The Killer Boko Haram - Not A Mystery (Part I)
By Segun Edward II
I have seen several write ups highlighting the endemic poverty in the North of Nigeria spun by the political elite as well as high illiteracy levels as factors responsible for the rise of the outlaw group: Boko Haram. Granted that those factors, inimical to true development of the North caused by a few are veritable basis to join outlaw groups, Boko Haram was not formed on that premise. The true premise has to do with preserving the culture of a people fast eroded by Western Culture steep in moral lasciviousness and recklessness. It is also based on the premise that Islamic education also had its own intrinsic values and many societies had been successfully run on those age-long precepts.
The group maintained this benevolent posturing until their members were harassed and killed by the police for no offense of theirs even at Checkpoints and they could not get justice through the formal courts of law. In keeping with Islamic injunctions to fight back when Muslims are prevented from practicing their beliefs and they are killed for doing so, the group took up arms to retaliate the killings and injustices meted out to its members. We all saw gory pictures of policemen picking up little boys who were unarmed, laying them on a file and shooting at them like some game.
The breaking point was reached when their leader was killed in an extra-judicial manner. That was too much for the group to bear, knowing fully the reason he was killed was to keep a secret secret by top government officials, including Ali Modu Sherrif, the erstwhile governor of Borno State. However, the level of militancy took a worse turn when elements masquerading as Boko Haram funded by this government stepped in and capitalized on the opportunity made congenial by hunger, lack, perceived injustice, religious intolerance and political considerations.
As it were, the religious Boko Haram started by one Yusuf is not fighting or planting and detonating bombs. Hell no. The two other dimensions of the group who have capitalized on the factors I had previously listed are both funded surreptitiously by agents of the Federal Government and the security agents at the topmost echelons know them. They both claim to be Boko Haram each time they strike. It would interest you to know that the boys do not really know who they work for.
They leave unmistakable signatures in their wake each time they strike. Even the security agents who are not in the know do not really know what to look for or who they are really fighting. The government financed agents may be arrested occasionally by patriotic security agents who are not in the know and those in the higher echelons in the know let them vanish into thin air. The perception of invincibility the notorious groups masquerading as Boko Haram have is a function of the level of superior 'intel' at their disposal from top security agents.
However, what is still missing is the angle that has infused secessionist agenda and those who profit immensely from importing and selling arms and ammunition. There is a thriving arms market with cover from above.
At this point, I find it pertinent to examine critically happenings in the past that show how involved top government officials are with the groups in question on a killing spree.
First, recall October 1, 2010 bomb blasts in Abuja. Recall that when they occurred, Mr. President was quick to absolve MEND who had claimed responsibility and to lay the blame at the doorsteps of his co-contestants in the last Presidential Election. The drama that ensued with conflicting lies told my Mrs. Ogah, the Spokes person of the SSS and those by the Police Force lend credence to uncoordinated subterfuge carefully planned and executed by Niger-Delta Militants to the knowledge of Mr. President and the security agencies. Mr. President specifically told the whole world he knew the persons behind it but until this day, Nigerians have not bothered to demand to know them. As a fall out, Raymond Dokpesi was suddenly implicated by the SSS with some supposed Call Log with evidence of telephone conversations between him and the Niger-Delta culprits. Recall also that Dr. Raymond Dokpesi had moved over to head the Media Group of the Campaign Team of one of the contestants, President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to the chagrin of the Jonathan Campaign Group. Marilyn Ogah had told us so many times on national TV, Raymond Dokpesi was culpable. Surprisingly, as soon as Raymond Dokpesi moved over to join the Campaign Team of President Jonathan, all the charges fizzled out. Recall also that Tony Uranta, a Presidential aide was implicated by the culprits and it is instructive that Mr. President turned a deaf ear and shileded him from prosecution.
The real truth is that persons from the South East and the South South felt it was their opportunity to team up and punish the North for holding on to power all these years and also for the losses they had suffered during the Civil War and perceived marginalization. The clear agenda set for President Jonathan is the disintegration of Nigeria at all costs. I will come back to that shortly.
