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Despite federal government’s peace talks with Boko Haram sect, the Islamic fundamentalists appear unrelenting in their war against the country, capturing territories in the North-East thereby causing anxiety amongst the populace
| By Olu Ojewale | Nov. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
THESE are not happy times in Nigeria. Since the federal government announced that it had a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram, a violent Islamic sect, on Friday, October 17, thereby raising hopes that more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls in captivity of the sect would soon be released, the group’s attacks on the country have been escalating, especially in recent times. The renewed attacks by the insurgents have called to question the genuineness of the reported peace deal between the government and the insurgents, which was said to be co-ordinated by President Idris Deby of Chad.
The Boko Haram leadership had, in a video message released over the weekend of Saturday, November 1, declared that there was no peace deal with the Nigerian government. The sect also said there was no plan to release the abducted schoolgirls as they had been married off.
That, eventually, forced the government on Tuesday, November 4, to concede that there was no ceasefire agreement on ground but that peace negotiations were still going on. Speaking after the Council of State meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who spoke on behalf of the council, said talks were still going on to resolve the crisis and that the meeting was satisfied with the way the military had been prosecuting the war against the insurgents. According to Akpabio, Sambo Dasuki, national security adviser, presented a report to the council on the current war against the insurgents as well as efforts to rescue the Chibok girls abducted in April.
He said: “The NSA was of the opinion that high level contact with the Republic of Chad was made and that some persons who acted on behalf of Boko Haram and who claimed to have authority also had discussions with them and there are some Nigerian officials with them and of course, no agreement has been reached yet, it is just that the press probably misunderstood what was reported, the discussions are on-going.” Akpabio said that the government would do everything possible to ensure the release of the Chibok schoolgirls and the protection of lives and property.
Similarly, President Deby said peace talks were still in progress, in spite of a recently released video, which showed Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader, saying the Chibok girls had been married to his fighters. Deby said Shekau’s statement contradicted the earlier meeting and announcement of a deal to release them. He said backing the peace talks between Nigeria’s government and Islamist Boko Haram insurgents had become imperative, because of his country’s security. Nevertheless, the Chadian president said he was optimistic about the outcome of the negotiations with the sect.
Even at that, the sect appears to be unwilling to stop its assaults against Nigeria and pursue its insatiable appetite for territorial acquisition. Having overrun and captured Mubi, second largest city in Adamawa State, on Wednesday, October 29, the insurgents on Tuesday, November 4, renamed the city as ‘Madinatul Islam,” meaning the city of Islam.
Several other towns and villages including eight local governments in Borno State have been captured by the insurgents. This, perhaps, prompted the Adamawa State government to close down all private and government schools in Yola, capital of the state. The state government has also banned the use of motorcycles in seven local government areas as part of measures to contain the security situation in state. There was also fear in several quarters that the insurgents could be on their way to the state capital, thereby forcing the military to heighten their vigilance in the city.
Nevertheless, it is the audacity to rename Mubi and occupy nearby Vimtim, a hometown of Air Marshal Alex Badeh, chief on defence staff, that analysts say, seems to have emboldened and further demonstrated that the sect was all out to put the whole north under his control. As a stamp of its authority on the captured areas, Boko Haram has hoisted its flag in some parts of the town, including the palace of the emir of Mubi, which was being used as its administration headquarters.
In Mubi, as in other captured towns and villages, the sect has introduced Sharia system of government. On Monday, it amputated the hands of 10 residents said to have been found guilty of sundry offences, including looting of property of fleeing residents. Witnesses in the town claimed to have seen the terrorists parading 10 persons whose hands were said to have been amputated. The victims were said to have been amputated in the presence of residents the insurgents asked to converge to witness the enforcement of Sharia law.
Another eye witness account claimed that two imams were dragged out from a mosque and beheaded for allegedly preaching against Boko Haram. The insurgents also advised all Christians in the Mubi Local Government Area to relocate to other areas except they were prepared to convert to Islam or be killed.
