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

"We must have the character to call a spade a spade, to condemn the unfortunate incidents on the Plateau, in Borno and Bauchi States as well as other parts of the Northern states and the nation in general.

"We must be prepared to pay any price to achieve this goal because we cannot expect any tangible development and economic growth as a nation in the present atmosphere that we have found ourselves.

"We should, therefore, be concerned about the rising incidence of religious ignorance and extremism in our communities, we should take deliberate steps to neutralize any suspicious religious groups with traits of intolerance and extremism."

He contended that "as prominent leaders, we should be decisive and courageous in tackling our socio-political problems as soon as they arise, to forestall their escalation and degeneration beyond control."

In his address, the Sultan Abubakar Sa’ad lamented the lives that have been lost to series of violence in the north, pointing out that the nation’s politics and political processes should never be allowed to succumb to unfortunate outcome as witnessed during the last election.

The Sultan noted that "at this stage of our national development, we must be able to evolve institutions that should bring harmony and understanding among our people and to build consensus on those fundamental issues that affect our collective existence".

He noted that the sustenance of peace and harmony within the respective communities depends upon the ability and the willingness of elected leaders to discharge effectively their responsibilities to those who elected them, adding that poverty has become a constant companion to a significant percentage of the population.

He noted that "I believe the time has come for us all to renew our determination as a people, as a region and as a nation, to resolve these crises. We must work together to ensure that peace, security and religious harmony return to every nook and corner of Northern Nigeria

"The rising spectre of youth unemployment is a stark reality that we cannot run away from… we need to address these issues seriously and concertedly at all levels of governance and we should do so with all the urgency that it deserves.

"We must say the truth and stand by it at all times. As religious and traditional rulers, this is the basis of our moral authority and the essence of our leadership. We must remain politically non-partisan, regardless of the enormity of the pressure for us to act otherwise".

The Kaduna State Governor, Ibrahim Yakowa who was the host, noted that the meeting provided the opportunity for the Northern traditional rulers to review issues affecting the North and the country, particularly on matters of peace, security, stability and socio-economic progress and development.

"I salute your tireless determination and efforts in collaborating with one another toward finding a lasting solution to the frequent ethno-religious and political disturbances, as well as general insecurity in our region and the nation in general. We must never give up until we restore our region to the status of its glorious past where we had unity in diversity and focused plans for meaningful development," he said.

In a related development, the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps [FRSC], Osita Chidoka, has blamed the series of bombing by Boko-Haram and the ethno-religious crises in the country on poverty, unplanned population and absence of social safety net. He said these are the real challenges facing security in Nigeria.

The FRSC chief, in a presentation to participants of Course 33 at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies [NIPSS], Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, said the resolution of the crisis depends on the transformation of the people.

The Corps Public Education Officer, Nseobong Akpabio, said Chidoka delivered a paper entitled: Perspective on the Management of Ethno-Religious Pluralism in Nigeria.

Chidoka said the non-resolution of the crises have made the people to resort to the primordial sentiments of ethnicity and religion to locate their consciousness.

Stressing that ethnicity and religion in their true meanings should not be agents of violence and distrust, the FRSC Corps Marshal said it is their negative manipulations that the elite use to achieve their parochial socio-political ends when they lose out politically and economically.

Chidoka said: "Religion, in its true sense, provides the necessary basis to support human journey on earth and has potential to become the proverbial philosophical stone. The transformative capacity of religion is widely acknowledged.

"In an ideal world, religion ought not to breed conflicts; rather, it should provide the compass to navigate the complexities of life. Islamic intellectuals led the world in the development of the Arabic numerals in the foundation of modern Mathematics, and it was a Christian cleric, Nicklaus Copernicus, that proved that the world is not the centre of the universe."

NIPSS director-general, Prof Tijani Muhammad-Bande said: "We have seen from what is happening at FRSC, under the current leadership, that it enjoys enormous goodwill of Nigerians. It is, however, not surprising because the corps represents the true vision of a new Nigeria."

The deployment of military in Jos, the Plateau State capital, and against the Boko Haram sect in Borno State may not offer a lasting solution to both problems, the President of Nigerian Institute of Management [NIM], Dr. Sally Adukwu-Bolujoko, has said.

She said the military and political committees set up by successive governments would only scratch the surface of the problems.

Mrs. Adukwu-Bolujoko addressed reporters in Abuja at the weekend in commemoration of this year’s annual National Management Conference/50th anniversary celebrations.

The NIM president noted that the government needs to tackle the social factors that lead to the defiance and sectional unrest in the country.