Why did those bombs have to off during the Independence Day Celebrations? The answer is not far-fetched. Silly persons like Adamu Ciroma, claiming to speak for the North when he was only speaking for a small cabal that had lost out in the power equation had made uncouth and irresponsible statements to the effect that the North would make the country ungovernable. This provided an alibi for unscrupulous elements around the present government to strike with a view to laying the blame on the opposition candidates and to whip up sympathy for this government and it worked initially despite the see-through lies.
Then came the December 31, 2010 bomb blasts also in Abuja. That bomb blast was strategically planned to coincide with one of the most valued days in the lives of Christians: Cross-Over Night. Remember also that Muslims are averse to alcohol consumption and consequently drinking places also. This provided another fertile ground for this same group to strike and claim to be Boko Haram. The Army Barracks in Nyanyan, specifically the Mami Market located within, was blown sky-high and a number of deaths were recorded. Recollect also how the bombers mysteriously disappeared into thin air. The aim of all of these was to stir up sectarian and ethnic clashes.
Government, as usual came on air (security agencies too) to talk tough claiming to be on top of the situation until this very day. Long after it was clear that security agents were involved, Mr. President only told the public in church this year.
Then came the event that truly revealed the neck-deep involvement of security agents: The Force Headquarters Bomb Blast. It was obvious to any right thinking person that that event was planned and executed as a diversionary measure.
First, we hear that a suicide bomber in an unmarked car rode for a very long distance behind the IG's entourage and the security agents were so daft not to notice. Then as the IG drove in, the policemen on duty at the gate did spot a vehicle without plate number traveling with the IG's entourage (a vehicle that does not usually travel in the IG's entourage) and an officer supposedly allowed the car go in and stopped the driver and asked him to go to the car park where the bomb was detonated. The pertinent question is, why would a suicide bomber be sent to decimate the IG and yet he travelled all the way with the IG for a very long distance and did not ram into the entourage at break-neck speed? Why would the suicide bomber on entry into Force Headquarters prefer to be stopped and asked to go to the car park when he could have simply revved his engine and ram headlong into the IG's parking space just before he got off the vehicle, killing everybody there? Recall also the lie Marilyn Ogah had told us that the 3 Arms Zone had special devices which jammed signals to prevent more bombs from going off on Independence Day (It was a blatant lie!). How come the signals were not jammed to prevent the Police Headquarters bomb blast from occurring?
I need to get back to work. Part II will give critical clues that will finally resolve the mystery.
Post Merge: January 30, 2012, 04:57:47 PM
The Killer Boko Haram - Not A Mystery (Part II)
By Segun Edward II
We had looked into the genesis of the Boko Haram group and factors that made the group amenable to the hungry and impoverished masses. However, there are other angles to it. The first part established that members of the religious group are not the ones killing and maiming innocent Nigerians but some other persons hiding under the mask of Boko Haram. We started to take a look at a series of events that show complicity at the highest levels of our intelligence agencies as well as the Presidency. This sequel builds on the facts presented in Part I of this series and will present ample evidence to the effect that the Presidency and the security agencies are economical with the truth and that we had been looking in the wrong places for the killers while the real culprits are persons in whose hands we entrust our lives and security but who have betrayed all Nigerians for pecuniary reasons.
However, in this series, we start by establishing certain grounds that form the premise of this write up.
Let me take you down memory lane again. Recall the cache of military-grade arms and ammunition that were intercepted at the port by patriotic men of the Nigeria Customs Service who clearly were not in the know. Remember how the NSA and other security agencies told us blatant lies about the military equipment. We were lied to the equipment were mistakenly sent to Nigeria and that they had been meant for another country. Remember also the role of Israel in all that mess. Israel claimed the deadly cargo had originated from them and they were meant for another country. Remember, how it was all swept under the carpet in the end.
