boko

• Boko Haram Leader, Shekau, Issues More Threats

  Kareem Haruna, Midat Joseph And Bayo Oladeji

  — February 21, 2014
  The leader of Boko Haram,  Abubakar Shekau, has in a new video threatened more attacks on Nigerians even as he vowed to bomb Nigerian oil facilities.
  Shekau, who spoke confidently in the video amidst sarcastic leering, said the state of emergency had not in anyway hindered  the sect’s operations.
  He reiterated his hate for western democracy and education and claimed that his group killed Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Adam Albani,  among other claims.
  However, the students of late Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Adam Albani yesterday debunks Shekau’s claim that  Boko Haram killed their teacher, saying it was a falsehood  meant to deceive Nigerians and the world in general.
  Reacting to media reports on a new video that was purportedly released by Boko Haram leader claiming responsibility for Albani’s assassination, spokesperson of late cleric’s students, Dr Abdulganiyu Abdulrafi’u, described the video as a plot to stop investigation on the killing of the cleric.
  “We have said it times without number that we don’t believe in the existence of any terror group known as Boko Haram. Of course, we are aware of a group under late Muhammad Yusuf, but the name of the Muhammad Yusuf-led group is just being used to destabilise Muslims and for committing crime under its guise.
  “Therefore, nobody can deceive us by saying that it is ‘a ghost group’ that killed our teacher. Our teacher was not killed by ghosts. Our call remains that the relevant agencies should fish the killers out. We are therefore patiently waiting for them to do their job,” Dr Abdulrafi’u said.
  He further explained that the reason given by Shekau for killing Sheikh Albani strengthened the belief of Albani’s students that there was nothing like Boko Haram.
  Meanwhile the chief of army staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen Kenneth Minimah and the Chief of Air Force(CAS), Air Marshal Adekunle Amosu, yesterday returned to Abuja after a three-day operational visit to Adamawa and Borno states over the ongoing counter-insurgent war.
  The two officers visited troops deployed on Operation Zaman Lafia in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the ongoing military operations against insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
  Addressing the troops during the visit to their different locations, the army chief advised them to make discipline their watchword at all times and remain resolute in the face of security challenges facing the country.
  Gen Minimah reminded the troops of their responsibility as soldiers, noting that as professional soldiers, they must rise to the defence of their fatherland and not yield any ground to the forces of evil under any circumstances
• Nigeria’s most deadly islamic sect, Boko Haram, has just exploded mutiple bombs in the city of Kano. Curfew has been imposed and the city- the state and the entire nation is engulfed in tension, fear and uncertainty. Several lives have reportedly been lost. This group appears unrelenting in its murderous campaign.
  Kano has joined the ranks of northern states-Bornu, Yobe, Adamawa, Plateau, Niger where the terror of Boko Haram holds sway. Religious crisis orchestrated by muslim fundamentalists is not new to this northern city but these attacks have brought a frightening dimension to islamic militancy in the region.
  The Spokesperson of Boko Haram, Abdul Qaqa, told journalists that they carried out the attacks on the city because the authorities had refused to release their members arrested and detained by the police. So with these attacks, Boko Haram has sent very clear signals to the authorities in Kano and beyond- “Capitulate”, “Surrender”, “Do our Bidding”, “Join forces with us”, “Embrace our cause” or “Be destroyed”.  Since last year, Boko Haram has carried out bomb attacks on several institutions including the UN building and police headquarters in Abuja. This militant group has targeted churches and southerners or anyone they percieved to be opposed to their cause of implementing sharia and enthroning  political islam. It has declared a war on anybody muslims as well as non muslims opposed to or critical of its cause. This is characteristic of the totalitarian nature of political islam- a social political and economic order based on sharia.
  A fringe movement that started with a group of islamic preachers on the streets of Maiduguri a few years ago, has turned to a real threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence and a terror to the world.
  Unfortunately, most analysts continue to shy away from the truth- the bitter truth that Boko Haram is an islamist group with a political agenda. Boko Haram is a jihadist organization that has declared war against anybody that is really or imagined to be opposed to its cause. Instead many analysts continue to blame the attacks and crisis orchestrated by this militant sect on the injustices, poverty and marginalization of the North. Some commentators have made it seem as if Boko Haram are northern equivalent of the Niger Delta militants fighting to address social, economic and political marginalization of the region. Even when the group has made it clear that they are opposed to western education and want sharia implemented in Nigeria. Boko Haram militants are not asking for jobs. They are not agitating for any finacial reward or compensation. Their cause is religious. Thier agenda is islamists.
  They are just a bunch of islamic militants and nihilists who want to turn Nigeria into an islamic empire by force.
  Nigerians must begin to acknowledge the jihadist agenda of Boko Haram and try to find out how the teachings of Islam particularly as contained in the Koran or the Hadith were propagated or twisted to breed this terrible monster.
  We need to know how these militants are being motivated to embark on this self destructive mission. We need to identify the cells and networks that are recruiting, training and brainwashing these militants.
  We in Nigeria must stop decieving ourselves by saying that the Boko Haram attacks have nothing to do with religion. Or that they have nothing to do with Islam. This is not true. Though people can carry out such heinous attacks for other reasons, or be motivated by other secular causes. From the pattern of their attacks, the Boko Haram phenomenon has a lot to do with religion particularly islam. It is the Nigerian version of al Qaeda. The militants are not bombing police stations, UN building and churches for the sake of it. They are not agitating for sharia law for the fun of it. The Boko Haram militants are fighting a holy war. They are prosecuting a jihad for which they expect to be rewarded abundantly in the hereafter with some virgins. That is why the group has not run out of suicide bombers. That is why they have their operational base in the muslim majority states.
  Boko Haram militants have been brainwashed by few islamic clerics to believe that they are 'Hezbollah'- the army of Allah. They have been deluded to think that these suicide bomb attacks and other murderous acts they carry out are religious duties in line with the will of Allah and in furtherance of Islam. Nigerian authorities must acknowledge and address  the ‘islamic’ roots of the Boko Haram menace now, before it is too late.