She said: "We need to be proactive to begin to nip in the bud social factors that expose us to development of defiant problems. We will do that through education. Education is a proactive tool; it is a tool for social reengineering. We need to empower people to think rightly on their own. If we leave a people without good education they will often resort to negative activities. Any bored mind will invite evil, proactive mind will invite good values."

"I believe our sociologists, our criminologists, our anthropologists, our historians should be brought into the problems in Jos and they will through research and enquiry solve that problems by giving solutions that will go into the tenets of that problem. Political committees and the military will only scratch the symptoms and the manifestation but researched investigation will lead us to actions that will go to the root of the problems; the genesis of the problems.

[Description of Source: Port Harcourt The Tide in English -- Daily owned by the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation]

Nigeria: Defense Officer Says Alleged Islamic Sect Leader Queried Before Release

AFP20110929581014 Abuja Daily Trust Online in English 2300 GMT 28 Sep 11

[Report by Misbahu Bashir: "Boko Haram: Defence Explains Controversy Over Tishaku"]

Self acclaimed leader of Boko Haram sect Ali Tishaku was transferred to an interrogation centre for questioning before he was released, the joint security agencies information managers said yesterday.

The police said they released Tishaku to one of the security agencies for questioning based on request before he was released. The police said they were not consulted before the suspect was freed. Tishaku was interviewed by a media organization shortly after his release where he claimed to have given vital information to some security agencies of some attacks but they ignored.

The Director of Information and Public Relations of the Nigerian Air Force Air Commodore Yusuf Anas said at a press conference organized by joint committee of information managers in Abuja that the suspect was transferred to a central interrogation agency from the police and freed based on court order.

He said it was untrue that the Defence Intelligence Agency received and released the suspect as reported by some media organization. He said the suspect went through a period of detention and his utterances were meant to vent his anger.

The Director of Defence Information Colonel Mohammed Yerima said the release of the suspect was compelled by the court. He waved the purported copy of the court order for some journalists to see.

Anas said all security agencies are working together and there was never any disagreement between them.

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

Islamic Sect Releases Leaflets Seeking Volunteers To Carry Out Blasts in Nigeria

AFP20110930598001 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 2300 GMT 29 Sep 11

[Report by Joe Ogbodu and Sola Adeyemo: "Boko Haram Offers Bomber N10m Each"]

Hours after rejecting a peace package from the Federal Government, the leadership of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, is intensifying its campaign to make the country ungovernable through bombings. A day to the country's 51st independence anniversary, it has offered to give each volunteer N10 million but with a condition: the bombing must be successful.

Expectedly, the suicide bomber will die during the attack but members of his family, who he had earlier given their names to the leadership before the attack, would enjoy the largesse.

They would be paid through a popular bank (name withheld) and so far, 38 fundamentalists have volunteered to carry out various attacks.

Leaflets entitled "Top secret for committed Muslim brothers and sisters" containing the N10 million offer were widely circulated in Warri, Delta State yesterday, causing panic.

Some of the leaflets were also circulated in Anambra and Rivers states.

They were signed by a top Islamic activist.

It was also gathered that the ground plot to carry out a jihad had been planned since February.

A cleric, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, declared that Christians in the oil-rich city are living in fear and praying for the plans to be averted.

He said that materials for the bombing would pass through some neighbouring countries to Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi and Plateau to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He declared that 650 fundamentalists are still undergoing training in Eritrea and Somalia on the use of explosives while another set of 850 have purportedly returned from Yemen and Somalia.

The leaflet reads: "We are fighting a jihad, a religious war of protecting Islam. It is our belief that before the end of this year 2011, we shall conquer Abuja, and the other Northern and Middle Belt States of Nigeria which we shall Islamise".

From Abuja, the volunteers would move to other states where some of them have been sent to study the Christendom and strategise on how to infiltrate the Niger Delta region.

The development is already causing tension among some churches in the South-East and South-South because the threat contained in the leaflet revealed that leaders of targetted churches have blasphemed Allah.

The churches listed to be bombed are 10. A parish of one of them was attacked recently in Abuja.

Also, about nine clergymen are listed as targets.

The leaflet hinted that the churches would be destroyed by the suicide bombers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, has expressed regrets that the spate of bombings and attacks on some key locations across the country by Boko Haram has eaten very deep into the resources and funds of the Nigerian Army.

The COAS, who said that the Nigerian Army had committed so much resources into curtailing the menace of the religious fundamentalists, however, charged the finance sector of the Army to judiciously utilise the available resources to be able to meet its obligations to the government and Nigerians.

