Boko Haram: ‘Christians’ll take up arms soon’
Quote:
The Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Diocese, the Most Rev. Anthony Obinna, has said Christians may soon take up arms in self defence, if the killings by the Boko Haram sect continue unabated.
He said Christians will no longer watch religious extremists butcher their loved ones, but would rise up in defence of their lives and faith.
The cleric spoke at the Assumpta Cathedral in Owerri, the Imo State capital, during the media briefing of the Odenigbo Annual Lecture.
He said it is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens and urged the Federal Government to sit up.
Archbishop Obinna said: “It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to protect all citizens, irrespective of religious, ethnic or political affiliations, in any part of the country, but in a situation where it fails to do so, we will take up arms and defend ourselves.”
http://www.thenationonlineng.net/201...%E2%80%99.html
Boko Haram Leaks Data of Nigeria's Top Spies
Quote:
Nigeria's Islamist terror sect Boko Haram has allegedly changed tactics from bombings to cybercrime with its latest assault - releasing online the personnel records of the country's top spies.
The personal data of more than 60 staff at the State Security Service (SSS), including home addresses and names of immediate family, were dumped online along with a threatening message from Boko Haram.
The SSS has waged a deadly campaign against the sect, which wants to impose Sharia or Islamic law over Africa's most populous country.
The leaks have alarmed analysts who have asked whether agents are too compromised from within to beat Boko Haram.
"This is a national embarrassment," one official told AP.
"I was shocked to see my details posted on the internet," said one former agent. "I've not heard anything from anybody. I was surprised that such information could be leaked."
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/37...eria-s-top.htm
JTF, In Maiduguri, Urges Public to Ignore Boko Haram Leaflets And Posters
The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Maiduguri has called on the public to disregard the leaflets and posters being distributed by Boko Haram terrorists urging people not to pass information to the JTF on the locations and activities of the sect.
In a statement issued today by its spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, JTF stressed that the publications are simply part of the propaganda of the terrorists to keep the civil populace in captivity and perpetual fear with a view to unleashing more terror on innocent citizens.
Quote:
In a separate statement, JTF drew attention to two recent incidents in the area in which, following search operations in which JTF recovered some arms and ammunition, members of Boko Haram arrived at the same market and coerced people to pay compensation for the seizure—without the incident being reported to JTF.
“JTF wishes to alert and warn individuals or group to desist from such unpatriotic acts as both the giver and receiver of such monies would be treated as terrorists and be seriously dealt with,” the statement said, reiterating its commitment to the maintenance of law, order and the protection of lives and properties of law abiding citizens.
It reminded the public that security is a collective responsibility rooted in information sharing and collaboration, and that members of the public can reach JTF on phone numbers 080-64174066, 080-85464012 and 080-54429346.
http://saharareporters.com/news-page...ts-and-posters
Seems like Boko Haram is borrowing from the Taliban playbook.
Forget Boko Haram for a few minutes
All serious analysts of Nigeria are advised to carefully consider these two stories. They are likely to have an impact on the future of Nigeria, and Nigeria will have to grapple with the tensions between North and South for the next twenty years.
Where will this end? Most probably a dissolution of the Nigerian state. Our prayer is that it is peaceful - but you were forewarned.
Quote:
THE furore generated by some members of the Northern Governors’ Forum on the need to review the revenue allocation formula and onshore-offshore dichotomy may have moved from the political to the intellectual realm, and a hardening of positions.
Indeed, the new song is that the country must return to the negotiation table to define its corporate existence along the line of justice, equity and fairness in the allocation of resources to the federating units.
While the North clamours for more revenue to its region through a revisit of the revenue allocation formula and divestment of the offshore resources from the allocation to the littoral states of the Niger Delta, the latter zone wants total control of its oil resources.
It wants this done through an upward review of derivation from the current 13 per cent to 50 per cent.
Dr. Junaid Mohammed, physician and politician, described as an aberration the onshore/offshore dichotomy law, which awards more revenue to states in the oil-rich Niger Delta far ahead of states in the North.
Which is why he wants the matter revisited, insisting it had never been settled.
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index...nal&Itemid=559
Quote:
NORTHERN leaders, Sunday, spurned Yoruba leaders' agitation for regional autonomy and a return to the parliamentary system of government, describing the clamour as a recipe for Nigeria's disintegration.
Yoruba elders under the banner of Yoruba National Assembly, YNA, had after a meeting in Ibadan last Thursday, canvassed a return to the parliamentary system of government and granting of regional autonomy to the South-West.
They also called for removal of the immunity clause for criminal offences; a new Nigeria consisting of a federal government and six regional governments (based on the current six geo-political zones) operating federal and regional constitutions, respectively; and adoption of Regional and State Police force structure among others.
But responding to the development, some prominent northern leaders, who spoke exclusively to Vanguard, kicked against YNA's call, saying that the agitation would plunge the nation into incalculable crises and hasten her break-up.
However, Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nduka Eya, said the demands of the Yoruba leaders were in tandem with the position of Ndigbo, which had been sent to the National Assembly for inclusion in the on-going constitution amendment exercise.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201209030129.html
16 die as attack on telecom mast continues
Now Boko Haram is attacking Telecom infrastructure in Northern Nigeria.
The economic impact on this part of Nigeria needs to be carefully considered.
Quote:
Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members killed 16 people in an attack in Yobe State on Thursday morning.
The assailants, who used Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and petrol-bombs during the attack, set ablaze the service-base masts of Airtel, Glo and Etisalat in Potiskum and Damaturu .
This is coming barely 24 hours after torching 15 masts of four Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) firms in Borno state.
Among the 16 people killed was the Yobe state government protocol officer, Mallam Adamu.
Adamu was attacked and killed while returning from his duty post at the Government House, Damaturu.
Not less than 24 towers have been attacked, likely causing damage worth millions of dollars, says an association of mobile phone companies.
Army spokesperson Sagir Musa put the blame on radical Islamist group known as Boko Haram. Months ago the group threatened to target phone companies for collaborating with authorities.
According to experts, a tower costs about 450,000 US dollars and with antennas, generators and transmission equipment, the cost of a single tower can exceed one million US dollars
Suicide Bombing in Nigeria
The causality figures are actually closer to hundred.
Quote:
At least 41 people died in a suicide car bomb that struck a bus station in a Christian neighborhood in Kano, northern Nigeria's busiest commercial center, in the most deadly attack in nine months that is blamed on Islamic extremists, an official said Tuesday.
The blast increased tensions in this divided West African nation.
At least 44 others were injured in the attack that hit the city of Kano Monday evening, a rescue official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Kano state police said Tuesday that two men rammed an explosive-laden blue VW Golf into a full passenger bus in a mainly Christian enclave in the predominantly Muslim commercial center.
By striking at about 5 p.m. Monday, the bombers seemed to have targeted passengers preparing for the 15-hour overnight road trip to the megacity of Lagos in Nigeria's south, loved ones bidding them farewell and vendors selling drinks and snacks. The blast triggered panic and pandemonium in a city that has seen similar violence in the past.
Kano police chief Musa Daura had said in a statement that at least 22 people had died, but the rescue official said there were 41 deaths at least. He said there were 21 bodies were at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and 20 more at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, said rescue officials. They are also treating 41 and 3 injured respectively. Police has downplayed figures in the past to avoid reprisals.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/...2#.UUxC-BfFXko
This sort of thing has been going on for too long, if things continue at this rate, it's no longer a question of if, but when Nigeria implodes.
Good news on a bad day far away
Some good news:
Quote:
Seven members of a French family kidnapped by gunmen in northern Cameroon in February have been freed.
Freed and no explanation why, with French reassurances that:
Quote:
France has not changed its position, which is not to pay ransoms....
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22213125
Officials: At least 185 killed in nigeria attack
Major escalation of Boko Haram related violence near Lake Chad.
Quote:
BAGA, Nigeria (AP) -- Fighting between Nigeria's military and Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in a fishing community in the nation's far northeast, officials said Sunday, an attack that saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians.
The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community on Lake Chad. By Sunday, when government officials finally felt safe enough to see the destruction, homes, businesses and vehicles were burned throughout the area.
The assault marks a significant escalation in the long-running insurgency Nigeria faces in its predominantly Muslim north, with extremists mounting a coordinated assault on soldiers using military-grade weaponry.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT
New Threat in Nigeria as Militants Split Off
Quote:
ABUJA, Nigeria — Nearly four years into Nigeria’s bloody struggle with Islamists in its impoverished north, a new threat has emerged with deadly implications, this time for Westerners as well as Nigerians: local militants who openly claim to be inspired and trained by Al Qaeda and its affiliate in the region.
Having split off from Boko Haram — the dominant Nigerian extremist group responsible for weekly shootings and bombings — this new group, Ansaru, says it eschews the killing of fellow Nigerians.
“Too reckless,” said a young member of Ansaru. His group evidently prefers a more calculated approach: kidnapping and killing foreigners.
Just days before, his group had methodically killed seven foreign construction workers deep in Nigeria’s semidesert north. The seven had been helping to build a road; their bodies were shown in a grainy video, lying on the ground.
The West, which has often regarded the Islamist uprising here as a Nigerian domestic issue, has been explicitly put on notice by Ansaru, adding an international dynamic to a conflict that has already cost more than 3,000 lives.
Ansaru is believed to be responsible for the December kidnapping of a French engineer, who is still missing, and for the abduction of an Italian and a Briton, both construction workers, who were later killed by their captors as a rescue attempt began last year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/wo...pagewanted=all
What the article doesn't tell you is Boko Haram is mainly a Kanuri affair, whilst Ansaru is a Hausa/Fulani thing.
Almost everything in Africa is ethnic - so we can be rest assured that this will not spread to the Christian South of Nigeria.