Aliyu Bala, one of the trapped residents of Mubi, told journalists on Tuesday, November 4, about the introduction of Sharia law, adding that the sect had set up check-points in strategic parts of the community. “They are keeping vigil in every nook and cranny of the town, calling on residents who ran away to come back to their homes. They are also asking those in communities in the four Local Government Areas which they captured to return because their safety will be assured,” Bala said. He said that despite the assurance that they would be better protected under an Islamic Caliphate, some residents of Mubi, who stayed back when the insurgents stormed the town, had started to sneak out. More than 3,000 residents who managed to escape have joined other internally displaced persons at a Nigerian Youth Service Corps, NYSC, camp in Yola.
Mostly affected by the development in Mubi were students of the Adamawa State University and the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi. The students were said to have gone through torture before some of them reportedly escaped through the border between Nigeria and Cameroun. Some of them were said to still be in the bush. “I must give thanks and praises to God almighty for spearing my life; I saw as people were being slaughtered like goats. I am too happy to see myself alive,” a female student of the Federal Polytechnic was quoted in a newspaper as saying in Yola on Sunday, November 2.
Gift Ugo, a Mass Communications undergraduate of the Polytechnic from Abia State, who claimed to have spent four days in the bush where she hid from the prowling eyes of the insurgents, said it was a miracle that she escaped alive. Ugo, who is based in Kaduna, but schooling in Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa, narrated how the incident happened on Wednesday morning. According to her, students did not know the situation was that serious as the jets were dropping bombs. They thought it was the usual incident that would just pass by but before they realised it, there were sounds of gunshots everywhere. She said that some students ran to Cameroon border and were accommodated by the Cameroonian soldiers but some decided to stay back in the hostel to see how safe it would be until they were informed that one HND 1 Accounting student had been killed. They were also told that the crisis had spread into the school premises as the university had been burnt down while the next target would be the Polytechnic.
“We had to run for our lives. We tried to get to where we could get a vehicle because the roads had been taken over by the insurgents. We saw them with our eyes. They have blocked all the access roads leading to the town, so nobody could leave or enter the town. The moment you come into the town, you are sure you are going to die and if you were inside the city, you had to run for your life because nowhere is safe inside Mubi right now. We have not been eating anything. We were just taking water with thorns piecing through our legs. Walking in the bush for four days has not been easy for us,” Ugo said.
Corroborating accounts of those who managed to escape, Sunday Wugira, a lawyer, who went to Maiha to evacuate his aged parents, who fled to the village when Mubi was captured, also confirmed that many trapped residents were secretly fleeing. ‘‘I was in Maiha a few hours ago, the plight of the people I saw was simply beyond imagination. We were in a commercial bus when some fleeing soldiers said we must adjust for them to get space in the bus,” Wugira said.
Salisu Baba, a resident of Uba, one of the captured communities, said the insurgents warned politicians not to hold any election in the state and that people should go about their normal duties. “They have restated their vow to capture the whole state in no distant time. The insurgents have assured people of total freedom and have been telling shop owners to open their shops threatening that anyone who fails to open his shop will have the shop broken. Whenever the insurgents want any commodity, they pay for it. This encouraged meat and tea sellers and others to open for business,” he said.
To reclaim Mubi, the commercial nerve centre and second largest town in Adamawa State as well as Vimtim, on Monday, November 3, the federal government was said to have given a marching order to the military to flush out the terrorists from the occupied areas immediately. To achieve the objective, more attack helicopter gunships and surveillance aircraft were deployed in the areas on Monday, while FO Alli, the new general officer commanding 3 Division of the Nigerian Army, whose territory includes Adamawa State, relocated to Yola. The military command was said to have directed that no stone should be left unturned to retake Mubi and Vimtim in the shortest time possible.
