Two Boko Haram kingpins in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) Kabiru Sokoto and Abu Qaqa have revealed more plans the group has. In their confessional statements in Abuja yesterday to the SSS, Abu Qaqa, the sects’ spokesman now in detention and Kabiru Sokoto, the man behind the Madalla Christmas Day 2011 bombing which claimed lives of 45 parishioners said they had sinister plans to undo the Sultan of Sokoto by taking away his religious powers.

Qaqa and Sokoto came short of saying they would have neutralized the Sultan or any other traditional ruler in the North in the bid to carry out their plans. They said: “Concerning this plan, any ruler that would have obstructed us would have regretted his action.”
They had intended to attack the sultanate and hijack the religious appurtenances of the seat and use the religious powers of the Sultan and practise the religion as they wish.

They said the original plan was to make sure the Sultan is reduced to a mere traditional ruler without religious powers, and in fact, he was not the only target as they intended to hack into the powers of other powerful emirs with a major design to Islamize Nigeria, starting with the north.

“With our plans already laid out, we had assured that any emir that resisted us would live to regret the action.”
But the duo also ended the speculation that the Boko Harm attacks are not predicated on religion or targeted at Christians. Qaqa and Sokoto said the attacks on churches and Christians are deliberate and intentional.
“We had a grand plan to Islamize Nigeria starting with the North. We felt that a lot of Muslims are not practising the religion faithfully as they should. Part of the plan was to reduce the powers of the Sultan to traditional rulership functions only, while all religious authority would be vested with our leader who would be based in Yobe.

“We believed there were so many things wrong with the present arrangement of combining both religious and traditional authorities in one man.” Revealing further on attacks on churches, Qaqa and Sokoto said: “The plans to attack churches and schools were not in reaction to any provocation. They had been there. You know why the churches had to go. Those schools we targeted for instance were not teaching the children according to the ways of the faith. So these were part of the initial plans to allow only Islamic schools and wiping away all so called secular schools.

“Though a lot of us who went to school saw this approach as too rigid since we could use the medium to propagate the faith faster, but we were fewer and scared of making our opinion known because that could earn us the tag of traitors and therefore face the ultimate consequence. “We wanted to reform the schools to conform to our plans and practice. And on the traditional institutions and rulers, anyone that would have obstructed our plans would have regretted his actions.”

Recall Kabiru Sokoto was arrested at Borno Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. He escaped when he was being led by team of policemen on a search on his house in Madalla, Niger State. He was re-arrested in Adamawa State last month.

What of their relative silence?