FRESH pressure is mounting on the US
President Barack Obama and the
outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton to designate Nigeria’s Islamist
group, Boko Haram, a Foreign
Terrorist Organisation (FTO) before the end of Obama’s first term next
month. At the White House, an ambitious
effort has been launched by a team
of several US groups led by Jubilee
Campaign and supported by the
Christian Association of Nigerian-
Americans (CANAN) to mobilise thousands of Americans to sign a
petition addressed to President
Obama, demanding the designation. According to the petition, already
posted on the White House website,
the organisations and the petitioners
observed that despite all the
uncontested evidence on the
activities of Boko Haram, “the US has refused to designate Boko Haram a
Foreign Terrorist Organisation.” The petition, which has to get 25,000
signatures by December 29, to have
the US President respond to it, stated
that in the last three years, Boko
Haram has killed an estimated 3,000
Nigerians, adding, “they have directly targeted helpless Christians, and any
Muslims who dare to disagree with
their genocidal ambitions.” CANAN in a statement said it was
mobilising the over 1,000 US-based
Nigerian churches to get their
members to endorse the petition
within the time limit, so as to get a
response from the White House. Opening up the White House website
to Americans to petition the US
government is one of the initiatives of
President Obama to bring the US
government closer to the American
people. But his administration has been reluctant to go after Boko
Haram as a group. Rather in June, the US government
designated three leaders of the
group as terrorists, but fell short of
declaring the entire group an FTO, a
situation the President of the
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor described in
July at the US Congress as
“hypocrisy.” Similarly, at the US Senate late last
week, an amendment to a bill
sponsored by Senator Scott Brown, a
Republican from Massachusetts State,
was passed demanding that the US
State Department should “report on the designation of Boko Haram as a
foreign terrorist organisation, and
for other purposes.” The US House of Representatives
version of the same bill, sponsored by
Congressman Pat Meehan, is being
revived, according to the
Congressman’s office, which is
working with CANAN, to shore up national support for the bill . However, the Nigerian Ambassador to
the US, Prof. Ade Adebowale, is known
to be working closely with members
of the US Congress to avoid the
designation of Boko Haram. He is arguing to US Senators and
Representatives that while Boko
Haram must be stopped, a
designation may not be the right
approach. It will require both US houses of
Senate and Representatives before
the bill can be forwarded to White
House for signing into law. But one of the US groups working with
Senator Brown’s office and in
Congress generally to push the bill,
Frontline Missions International, is
expressing optimism that with the
passage of the bill in the Senate, a new onslaught has been launched
against the indecision of the US State
Department on the issue of
designating Boko Haram. According to John Hutcheson of
Frontline Mission International, “we
have been lobbying the US Congress
on this matter since the State
Department has been unwilling to
designate Boko Haram, and this is great news,” (passing of the bill in the
Senate recently). Legislative Aide, Michael Spierto, said
Congressman Meehan is seeking co-
sponsors to reintroduce his
concurrent legislation in the US House,
demanding designation of Boko
Haram by the State Department as an FTO. Spierto added that Meehan and
CANAN would soon do a joint press
statement “in order to call attention
to Boko Haram and why the Congress
bill on the matter is necessary.” The US groups pressing the issue of
Boko Haram are, however, not
focusing only on the petition drive
and lobbying the US Congress to
legislate; a number of them have also
submitted a legal brief to US Secretary of State Clinton, showing
how legally Boko Haram has met the
US legal requirement for designation
as an FTO. The group includes Advocates
International, Alliance Defending
Freedom, CANAN, Jubilee Campaign,
American Centre for Law and Justice,
Catholic Family and Human Rights
Institution, Igbo League, Family Research Council, Institute on Religion
and Democracy, Justice for Jos Plus
and the Westminster Institute. The legal brief running into 66 pages
says, “Boko Haram has threatened US
interests and attacked US citizens,”
already. The brief noted that one American,
who is a UN official, survived the
attack on the UN Building in Nigeria in
August 2011, while another US official
escaped.
www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107130:fresh-pressure-on-obama-clinton-over-boko-haram-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

So they don't believe GEJ is on top of the situation again.

If d US failed to act now, sooner or later boko haram wil be a threat to them... All the same the JTF and GEJ are trying this days

It is time to name this sect as Terrorist
Group. Our president is clueless on
how 2 tackle this menace.

DRONESSsssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSS

mike404: DRONESSsssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSS

did u go to school? Have u asked urself the implication of naming bokoharam terrorist, in a country like nigeria.

U think only d north will be affected.

UncleJJ:

did u go to school? Have u asked urself the implication of naming bokoharam terrorist, in a country like nigeria.

U think only d north will be affected.

Well then, enlighten us about the implication because we'd like to know.

2014 the almagamation of the southern and northern Naija will expire and any part will to go will do so scot free. Imagine the world without satan and most importantly i...s..lam. #wrathofGODontheway