It may also interest you to recall that Gen. Owoeye Azazi, while he was Chief of Army Staff, had previously been indicted in an arms scandal involving one of the Army Depots and the report was also swept under the carpet by him to prevent further investigations.
Please, note also, the Israeli connection as a notorious dealer in weapons of death and mass destruction.
Let us fast track to the UN House bombing. Recall, how the security agents were quick to tell us who was responsible for the bombing and as in all other occasions, some people were arrested and until this day, nothing has come out of the investigations. Recall also, the prowess of the SSS in supposedly tracing the calls in a log that supposedly implicated Chief Raymond Dokpesi in the October 1, 2010 bomb blasts. Is it not surprising to all Nigerians that the supposed spokesman for Boko Haram makes calls with a phone and issues threats and claims responsibility for the dastardly acts and yet they could not trace the calls to any particular location neither could they trace the name and address of the one in whose name and address the SIM(s) was or were registered.
Enter the Senator Ali Ndume saga. This was, perhaps, the most ridiculous twist to all the lies we have been inundated with by the security agents and the highly uncouth and uncultured and highly partial Mrs. Marilyn Ogah who is the Spokesperson for the Department of State Security Services. She had gone on national TV to tell Nigerians that Senator Ali Ndume was involved in terrorist activities and that they had established a ling between him and the Boko Haram along with another demised Senator of the Federal Republic. Much to the consternation of Nigerians, even the ones who were not learned Gentlemen, Ndume and the supposed Boko Haram spokesperson who had implicated him were taken to a magistrate court on frivolous charges that fell far short of terror offences. The parents of the supposed Spokesperson had 5told the Press their son had mental problems and he was persuaded to plead guilty and he was hurriedly sentenced without the court’s officials performing due diligence to ascertain whether or not the man was in his right senses or was truly insane. For all we know, a lunatic was sent to prison hurriedly. The most absurd part of the whole drama was played out by the almighty Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke. Despite all his years in the legal profession, he suddenly realized that the charges based on which Ndume was arraigned in a magistrate court were not adequate and decided to file another set of equally ridiculous charges that also fell far short of terror crimes in a Federal High Court in Abuja. Was Mohammed Adoke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who had put in several years into law practice, that stupid or was it just convenient for him to play stupid? Whose script was he playing out? Could the whole scenario and the ensuing frivolous charges and arraignments in the courts have been hatched and executed by the security agencies in connivance with forces in the Presidency and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation view a view to muzzling Senator Ndume for his anti-fuel-subsidy removal stance?
Now, let us once again fast track to December, 2011. Suddenly, Admiral Petirin, the Chief of Defense Staff, after a meeting with heads of other security agencies, pleaded with Nigerians to help provide information on supposed Boko Haram culprits they (the security agents) and Mr. President had persistently told us they knew and have failed to bring to book until this day. Mr. President claims he knows them but chooses to betray Nigerians by refusing to reveal who they are and to bring them to book immediately.
We had just survived the brouhaha on the ill-timed fuel-subsidy removal when we were greeted with some cheery news on how some patriotic security agents had successfully arrested one of the Boko Haram kingpins. We had also read in the Press how security agents complained about how cases they had worked hard on and made some headway with are bungled by their superiors. We saw an IG who did not know, in keeping with police tradition that the photograph of a fleeing criminal who had committed crimes of that magnitude ought to have been published on the very day he escaped but waited four clear days after the aided escape to publish his photograph, placing a N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) prize money on his head, enough time for him to vamoose without trace. It is equally intriguing to know that the IG deemed it fit to hand the culprit to one Biu, a Commissioner of Police who had a damning ‘intel’ on him and was surreptitiously reinstated into the Police Force, having been dismissed by the Obasanjo Government, by the same IG and the Police Service Commission headed by Parry Osayande. We also saw the retired Navy Captain Olubolade, the Minister of Police Affairs, tell the Press the IG had 24 hours to produce the suspect or be sacked. Then we also saw how the National Security Adviser supposedly issued a query to the IG and a panel setup to investigate the mishap and the role of the IG and Biu. We also saw how the IG who was supposedly under investigation was allowed to return to his office and eventually retired with full benefits (he was already due). We also notice how Biu has not been arrested and detained. There were evidences linking the fugitive with top government officials as far as the Presidency and the senior officers of the police force.