While security personnel were still in combat to regain Mubi and other parts of Adamawa State under the control of the insurgents, gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram attacked Ashaka, about 130 kilometres from Gombe, capital of Gombe State, on Tuesday, November 4. It was barely a week after suspected terrorists had exploded a bomb at a motor park in the state capital.
Residents of Ashaka near the factory site of the popular Ashaka Cement Plc, Gombe State, revealed that the suspected Boko Haram terrorists, who carried out a deadly operation on the village on Tuesday, went away with dynamites fully loaded in eight Toyota Hilux vehicles belonging to the company. The residents claimed that the insurgents after taking control of the company and the town, gathered the residents together and preached their strange brand of Islamic ideology to them. They also promised the people that they were not in the area to hurt anyone. “Yes, the group came here without killing anybody but they went away with eight Toyota Hilux belonging to Ashaka Cement Plc which they fully loaded with dynamites taken from the production site of the company after preaching their beliefs to the residents,” a resident said.
The management of the cement company on Wednesday, November 5, announced that normalcy had returned to the Ashakacem plant after insurgents entered the plant on Tuesday afternoon. Viola Graham-Douglas, country communications director, Lafarge Africa Plc, in a statement, said: “Ashakacem, which is located in Gombe State in the northeastern region of Nigeria, was the target of an intrusion by people who were strangers to the plant. However, the situation has now stabilised and there is no report of any injury to employees or damage to the plant.” Ashaka is located in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State. The Tuesday’s attack by the insurgents was the second, as the dreaded sect members had also carried out similar attacks on some financial institutions in the town in 2012.
Earlier on the same Tuesday, the insurgents were reported to have killed an unspecified number of soldiers on duty at the checkpoint in Nafada. A resident of the area told journalists on the telephone that the attackers stormed the town around 11:00am in four Hilux vans and motorcycles, wielding guns and shooting sporadically into the air. He said they immediately set the Police station and the local government secretariat ablaze. “The gunmen then went to the house of an Islamic cleric named Adamu Misira and opened fire on him and nine other people that were there with him,” the resident who wishes anonymity said.
A security source, who wishes anonymity, told journalists on Wednesday, that seven travellers along the Gombe-Potiskum highway were killed around Fika town by the insurgents. He said that the killing of the seven came moments after a popular religious cleric and three of his apprentices were killed in Nafada on the Gombe/Yobe border.
Fwaje Atajiri, police public relations officer, Gombe Command, who confirmed the raid of the area, said the unknown gunmen torched the police station, the local government and the Peoples Democratic Party’s secretariats in Nafada town. Atajiri said that their efforts to enter Bajoga the headquarters of Funakaye Local Government Area were repelled by security forces.
He also said the security operatives were not aware that dynamites were taken away by the insurgents, but revealed that the command had commenced investigations into the attack, promising to address the media on the situation at a later day. Atajiri, however, confirmed that a cleric and three others were killed in Nafada while a police man who was wounded during the raid had been taken to an undisclosed hospital in the state for treatment. “I can confirm the attack on the two local government areas of the state. The number of casualty is four while a police man was injured during the attack and he is being treated. Our team of investigators have commenced inquiry on the attack and I can assure you the media will be adequately briefed as things unfold,” the PPRO told journalists.
Based on the development, the Gombe State government ordered the closure of all public and private schools in the state on Wednesday, November 5, a day after attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on two towns in the state. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports, parents, who took their children to school on Wednesday, were told to take them back as the schools had been closed on the orders of the government. The government sent a circular to all schools on Tuesday evening that all schools should be shut for security reasons.
Similarly, on Monday, November 3, more than 23 people were killed and 48 others injured after two suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked the Shi’ite Muslim procession in Potiskum, Yobe State. The procession was to commemorate the new Islamic calendar.
