Nigeria at war with Boko Haram- Jonathan

Nigeria’s presidency on Friday said the country was at war with Boko Haram, apparently backing off previous claims that the Islamist rebels were on the run and desperate.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has been fiercely criticised over its handling of the conflict, both for its inability to stop massive attacks on defenceless civilians and for what some have described as mixed and contradictory messages on the severity of the crisis.

Doyin Okupe, a spokesperson for the president, on Friday said, “We are dealing with a very, very serious enemy. We are engaged in a war that has been internationalised,”

It is absolutely impossible to defeat Boko Haram- Borno Gov to Jonathan

Kashim Shettima, the governor of the Boko Haram- ridden Borno state has declared that it is absolutely impossible for the country to overcome the Boko Haram insurgents unless a new strategy is employed.

Shettima traveled to Abuja on Monday for talks with the president and security chiefs following another round of attack in the state which recorded more than 106 deaths.
“We are in a state of war. That is what I came to tell the president,” Shettima told reporters after the meeting.

“I made it emphatically clear to Mr. President that Boko Haram are better armed and better motivated,” than the security forces, he added.
Unless more troops and more resources are deployed to Borno, “it is absolutely impossible for us to defeat Boko Haram,” the governor said.

Northeastern states in Nigeria were placed under emergency rule in May, 2013 following series of attacks in the region by the insurgents who are said to be fighting to create an Islamic state in the region dominated by Muslims.

Northern elders are ingrates- Ihejirika

The immediate past Chief of Army Staff, COAS, General Azubuike Ihejirika, has accused some northern elders of insensitivity and ungrateful to the sacrifice being made by the country’s armed forces  and disseminating misleading information on the fight against terrorism.

Reacting to a statement credited to some Northern elders that he should be dragged before the International Criminal Court, ICC, for crimes committed by soldiers prosecuting the war against terrorism, the retired Army chief said such a call was misconceived and capable of demoralising soldiers making huge sacrifices for the nation, as well as jeopardising the war against terrorism.

Speaking with journalists  at the State House, Abuja, after attending service at Aso Villa Chapel, Gen. Ihejirika accused the northern elders of not even bothering to send  condolence messages to the military which had lost personnel fight terrorists in the North.

He said the elders should instead be thanking the military for making the sacrifices to keep the North safe, a situation the same elders stood to benefit more from.
He said:  “My reaction to that is that their statement is ill-conceived, perhaps based on some misinformation.

“The northern elders should be thanking the service chiefs, my officers and myself for making huge sacrifices, first, to see that Nigeria is safe and the north in particular, since they are the first beneficiaries of the sacrifices being made.

“There is no senatorial zone in this country that has not lost a personnel of the armed forces. It is unfortunate that the same elders, if they are really elders, have not cared to send a single condolence message to the military.”
“I think that their statement is discouraging and it impacts negatively on the counter-terrorist efforts because as we speak, there are soldiers that have not had a meal since yesterday because of the peculiarity of where they are at the moment.”

JTF Arrests Boko Haram Suspect in Mohammed Abacha's Home

The Joint Task Force(JTF) in Kano arrested a suspected Boko Haram member at the residence of the son of late former Head of State Sani Abacha, Mohammed, Daily Trust reliably gathered.

It was gathered that the suspect who is a domestic aide of Abacha’s son at his residence located on Magajin Rumfa road at the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Nasarawa local government area of the state was trailed to the house following the arrest of a suspected Boko Haram member in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Security forces comprising men of the Nigerian Army and those of the State Security Service (SSS) went to the residence at around 1pm on Wednesday.

A source close to the family told Daily Trust that the security operatives arrived the house at a time when the aides of Mohammed were saying their Zuhr prayers.

“They came during the Zuhr prayers; in fact the people around in the house were observing the prayers. The security men alighted from their cars and about 10 of them who were well-armed entered the building and waited till the end of the four raka’at prayers.

“After the prayers, they asked all the people around to lie down. In fact some security men who were among those people praying were also asked to lie down because they were in mufti. When the security men among those people that were lying down indentified themselves, the JTF members asked them to stand up,” he said.
According to the source, the JTF operatives then brought out a suspected Boko Haram member who was handcuffed to identify the suspect in Mohammed’s house.

“As the suspect was trying to identify the one in Mohammed’s house, he started running and jumped a fence but the security operatives arrested,” he said.

However, when our correspondents went to the residence of Mohammed around 1pm yesterday, security guards stationed there denied knowledge of the military operation and the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram member.
But a trader near the residence said he heard about the arrest of the suspect from a friend. “I was not around when the operation took place but I heard that a suspected Boko Haram member was arrested in the house yesterday (Wednesday),” he said.

When contacted by telephone, Mohammed Abacha said nothing like that happened.
Spokesman for JTF in Kano state, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the operation but declined further information, saying investigation was still on.


Information from Daily Trust was used in this report.

Boko Haram has killed more than 400 Immigration Officers

Radical sect, Boko Haram has killed no fewer than 400 officers and men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Atiku Bagudu, has said that activities by insurgents in the Northern part of the country has claimed more than 400 officers of NIS, especially during jail breaks in the country.

He said the figures were given to members of his committee when they went on oversight function.

He called for the use of technology and provision of more arms for NIS officers to help stop the activities of Boko Haram and address the challenges of the country’s Northeast borders.

“We need to give more arms to the prison service. The prison service should not be considered a secondary arm of the security system, it is a major one,” he said.

Bagudu said the country’s border with Cameroon has always posed a problem.

 “Chadians coming to the northeast are always armed and use firearms, because Chad had been at war. Fencing four thousand miles border will be very difficult. Technology has changed the way we monitor the borders, with increased use of technology and more personnel, we can achieve more with less spending. We are members of the ECOWAS group of nations. We are committed to free entry and exit. Even if we seal our borders, we can’t stop ECOWAS members from coming into our country.”

Yobe students' killers will rot in hell - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has noted that the killers of the students and teacher of Government Secondary School in Mamudo village, in Yobe State will burn in hell. The president described the action as barbaric and wicked.

He spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati. 
He said: “the killing is barbaric, completely wicked. Anybody who will target innocent children for any kind of grief of emotional dyfunction will certainly go to hell.”