Written by Oghogho Obayuwana, Lemmy Ughegbe, Nkechi Onyedika, Karls Tsokar (Abuja) and Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri)
• CAN alleges fresh killing of Christians in North by terrorists
• Govt takes suspected attacker of Deeper Life Church to court
• Ihejirika seeks more arms for battle against insurgents
• SSS parades Boko Haram’s leader with Ph.D
NIGERIA’S fight against terrorism is apparently being made difficult by the failure of the country’s neighbours to actively support the campaign, The Guardian has learnt.
Despite existing collaboration by Niger, Chad, Cameroun and Benin Republic for security in areas such as joint border patrols, an alleged absence of other clear-cut measures by these countries to help Nigeria win its anti-terror war has become worrisome.
The development is more alarming because intelligence reports continue to identify Nigeria’s neighbours as places harbouring cells linked with distant terrorist organisations that engage in trans-national operations.
And from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) came the warning Wednesday that the killing of its members in the North by Boko Haram was continuing despite the emergency rule.
In a statement at the end of a special meeting, CAN listed new killings to include those involving eight victims in Ngoshe Village in Gwoza Local Council of Borno State on November 3, and during a midnight invasion of a Christian-dominated village in Gwoza Local Council where two Christians were killed and three others abducted. CAN also alleged that more than 100 houses were burnt by the attackers.
The statement by the President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the General Secretary, Dr Musa Asake, read in part: “On the 3rd of this month about 8.00 p.m., Boko Haram members attacked Ngoshe Village in Gwoza Local Council of Borno State and killed eight Christians: Baba Ayuba, Baba Bitrus and Baba Isa Biyabra, the security guard and four others whose names we are yet to get.
“They burnt 11 houses owned by the Christians and three churches: EYN Church, Deeper Life Bible Church and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). We were informed that when the Christian community sought to meet the state governor on this issue, he said: ‘He does not have the time to see them until February next year.’”
The association urged the Federal Government to take decisive measures to protect the lives and property of the people, particularly the Christians living in Borno and Yobe states and appealed to them to uphold the indivisibility of Nigeria even in the face of provocations.
As part of its determination to check terrorism, the Federal Government yesterday preferred charges against a suspected Boko Haram member, Abdulmannan Obadiki, for his alleged complicity in the attack against Deeper Life Church in Okene, Kogi State, last year.
About 20 worshippers were shot dead during the midnight attack as gunmen stormed the church where the people were holding a vigil.
In a six-count charge filed against him by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Obadiki is accused of engaging in terrorism and illegal possession of fire-arms.
He allegedly committed the offences in collaboration with some others, said to be at large now. Obadiki, who was clad in a native outfit, was brought before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, by security operatives.
But his arraignment was stalled because he had no lawyer to represent him.
Justice Kolawole adjourned to December 12 for his arraignment.
Wednesday too, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, stressed the need for troops of the Seventh Division of Nigerian Army in Borno State to get more weapons to fight insurgents.
He told the soldiers during his routine operational visit that the Army had recorded some achievements in securing life and property from terrorists. But he stressed the challenge of replacing “military arms and hardware” lost to the insurgents in the last six months.
The army chief noted that until this challenge was overcome, the war against terrorists in the country might not be won.
Besides, a 44-year-old lecturer of Kogi State University (KSU), who holds a Ph.D in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Mohammed Nazeef Yunus, was alleged to be a spiritual leader and recruitment co-ordinator of Boko Haram.
He was paraded yesterday in Abuja by the State Security Service (SSS) along with four others, who the spokesperson of the SSS, Marilyn Ogar said, “were plotting to launch a violent attack on Igalaland.”
According to Ogar, upon arresting Yunus, he confessed to have held preaching sessions in Ayingba and Dekina, where he had 120 and 80 respectively.
Umar Musa, 37, was said to be the head of operations. He confessed to being a Boko Haram’s member with a degree in Islamic Studies. He said that he was a former teacher with the Kogi State Teaching Service Board and that he “joined the group accidentally, when a friend offered him a job as an alternative to his joblessness after he was unceremoniously sacked from the teaching service board.” He accepted and was paid N50,000.00 monthly.
Twenty-one-year-old Mustapha Yusuf (a.k.a. Habib) confessed that he was the armour carrier of the group for the state. He said that he was trained at Sambisa camp in Maiduguri on the instructions of Yunus who directed Musa to take him there. Upon their return after the military invasion of the camp, they held several meetings at Asta Filling Station in Ayingba, during which the co-ordinator handed him two AK 47 riffles with 30 rounds of live ammunition for safekeeping.
The two alleged foot soldiers, Ismaila Abdullazeez and Ibrahim Isah (alias One in Town), both hail from Olamaboro Local Council in Kogi State. While the former said he was indoctrinated by the latter, Isah said Yunus taught him the “workings of the Sharia system and its superiority to secular government, and how to exploit jihad and install it in Kogi State.”
They were arrested in Zuba Mosque, near Abuja on their way to Maiduguri for training on “acts to propagate Islam.” Isah said “he was taught that if he died in the course of the holy war, he would enter paradise.”
But according to Yunus, the Islamic religion does not allow the shedding of blood and he is not involved in any activity that is contrary to the teachings of his belief.
The suspect said: “It is a setup. I believe it is a setup by Boko Haram because I preach against them a lot.” He said that the Chief Imam of Kogi State Polytechnic was the one that alerted him to the involvement of Musa in the group, when he sought to know his whereabouts, having not seen him for a while.