One of the suspects was arrested at the blast scene, while the military and police rescue teams have evacuated many people to Postiskum hospital for treatment. Hamza Isa, a resident of Potiskum, also said: “When the blast went off by 10:00am this morning, all of us ran in different directions for safety, as the explosion rented the air with deafening sounds before soldiers and policemen rushed to the blast scene near the Old Market. The security operatives responded with sporadic gunshots to show their readiness to stem any further attack on the town and this caused panic among traders who ran to various directions, leaving the streets and market empty for over three hours.”
Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State described the attack as heinous, barbaric and unwarranted. He noted that those behind the attack were criminals who were out to fan the embers of religious discord in the North. He called on all the people of the state to remain calm and vigilant.
Since the start of Boko Haram strikes, no fewer than 500,000 Nigerians are believed to have been displaced from their places of abode. For instance, following the recent attacks on Mubi and other towns by Boko Haram insurgents, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, ASEMA, disclosed that they had recorded about 10,496 internally displaced persons, IDPs, in five camps situated in Yola south and Fufore, while more people were still pouring into the state capital. Five women were also safely delivered babies in two of the IDP camps.
Making the disclosure while leading a special team to the state, Eugene Ezeh, director of relief and rehabilitation of NEMA, said that the agency had delivered adequate relief materials to all the established camps in the state and the new one would be provided with tents.
Governor Bala James Ngilari of Adamawa State, while receiving the NEMA team, said that the state government had sent vehicles for the evacuation of thousands of displaced persons who were scattered in various locations around Mubi and those that ran into Cameroon. He said: “The tragedy has really stressed us; we require your intervention for both short and long term.”
Also, Zainab Maina, minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, said President Jonathan assigned her to assess the situation and assured the state of his continuous support up to the time when the displaced persons would be going back to their homes. Maina said the federal government had been doing everything possible to see the end of the insurgency.
Badeh gave a similar assurance while speaking to the State House correspondents in Abuja, on Tuesday. He said despite the Boko Haram onslaught, Nigeria was not helpless. Reacting to the question on the loss of his hometown in Adamawa State to members of the sect and the burning of his house, he replied: “How can Nigeria be helpless? That is unfair. If CDS loses his hometown, it is the same thing as losing Lagos. Any part of Nigeria that is lost, the CDS carries the weight. It is immaterial whether it is my hometown, whether it is my house that is burnt or it is Emeka’s house that is burnt. Whoever’s house is burnt in Nigeria, the CDS is pained.”
He, however, did not reply when he was asked to respond to the various calls for his removal. Instead, he quickly rushed into his car and left.
Notwithstanding, that has not lessened calls from various quarters for his removal and other service chiefs. In its editorial of Tuesday, November 3, captioned “Jonathan, time to sack security chiefs” The Punch newspaper, noted that between 2012 and now, the nation had budgeted about N3trillion on security but with little meaningful results. It further said: “Sambo Dasuki has made no progress since he replaced Owoye Azazi as the national security adviser in June 2012. On assuming office, he signposted his own failure when he opted for ‘dialogue’ with Boko Haram which has turned out to be futile… Aliyu Gusau, as minister of defence, has not been able to bring verve into the war against terror and, unlike his counterparts in the US, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, india and Syria, has remained in the shadows.”
The newspaper says the entire world will not forget how our military not only failed to rescue the more than 2000 Chibok schoolgirls immediately after their abduction, but also failed to mount any serious rescue efforts since the abduction. “Therefore, Nigeria’s security apparatus is in a deep crisis and in urgent need of restructuring, beginning with a surgical operation targeted at its leadership. Only an effective fighting force can guarantee a country’s territorial integrity. For a top-to-bottom reform, Jonathan needs to replace several commanders and intelligence chiefs to make way for more capable commanders… It is not about personal loyalty to the President or to his re-election; this is about national survival… President Jonathan has got many things wrong in this war with Boko Haram terrorists. If he is to turn the tide against this murderous group, recover Nigeria’s lost territories, he will have to sack the ineffective service chiefs, shake up the security system to flush out fifth columnist and reenergise our fighting machine. … he should reach deep into the armed forces and intelligence services and pick new, formidable, resourceful helmsmen with a definite charge to reform the system. Those security chiefs that have shown combat ineffectiveness should be eased out to make way for fresh thinking.”