Ihejirika made this disclosure yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, while declaring open the Nigerian Army Finance Corps Biennial Training Conference, 2011 held at the 2 Division Officers' Mess, Agodi, Ibadan.

He was represented by Major-General Bala Usara, Chief of Army Administration, while the Minister of State, Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, was ably represented by the Director, Finance and Accounts, Mr Mamman Idris.

Also in attendance to elucidate on the annual lecture entitled: "Effective Utilisation of Fund for Meeting Contemporary Challenges by the Nigerian Army" was the Chief of Accounts and Budget (Army), Major-General Abdullahi Muraina and Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Moses Adeyemo.

In his address, the COAS said: "You are aware of the increasing wave of socio-political and ethno-religious crises threatening the nation's security lately. This has assumed a higher dimens ion, witnessing spates of bombings and attacks on key points, vulnerable points and other strategic areas of interest to the country. This has left serious demands on Nigerian Army resources.

"We also know that funding is fundamental to containing these security challenges", advising, therefore, that "success calls for prudent and efficient management and application of available funds.

Expressing the hope that the Army would effectively manage its available resources, the COAS said, "this will enable the Army to meet contemporary challenges".

In the same vein, Ngama acknowledged the importance of the Finance Corps of the Nigerian Army as a major instrument of national security/defence policy, noting: "The Corps must, therefore, proffer useful financial strategies, techniques and methods of optimising the use of funds allocated to the Nigerian Army".

The governor noted that the issue of managing resources cut across the country, while calling for transparency, accountability, consistency and honesty among all stakeholders for Nigeria to be counted among the best in the world.

He said: "Financial management is very essential to the grassroots we are governing over. Anywhere people collect salaries, prudent management of resources and funds is necessary," Adeyemo stressed.

[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]

Nigerian Radical Sect Offers USD63,000 for 'Successful' Suicide Bombings

FEA20110930022560 - OSC Feature - Nigerian Compass Online 2300 GMT 29 Sep 11

[Report by Joe Ogbodu and Sola Adeyemo: "Boko Haram Offers Bomber N10m Each"]

Hours after rejecting a peace package from the Federal Government, the leadership of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, is intensifying its campaign to make the country ungovernable through bombings. A day to the country's 51st independence anniversary, it has offered to give each volunteer N10 million but with a condition: the bombing must be successful.

Expectedly, the suicide bomber will die during the attack but members of his family, who he had earlier given their names to the leadership before the attack, would enjoy the largesse.

They would be paid through a popular bank (name withheld) and so far, 38 fundamentalists have volunteered to carry out various attacks.

Leaflets entitled "Top secret for committed Muslim brothers and sisters" containing the N10 million offer were widely circulated in Warri, Delta State yesterday, causing panic.

Some of the leaflets were also circulated in Anambra and Rivers states.

They were signed by a top Islamic activist.

It was also gathered that the ground plot to carry out a jihad had been planned since February.

A cleric, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, declared that Christians in the oil-rich city are living in fear and praying for the plans to be averted.

He said that materials for the bombing would pass through some neighbouring countries to Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi and Plateau to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He declared that 650 fundamentalists are still undergoing training in Eritrea and Somalia on the use of explosives while another set of 850 have purportedly returned from Yemen and Somalia.

The leaflet reads: "We are fighting a jihad, a religious war of protecting Islam. It is our belief that before the end of this year 2011, we shall conquer Abuja, and the other Northern and Middle Belt States of Nigeria which we shall Islamise".

From Abuja, the volunteers would move to other states where some of them have been sent to study the Christendom and strategise on how to infiltrate the Niger Delta region.

The development is already causing tension among some churches in the South-East and South-South because the threat contained in the leaflet revealed that leaders of targetted churches have blasphemed Allah.

The churches listed to be bombed are 10. A parish of one of them was attacked recently in Abuja.

Also, about nine clergymen are listed as targets.

The leaflet hinted that the churches would be destroyed by the suicide bombers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, has expressed regrets that the spate of bombings and attacks on some key locations across the country by Boko Haram has eaten very deep into the resources and funds of the Nigerian Army.

The COAS, who said that the Nigerian Army had committed so much resources into curtailing the menace of the religious fundamentalists, however, charged the finance sector of the Army to judiciously utilise the available resources to be able to meet its obligations to the government and Nigerians.

Ihejirika made this disclosure yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, while declaring open the Nigerian Army Finance Corps Biennial Training Conference, 2011 held at the 2 Division Officers' Mess, Agodi, Ibadan.

