Muslims in Kafanchan was premeditated. He, surely, wasn't the only one.

Aliu Aamin, a Yoruba-Muslim in his 30s also has some gory tales to narrate. When the assailants descended on Aamin’s household, he could only muster enough energy to ship his wife and kids through the backdoor but not his octogenarian father.

According to Aamin, he watched from afar how his aged dad was dragged on the floor before being shot in front of their house. "Our sin was because we are Muslims," Aamin said.

More than any other town in southern Kaduna region, the carnage in the ancient town of Kafanchan can best be described as the most barbaric. Areas occupied by non-indigenes, especially Muslims, are the worst affected. Places like the central motor park, the main market, mosques, shops, and houses are dotted with scars.

Much central to Kafanchan's theatre of absurdity is the lingering power-tussle between the Hausa-Muslims and the natives who are predominantly Christians. The indigenes' grouse has always been that since it is their land, their kinsman should be the town's paramount ruler.

Between 1987 and 1999, Kafanchan has twice erupted in violence. The 2011 fiasco was the third in the series. But, since the latest crisis has also failed to change the status quo, it is not unlikely that the town may soon witness another orgy of violence.

If anything, the volatility of its neighboring towns and villages can only hasten such awful omen. Zonkwa and Sarnaru-Kataf are close to Kafanchan. The post-electoral violence in both towns ran neck and neck with the Kafanchan experience.

Today, survivors of Zonkwa, Marabarido, Kafanchan, and Samaru Kataf have become refugees at the state pilgrim camp, Kaduna. Zakari Abdulkadri, the camp commandant said that about 4,000 displaced persons currently hibernate in the camp. The list includes children, women, 66 widows as well as the injured and the aged.

On the other side of the divide is the Christian community. Many of their brethren in northern Kaduna and Zaria are also reeling in pain. But unlike their Muslim counterparts, they claimed to have no camp to assemble.

"Christians have no camps where they could take refuge. Those who sought refuge at Jarato and Bafa military barracks in the wake of the attack have been chased out because the soldiers believed the crisis is over," Rev. Zidi Bala, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Sabon Gari, Zaria, said.

Motunrayo Olohunisola, a 55-year-old Yoruba-Christian fits into that category. After being displaced alongside his three children, she now squats with her cousin at Mando, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis.

"If only I have President Jonathan's phone number, I won't hesitate to call him and let him know that I have been persecuted because I share the same religion with him," Olohunisola said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Such agonizing tear hasn't dried in the home of Dr. Ali Obe. Obe, a senior lecturer at the faculty of education of the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, was said to have dissuaded the mob threatening to burn down Calvary Methodist Church, Samaru-Zaria, from doing so.

His gut must have spited the gangsters who wasted no time in snuffing life out of him. Obe's household was deserted when this magazine visited. At the Faculty of Education of the university, his obituary dotted every notice board.

Lecturers and students, who spoke with this magazine, described his death as the loss of a gem. Investigation however revealed that plan has been concluded to name the church after him.

Bauchi tell-tales of agony

In the north-eastern state of Bauchi, more Christians are still gnashing their teeth in regret. When the post-electoral violence raged on, their churches and properties became prime targets of attacks. From Misau to Azare, Giade to Jama'are local government areas, among others, the Christian adherents were made to pass through the shadow of death.

The non-Christians who were sympathetic to the ruling People’s Democratic Party, weren't spared, either. Ibrahim Dandija, a septuagenarian and a Misau community leader lost an estimated N200 million worth of property in the post-election madness.

Dandija's palatial residence, alongside 14 vehicles and 40 motorcycles were burnt to ashes. Dandija's offence was the fact that he is the father of Ahmed Dandija, the secretary to the Bauchi State government.

Bauchi gory account that angered most Nigerians was the gruesome murder of 10 young graduates, participating in the National Youth Service Corps scheme. The Independent National Electoral Commission had solicited for the youth service corps members' participation in the election.

Acceptance of INEC offer was to prove the youth corps members' undoing in Bauchi. In Giade town, where seven of the young Nigerians were slain, the atmosphere surrounding their residential lodge still wears a mournful look.

Their rooms showed that their departure was sudden. Personal belongings such as clothes, mattresses, and sack-bags, littered the rooms. "When their assailants came on their trail, we beckoned to them to hide in this bakery. We knew quite well that the rioters won't dare pursue them here.

But the corps members thought that the police station was safer. That decision didn't deter the mob. They chased them into the station and hacked them to death right in the presence of police officers who could do little or nothing to rescue them," Ahmed Bulayo, a factory attendant at Faida Modern Bakery, told National Standard.

The bakery is besides the lodge, just as the police station is a stone's throw from the place.

Still a bleak future

Yet, Giade wasn't the only place where security operatives failed. Many victims of northern crises grieved over the operatives' lethargy in curtailing crises. In Kaduna, men of "Operation Yaki", the security outfit funded by the state government were accused of complacency and sometimes collaboration with the rioters.

Of course, such complaint won't just stick. "You don't expect everybody to like our face. Those who criticize us are those we have prevented from fomenting trouble. We may not have been perfect, but nobody can deny the fact that we have done our best to restore sanity," Charles Ekeocha, the spokesman of the special task force in Jos, said.

The security challenge in the north or anywhere else however goes beyond Ekeocha's self-adulation. The Boko Haram, the dreaded fundamentalist group in Borno State has demonstrated that on many occasions.

Many victims of the Boko Haram aggression, who spoke with this magazine in Bauchi, Niger and Abuja, shared horrific details of how those attacks have crippled their lives.

Worrisome as it is, National Standard also uncovered among other things, the clandestine plots of some victims of northern crises to launch reprisal attacks in crisis-ridden states, soonest.

"We just want to allow Governor Jang to get over his re-election fun fare before another round of terror is unleashed," a victim of Jos crisis, who was privy to the conspiracy, disclosed to the magazine. Such a plot may strike a chord with the Boko Haram and the Akhwat Akwop threats.

If that happens, Nigeria will be in the throes of full-blown crises with devastating implications. Sometimes in June 2005, the United States National Intelligence Council raised alarm over possible collapse of the Nigerian state by 2015 due to ethno-religious cum political crises.

Already, Nigerians are worried that the current insecurity in the north will lead the country towards that predicted Armageddon. Whether or not it would, the answer hangs in the surreal silence of time.