Ebongabasi Ekpe-Juda, a security analyst, holds the same view. He said it had become apparent that the current military service chiefs were not ready to fight. “How can you have a general who cannot defend his house and is leading an army? In other parts of the world generals are made by what you are able to achieve in war fronts. But here we have generals by promotion and years of service and not by the number of wars they have fought or won. The government should look deep into the military and sack those service chiefs who are not ready to fight because it appears they don’t know what they are doing,” Ekpe-Juda said. He said the government also demonstrated lack of seriousness by telling Nigerians that there was ceasefire agreement and later coming out to say it was not so.
A lot of Nigerians believe that Boko Haram was losing the war by the time Azubike Ihejirika, a retired lieutenant-general, was removed as army chief, with two other service chiefs. One of these Nigerians is Akin Ojo, a public commentator, who said: “This government is not ready to fight Boko Haram. When Ihejirika was doing well and minimised the insurgents, he was removed. (Owoye) Aziza (retired general and NSA) was also removed at the time when we noticed improvement in the fight against Boko Haram. The service chiefs at the time were replaced because they were going to win against Boko Haram. But what do we have right now? A military that is not ready to fight.”
Ekpe-Juda, on his part, said that a lot of people actually accused Ihejirika of escalating the Boko Haram war. “The simple truth is that there is a lot of sabotage going on in the military. Government should use intelligence and its machinery to get out people who are not ready to serve their fatherland out of the system. It is very sad that we call ourselves giant of Africa and we cannot put our military in order because of corruption. It is shameful,” he said.
Atiku Abubakar, former vice president, also thought that it was shameful that five years after insurgency started, the country had not been able to get rid of it. He expressed concern that the country had been unable to confront the horrendous situation, pointing out that Nigerians were increasingly suspecting that the seeming inability of the government to end the crisis was a ploy to weaken some parts of the country ahead of the 2015 elections. He said: “There has never been a time the Nigeria military has retaken any area occupied. Can you imagine that a country like Nigeria with one of the best armed forces, cannot recover one single territory from the terrorists? How can you now convince me that this government has the capacity to recover an inch if in the last five years, it has not recovered one inch of the lost territory?”
Abubakar said the government should be more serious, stand up to its fundamental responsibility of protecting the people of the country before it is taken over by insurgents. He said: “You can see that the situation in the country calls for leadership. Leadership on the part of our political leaders, leadership on the part of our armed forces. The way they easily overran states suggest that they can over run the whole of this country within a few months.”
Before the insurgents take over the country, Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Wednesday, called on President Jonathan to resign saying his administration lacked the wherewithal to tackle the country’s security challenges. Speaking in in Ilorin, Kwara State, during the formal declaration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s bid for second term in office, Tinubu said: “I saw the sea of refuges caused by the Boko Haram insurgents and the lies coming from Jonathan’s administration. They have exhibited failure, lack of capacity, vision and creativity… They are lying about the security, toying about the security of this country. I don’t have time to explain the logic of their lies. But if you control the armed forces and you are the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic, why should any part of this country be under occupation? And you give us excuses every day. In any civilised country Jonathan should have resigned. But if he will not resign, he should wait for our broom, we will sweep him away.”
That, however, does not guarantee that the insurgency will stop soon as efforts to dislodge them have so far failed. What will be pleasing to Nigerians and perhaps its neighbouring countries is an end to the siege on the country and the release of more than 200 schoolgirls who have spent more than 200 days in captivity.
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Tags: Abubakar Shekau Alex Badeh Atiku Abubakar Azubike Ihejirika Bala James Ngilari Boko Haram Ebongabasi Ekpe-Juda Godswill Akpabio Goodluck Jonathan Idris Deby