The President shops for replacement for the IGP, Hafiz Ringim and decides to install one with an equally damning ‘intel’ on him what with his role in the 2001 Mayhem in Jos, Plateau State. I can confirm to you all that the new IGP who was then the Commissioner of Police in Plateau State had all that was needed in terms of men, resources and sufficient information from the public to have moved in to quell the crisis and to forestall the death toll more than four hours before it all took a deadly turn but instead chose to be partial and to take sides which act led to the death of many. This is the man the President deems fit to handle such a sensitive responsibility as the Office of the Inspector-General of Police.
I repeat, MD Abubakar was that Commissioner of Police whose partiality further escalated the Jos.crisis. The first crisis in 2001 which would have been curbed had he acted in good time and impartially, took a much more deadly turn due to inaction on his part. Concerned Nigerians, including yours sincerely, bombarded his office with calls and never got any action at the epicenter of the crisis by the police until more than four hours into the carnage and many lives had been lost.
From all indications also, there is ample evidence that the field operatives are deliberately hamstrung by their superiors from making any meaningful headway in solving the riddle. The following paragraphs show how and why.
Has anybody in the security agencies ever bothered to ask how the Boko Haram operatives get Amonium Nitrate in such large quantities to make and detonate Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)? Shouldn't rapid investigations have been carried out all this while? Or is it deliberate that the sources are left open to make it easy to access them?
Commonsense dictates that there is great need to curtail access to the materials. Even your Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer used for agricultural purposes is one veritable source.
What do we pay these top security agents to do when they can hardly think or is it deliberate?
I really do believe that if someone who should know is not compromised, that's one of the first things that needed urgent control and adequate documentation. I should think that everyone should revert to traditional manure and farming systems.
In view of the fact that the major weapon the Boko Haram operatives deploy was bombs, it would also have made more sense for the Heads of the security agencies to have acquired Large Vehicle Bomb Detectors as well as inexpensive miniature bomb detectors and software to help track bombs and explosives and to detonate them before it goes off. This would have prevented such massive distribution of bombs round Kano that claimed so many lives. As usual, Mr. President came to the public again to say that he would crush Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, while he left all Nigerians to the whims and caprices of security agents from within, he acquires top security protection for himself and family members from Israeli MOSSAD.
Enter the Israeli angle.
I will continue with this and also connect the secessionist angle as well as the vibrant underhand arms deals that are at the heart of the crisis.
Watch out for Part III.
Post Merge: January 31, 2012, 11:08:21 AM
The Killer Boko Haram - Not A Mystery (Part III)
By Segun Edward II
In Part II of this series, we established how well involved top level security agents as well as the Presidency is with the activities of groups masquerading as Boko Haram. We sleft it off where we focused on how top level officers of the security agencies compromise investigations and let go of suspects, the most prominent of which is the recent kingpin who disappeared into thin air by Hafiz Ringim and Biu’s magic, obviously on instructions from above. Hafiz Ringim and Biu know it was suicidal to their career which was coming to a glorious end to allow such a costly slip and in a poorly executed manner that even children playing cops would not do, especially for a notorious suspect.