While shedding tears, the scholar said he was well-known in Jos for his teaching against Boko Haram and that he had tones of tapes to prove his claims. Though he was alleged to have facilitated the training of some of his adherents, he denied that he did not know them prior to the time of his arrest.
Ogar said that an investigation into the matter continued and that this particular group had followership in Kogi State that must be arrested. She enjoined the co-operation of the public in the investigation.
Since the terror waves hit Nigeria over three years ago, the Federal Government has reached a level of understanding with its development partners like the United States (U.S.), European Union (EU) and most recently the state of Israel, to step up the war against insurgency.
But diplomatic watchers now fear that Nigeria’s neighbours are yet to fully support the anti-terror fight.
About 3,000 people have been killed by insurgents, including Boko Haram in Nigeria since 2009. There is the fear that the sustained pattern of killing of foreign hostages by insurgents might put a strain on the diplomatic relations between Nigeria and certain Western countries.
Nigeria has long, poorly demarcated and porous borders with its immediate neighbours: Benin Republic (773 kilometres), Niger Republic (1,500 kilometres), Chad (87,000 kilometres), and Cameroun (1,700 kilometres). Well-established ethnic and religious affinities between Nigeria and these neighbours tend to make the war on terror even more difficult, as nondescript nationalities who claim to be Nigerian citizens, move back and forth along these common international frontiers freely.
Following the renewed interest in neighbourhood diplomacy in Nigeria’s foreign policy drive, The Guardian since August this year sent an official inquiry to the embassies of Cameroun, Niger, Chad, and Benin seeking updates on progress (if any) regarding the collaboration that Nigeria is supposed to have with their countries on security.
Specifically, the questionnaire sought information on the outcomes of the various joint border security arrangements by the countries and Nigeria “in view of current security threats as well as the external links to terrorism in Nigeria.”
But none of the missions responded to the dispatched posers despite acknowledgements and reminders, thereby leaving room for anxiety as to how seriously the claim of collaboration with Nigeria in the anti-terror war is taken.
In September 2011, The Guardian had exclusively reported that authorities in Nigeria needed to step up its campaign against terrorist organisations. It was the conclusion then that there was the need to look more critically at the countries lying on the northern belt of Nigeria.
Over the months, findings have now shown that Nigeria needs to be a central element, not an outlier in efforts to improve security beyond its northern fringe, the Sahel, even though before the latest findings, the link between Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as well as the Al Shahab in the Arabian peninsula and Somalia had been established since 2011 when Al-Qaeda publicly identified Boko Haram as an organisation it could do business with.
At his meeting last month with the Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, President Goodluck Jonathan again sought the assistance of Israel in the ongoing war against terrorism and insurgency, a phenomenon shared by both countries.
He said among others: “Combating the menace of terrorism is a challenge that we must address in partnership with all peace-loving countries and peoples of the world.
“I seek the co-operation of your country to confront the security threat from terrorist groups that my country is now facing. There is no doubt that Israel has had decades of experience in combating terrorism. Nigeria can benefit tremendously from your experience in this area.”
On what the country should be doing with its immediate neighbours in the fight against terrorism, a former Nigerian envoy to Venezuela, Ambassador Ayo Adeniran, told The Guardian: “It is good that the Federal Government has not hesitated to go into partnership with countries that are believed to add appreciable value to its programmes in diverse areas such as investment, infrastructure, and above all, in its war on terror... But given the porous nature of our inherited colonial borders, there is today the need for closer co-operation, beyond our immediate neighbours, among the 15 ECOWAS states on the war both for deterrence sake and also for the security insulation of Nigeria as the war rages.”
Adeniran, who is now with the National Defence College, also called for the “operationalisation of the relevant instruments for security co-operation with our immediate neighbours. Happily, it has already started with the MoUs, but for the desired impacts to happen, it goes beyond signed documents.”
International relations expert, Dr. Nwangu Okeimiri, also told The Guardian in this regard that a periodic review of the effectiveness of the joint security arrangement by Nigeria and her neighbours had become imperative in view of the alleged presence of moles within the security apparatus of both Nigeria and the neighbours in question.
He said: “There is the need for a periodic review of the collaborative instruments. Only such diligently carried out reviews could enhance border security and checks in preventing transnational crimes such as human and drug trafficking apart from the proliferation of small arms and light weapons... It must be emphasised now that it is in line with unavoidable reality that our security agencies must continue to seek strategic partnerships with our sub-regional neighbours in West Africa. This will discourage or make it difficult for terrorists to use their territories as launch pads for attacks on Nigeria or retreat to after launching terrorist attacks,” he added.
Among Nigeria’s four immediate neighbours, Niger has the longest border stretch. Nigeria and Niger have a joint commission for economic co-operation as well as co-operation on security.
At the end of the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission meeting which held in Abuja last week, the Secretary-General of Co-operation Establishment, Ambassador Abubakar Abdlujalil-Sulaiman, appealed to the authorities in both countries to develop the political will to drive the collaboration further.
He disclosed that the secretariat of the commission had in compliance with the decisions of the sixth summit of the high authority last year in Niamey, put forward some administrative proposals expected to help reinvigorate the joint body as well as “help her build the much-needed capacity to face new challenges of the 21st century, especially in the areas of insecurity and climate change.”
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