He was represented by Major-General Bala Usara, Chief of Army Administration, while the Minister of State, Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, was ably represented by the Director, Finance and Accounts, Mr Mamman Idris.

Also in attendance to elucidate on the annual lecture entitled: "Effective Utilisation of Fund for Meeting Contemporary Challenges by the Nigerian Army" was the Chief of Accounts and Budget (Army), Major-General Abdullahi Muraina and Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Moses Adeyemo.

In his address, the COAS said: "You are aware of the increasing wave of socio-political and ethno-religious crises threatening the nation's security lately. This has assumed a higher dimens ion, witnessing spates of bombings and attacks on key points, vulnerable points and other strategic areas of interest to the country. This has left serious demands on Nigerian Army resources.

"We also know that funding is fundamental to containing these security challenges", advising, therefore, that "success calls for prudent and efficient management and application of available funds.

Expressing the hope that the Army would effectively manage its available resources, the COAS said, "this will enable the Army to meet contemporary challenges".

In the same vein, Ngama acknowledged the importance of the Finance Corps of the Nigerian Army as a major instrument of national security/defence policy, noting: "The Corps must, therefore, proffer useful financial strategies, techniques and methods of optimising the use of funds allocated to the Nigerian Army".

The governor noted that the issue of managing resources cut across the country, while calling for transparency, accountability, consistency and honesty among all stakeholders for Nigeria to be counted among the best in the world.

He said: "Financial management is very essential to the grassroots we are governing over. Anywhere people collect salaries, prudent management of resources and funds is necessary," Adeyemo stressed.

[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]

Army Reportedly Foils Suspected Islamic Sect Members' Attempt To Enter Nigeria

AFP20111001598006 Ibadan Nigerian Tribune Online in English 01 Oct 11

[Report by Chris Agbambu: "Soldiers Foil Boko Haram's Fresh Bid To Bomb Abuja"]

Security operatives have foiled an attempt by about 920 suspected members of Boko Haram to infiltrate the federal capital, Abuja ostensibly to carry out the earlier threat by the group to bomb the city during today's 51st Independence Anniversary celebration.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the operatives rounded them up, as they were trying to sneak into the city through different routes between the FCT and neighbouring Niger and Adamawa states.

The operation was reportedly carried out by the operatives of Military Intelligence and Brigade of Guards, with the suspects comprising mostly Nigerians, Sudanese and Chadians.

It is recalled that the nation was thrown into mourning on October 1, 2010 following the bombing of the Eagle Square, the venue of Nigeria's golden jubilee celebrations.

It was gathered that the foreigners were obviously on a mischief mission, as they could not explain to security agencies what they were coming into Abuja to do.

The sources said that several arms and ammunition, including AK 47 rifles were recovered from the suspects who had been grilled towards providing some useful information that could assist security operatives while the suspects have been interrogated and relevant information collected from them which led the security agencies into unmasking those behind recent bombings in Abuja and some other parts of the country.

According to the sources, the operatives are working round the clock to arrest more suspects in Suleija in Niger State and in Nasarawa State, said to be the suspected hideouts of a few Boko Haram members in hiding.

Investigations revealed that most of the suspects arrested had been distributed into various cells of the security agencies where vital information are being collated as the government has not taken chances to ensure that the sect did not make good its threat on October 1.

The source said, most of the suspects would be repatriated to their home countries after interrogation for prosecution while those who are Nigerians will face justice in the country.

Towards this end, following the arrest of the aliens, the Federal Government has reportedly directed the Nigerian Immigration Service to be fully on the alert as most of the suspects would be deported this weekend. Also, all the security agencies in the FCT have to carry out 24 hour security checks because of the separate threats by Boko Haram and MEND on key installations in Abuja.

Security from the boundary of Kogi State and FCT has been stationed, while the operatives searched vehicle booths and engines thoroughly.

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

Nigeria: Northern Group Commends Jonathan for Setting up Panels on Jos Crises

AFP20111001598007 Lagos The Guardian Online in English 2300 GMT 30 Sep 11

[Report by Saxone Akhaine: "ACF Lauds Jonathan's Handling of Jos Crisis, Others"]

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has commended President Goodluck Jonathan in setting up the panels on ethno-religious crises in Jos and the security challenges posed by Boko Haram in order to unmask the papetrators.

Members of the group gave the commendation when they met in Kaduna yesterday, and discussed how the Forum would parley with all stakeholders in the north with a view of providing solutions on the problems facing the north and Nigeria in general.