Another critical case in point that shows deliberate sabotage of investigative work of the field operatives is the fact that top level security agents, in spite of trillions of Naira expended since this menace began some of which are unknown to the public, have not deemed it fit to kit up the field operatives with the right equipment including bomb detectors and surveillance equipment including the relevant training to defuse bombs safely. It is also critical to note that unobstrusive surveillance equipment could also have been purchased to aid intelligence gathering seamlessly across wide areas and difficult terrains as well as for policing the nation’s borders and managing trans-border crimes effectively. Someone high up there pursued personal gain at the expense of what was right and needful and of great priority in view of the nature of the attacks. The President and his agents surreptitiously purchased cameras just for the Three-Arms-Zone in Abuja. To execute that project, the FG surreptitiously obtained a loan of about $600m without the knowledge of the National Assembly out of which it supposedly spent $420m on installation of cameras. Many Nigerians are not aware of the unfair trade deals and fraudulent financial deals which compromised the interests of Nigeria in that camera deal, clearly against laid down procedures in our Public Procurement Act as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is a discussion for another day.
Any right thinking person at the top level of a security agency should know how critical those equipment were to the field operatives. Instead, they are just sent out there to be blown to pieces while they in anger charge at innocent civilians, shooting at anyone who looked like a terrorist (What do terrorists really look like? Bearded persons?), while the main culprits get away. The real question is, how do those culprits know when to strike and when the security agents are most vulnerable and napping? The answer is not far-fetched. Their superiors compromise the integrity of their operations. They have superior ‘intel’ from above from persons in the know.
Place the sudden rise in arms importation and finacing of outlaw groups side by side with dwindling productive industries and under-performing financial institutions and tell me what picture you see.
Then ponder over the fact that for a long time, the so-called invisible Boko Haram bombers were never caught and suddenly some are caught and they disappear into thin air.
Then check the billions of Naira spent on security gadgets that are not of priority at the expense of right tools which cost much less to equip security agents.
Make your deductions and place it all in the context of present realities we are faced with these days.
Another case in point that shows culpability of security agents cropped up in early 2010, when the then Commissioner of Police in Borno State, Mohammed Hassan in an interview with journalists in his office confirmed that Abubakar Shakau, the Second-In-Command of Boko Haram had been killed in the 2009 insurgency of the group. Has anyone bothered to ask how a dead man is suddenly being sought after now?
Despite all these glaring evidences of culpability, Mr. President and the National Security Adviser who supposedly have up to date ‘intel’ on happenings from the length and breadth of this country did not see any element of sabotage but kept the security machinery intact instead of doing a clean sweep of the security agencies. The real questions that crops up is, why would the government of the day choose to shoot itself so badly in the legs? Why would the government decide to ignore clear evidence of sabotage against effort at solving the most knotty issue it appears to grapple with and which constitutes a dent on its image and erodes its frotunes and goodwill? Could this government actually be part and parcel of this present problem? Could that be the reason the problem seemed intractable for this long – nearly two years now? As it were, the delays have only brought about increased sophistication in the dastardly act. From all you have seen, the answers are quite obvious to the discerning mind.
Recently, about two weeks ago, another cache of arms were graciously intercepted by the Ghanian Police authorities. There were persons and places mentioned during investigations. What has the Nigerian government done about it? Does it take forever to investigate such crime when the cargo impounded was found with the criminals? Which government official and group of persons ordered those arms including the ones that were to come in from the man arrested in the UK?
That brings us to the secessionist agenda and the role of Israel as well as the arms cartel consisting of persons within and from other countries of the world.
But first, let us establish some critical facts before we take on this aspect.
What then is the crux of the matter?
Here it is. Someone out there is out to ensure the disintegration of Nigeria at all costs and they know that the two most critical groups to ingnite ethnic conflagration in the country are the North and South East of Nigeria. They cannot take the attacks to the South East as it would be obvious what the agenda is and they would have been caught long ago. However, they realize that with the sustained attacks on the North and hitting Igbo targets, the bitterness of the last civil war would come into play in fanning the embers of internecine warfare. The real dramatis personae behind this onslaught are persons from the South South whose arrowheads are Mr. President and Gen. Azazi.
I remember vividly early December of 2010 when we woke up to find strange posts on popular Facebook walls that reek of tendentious propaganda and wickedness. Some guys of Niger-Delta origin claimed the North was up to something devious and would strike the South. This was in the heat of the debates during the Presidential Elections. I remember examining the post through and through and seeing the holes and mischief in it, I sent and e-mail to my friend on whose wall it was posted to delete the post and disregard it as it was posted by mischief makers and trouble makers who wanted to cause ethnic disaffection and cause the killing of Hausas and Fulanis in the South. We even followed th link they had provided to some site and we found nothing there.
