A spokesman for Boko Haram yesterday threatened that the group would soon launch attacks on Nigeria's mobile telecom firms for their alleged complicity & support to security operatives.

In a phone chat with reporters in Maiduguri, a purported Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa said Boko Haram would "soon launch attacks" on telecom operators and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The spokesman (whose identity has been disputed by Boko Haram & Security officials based on his alleged arrest) spoke in Hausa language.

Boko Haram accused telecom firms of complicity with security agents in bugging the phones of members to track, disrupt and arrest them.

"We have realised that the mobile phone operators and the NCC have been assisting security agencies in tracking and arresting our members by bugging their lines and and enabling the security agents to locate the position of our members," he said.

"It was with the connivance with the mobile phone companies operating in Nigeria and the NCC that the security agents were able to locate Abu Dardaa and Kabiru Sokoto and arrest them," Qaqa said in the local Hausa language.

The group has been notoriously known for using such medium to declare their intents including one which was issued before the killing of journalists sometimes last year and and another earlier this year.



IBB denies Boko Haram link





Former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida yesterday described as spurious and unfounded the allegation by Sheik Sani Haliru within the social media that he is one of the sponsors of the deadly Boko Haram sect.

An interview posted on the social media network, purportedly granted by Haliru, alleged that the former military leader is one of the sponsors of the sect. The interview is entitled: “Shocking confessions of ex-Boko Haram who converted to Christianity”.

In a reply posted on the same website, the ex-General’s spokesman, Mr Kassim Afegbua, said: “We have read and assimilated the effusions of a deluded mind by name Sheikh Sani Haliru, who for want of very cheap relevance decided to mention the highly respected name of IBB as one of the “sponsors” of what he called Boko Haram. From our first reading, we felt it would amount to giving undue relevance to a confused mind if we volunteer a response, but for our teeming supporters, associates and friends of IBB, for the price we owe history, we decided to offer this disclaimer.”

Babangida denied knowing the man. He also faulted the interview, which he described as full of inconsistencies.

The former military leader picked holes in the interview, citing the Sheikh’s claim that Dele Giwa died in suicide bombing, when, according to IBB, the former Newswatch Editor-in-Chief was killed by a parcel bomb.

“We have every cause to believe that the interview was carefully scripted to convey the message intended and not one conducted under a  question– and–answer basis. The responses of the said Sani Haliru attest to this fact. From that premise therefore, it will be save to conclude that the interview was structured by certain agents of government to satisfy pre-determined position,” the statement added.

The statement added: “He talked about his fear of going to jail; why will a man of God be afraid of incarceration or jail, if the cause he is pursuing is truly altruistic? How could someone with facts about Boko Haram be saying that he is afraid the SSS will arrest him if he ventured those facts, when the whole world is patiently waiting to get a road map out of the Boko Haram pogrom?

“There are also instances where third person narrative tenor is given to Sheikh Sani Haliru, thus making the whole exercise curiously misleading and utterly unconscionable to warrant any serious recognition.”

http://naija-online.com/2012/02/ibb-denies-boko-haram-link-as-sect-threatens-mobile-phone-operators/

Let Babangida look 4 omo and so clean he can't completely wash his hands off all the crimes perpetrate in the northern nigeria in recent past!

IBB should refute those claim one by one. Does he train people under any name in Libya? This is because a lot of pastors names were mentioned and they can be contacted to confirm their sponsors if need be.

He can keep denying, ediott