There is clear evidence that the arms being imported, which act the Nigeri-Delta had perfected for a long time, were meant to cause mayhem, insurrection and to dismember the constituent parts of the Federation violently. The reason is oil which the Niger-Delta militants belive is theirs and must be controlled completely by them. We have heard so many seditious statements from that angle and we notice how their big brother in power has kept quiet. That is not to suggest that other parts of the country are not currently procuring arms under official cover. No one wants to be caught off-guard.
Notice also that ever since this government came, we have witnessed the systematic depletion recklessly of our reserves and for fruitless and meaningless projects – some of them non-existent.
After wastefully expending what was meant for the rainy day in the Excess Crude Account, they suddenly remembered that that account did not have any legal backing. They simply liquidated that account instead of sending a bill to the NASS to legalize it. They sold fantastic lies to Nigerians why the account had to go when the real truth is that they had squandered all the money and then came up with Sovereign Wealth Fund with barely $1bn and hired some very pathetic analysts who are such a disgrace to their calling to tell us lies and many who hardly bother to follow up happenings in the economy and the polity applauded the magical 'abracadabra'. Having wasted all the savings, they cooked up lies - disgusting lies about subsidy - the very lies that have exposed them for what they truly are: a 419 president and a band of 419 ministers.
Last year, knowing their performance was poor, they attempted to adjust the GDP figure upwards magically even with ample evidence we were producing nothing new and most of the industries had died and oil revenues were systematically stolen like never before and this government, suffering from poverty of creative ideas kept on borrowing to do nothing but line individual pockets and simply achieved nothing in more than 2 years now and a pathetic puppy-tie-wearing graduate looks us in the eyes and lies so brazenly all is well with the debt profile. These falsified figures are what they give to the international rating institutions to get mind-boggling ratings that astounds us in the face of evidence the economy has been convulsing and writhing in death throes since late 2010.
These guys are tricksters and unproductive magicians. May God continue to expose them!
We have seen a clear demonstration that nothing good is coming out other than to spin crises that would tear the country apart.
Let us pause for a moment to examine some acts of subterfuge perpetrated by this government sponsored Boko Haram all with a view to laying the blame at the doorsteps of the North who are victims of circumstances.
What a beautiful script? What a script full of holes and that stand logic in the head?
Is the Federal Government looking for excuses to muzzle the opposition?
These scripts are written by the most unintelligent people on the planet. The last time, it was some Alice in Wonderland fairy tale about why they did not kill Obasanjo and how Baba Fuggu was killed and how they were efficient marks men and who and who was funding them. Gosh!
Nigerians, please understand the times. They are indeed very dangerous!
If it is indeed true as the ACN alleges there is an attempt by this government to handover a sensitive thing as the security of our waterways to a firm run by a person with such damning intel as having committed crimes against the state - a militant for that matter (drop the ex-; those guys are still in the business of terror) then if you cannot see the secesionist agenda of this government baring its ugly face even more boldly, you must be very blind.
For God's sake, what is the job of the Nigerian Navy?
Sentiments apart, this is a serious issue that lends further credence to the secessionist plot and it appears we are so willing to play into their hands.
A president that uses the Army against law-abiding citizens for demanding for what is legitimate is definitely not there to solve problems facing the nation.
Funny enough, every action and posturing of the president shows this is the grand plan. I have long ceased to be surprised all the industries have died. I have also ceased to be surprised we have been beating about the bush for more than two years now. Nigeria is being systematically murdered, taken apart and the treasury dried up and wealth transferred by hook and crook.
If this generation does not rise up to unite against these forces, Nigeria is on the brink.
Once again, duty calls. I will wrap this whole thing up with Part IV.
