What a crazy world.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/24/world/africa/nigeria-kidnapped-captain/index.html

... Thomas and his engineer were the only ones to be kidnapped by the pirates, driven away in a speed boat and held in Nigerian swamps and jungles for 18 days. The experience was so horrific that even today Thomas is unable to bring himself to reveal all details of his captivity.

"We weren't being punched or kicked or anything like that but just I've told people that I would have rather been punched then went through what I went through," Thomas said. "The mental abuse of it with the guns pointing at you. And knowing how unstable these guys are."

Thomas said there were about 18 Nigerian kidnappers, some chain-smoked marijuana or crack incessantly, constantly waving their weapons and making threats.

Food consisted of instant noodles -- on days the negotiations were going well -- and maybe a bottle of water. And his captors blared their music constantly, fixated on, of all things, country singer Dolly Parton's song, "Coat of Many Colors," and the music of hip hop artist 50 Cent.
"I knew I was going to die. We knew it every day, every night," he said.
Despite the chaos in the jungle, Thomas said the leaders were organized, using satellite phones to negotiate, first demanding a $2 million ransom. Thomas believes the payoff was eventually whittled down to several hundred thousand dollars, though CNN cannot confirm who paid the ransom or who received it.

Thomas said one evening he and his engineer were told to get in a small boat with six pirates. They motored for about two hours to reach a village. There, four of the pirates got out and met some other men who handed them backpacks, Thomas told CNN. They returned to the boat and counted the cash stuffed into the bags. After a dispute, Thomas says he and the engineer were taken to the other men and told to lie on the ground until the pirates left. Then they were put in a car and driven off. Later they were transferred to a second car, where a representative from the shipping company was waiting for them. At that point they were finally free, 18 days after being seized at gunpoint.

After a debriefing by his ship managers, then a similar one by the FBI in Lagos, Nigeria, Thomas returned to the United States last November, days after his release. He has been seeing mental health advisers and other medical professionals since.

But his hostage-taking and the negotiations that freed him have raised alarm bells in counterterrorism circles and elsewhere for numerous reasons; not the least is Thomas' claim that the FBI told him the money paid for his freedom may eventually have wound up in the hands of the notorious terror group Boko Haram.

That is the same group that in April kidnapped nearly 300 Nigerian girls. They're also blamed for laying waste to multiple villages in the northern part of the country, burning them down and killing many people in bomb attacks.
Thomas said during his debriefing in Lagos the FBI indicated that the money paid for his freedom may have been funneled through other groups before making its way to Boko Haram. The FBI would not comment. CNN cannot independently confirm whether Boko Haram received any money from the kidnapping...

News everywhere...smh for dis country

I'm surprised that our white folks don't know the difference between a Niger Delta Militant and a Boko Haram Insurgent.

This confirms my suspicion that our white brothers don't actually understand our insurgency problem. This means that the slogan: "America will know" is wrong afterall .

When was the last tme CNN aired positive news about Nigeria? Yea, there is serious crisis in Nigeria but aint US got enough share of hostilities within its States as well?

this rediculous, CNN just promoted junk journalism here. this captain Thomas is still suffering deeply from the jungle treatment he got. go and watch the video clip, he is not yet in the right frame of mind to recall the entire event nor the role played by the FBI towards his release. how can CNN use a sentence by this mentally injured man to reach such a damaging conclusion. this American interest in Nigeria never cease to amaze some of us. we are watching.

no weapon fashoined against our well shall prosper

I won't comment until Asari Dokubo comments

This is absurd. Obviously, this article aimed at tarnishing our image to the international communities.

So many frivolous lies in it even though some of the statements might be true.

cnn and america ? the time i took them serious has gone!
i wonder who's script they are playing?

this man done drink one bucket of codeine. pls there is a big difference btwn BOKO HARAM & NIGER DELTA MILITANT, a very big difference@CNN

.

Sunstorm: where on the article did CNN say That?

guy u go school at al. c'mon man open d link

.

The almightiness of America has been brought to disrepute by their inability to trace our girls and the source of Boko haram funds despite their hyped surveillance drones and ICT wizardry hence their use of CNN as a stooge to purport a conspiracy theory linking two strange bed fellows in the heinous crime of insurgency.

They should pack their drones out of our airspace and leave us to handle our problems instead of rubbing pepper on our already vexed sore.

Obinoscopy: I'm surprised that our white folks don't know the difference between a Niger Delta Militant and a Boko Haram Insurgent.

Obinoscopy: This confirms my suspicion that our white brothers don't actually understand our insurgency problem. This means that the slogan: "America will know" is wrong afterall .

Maybe they know the "difference" even better than you. Maybe they know that boko haram militants might be speaking hausa or arabic, but are no different from the Niger Delta millitants who were sponsored by some people who neded some violence at a particular region at a particular time for reasons best known to them. What most Nigerians have refused to accept (due to tribalism and religious bigotry) is that boko haram is NOT fighting for any religious ideology. Those guys are criminals, pure and simple. Someone/group somewhere is funding and sustaining them, encouraging them to wipe out as many Northerners (xtians and muslims alike) as possible, render that region totally useless and use religion as the tool for further division (which never fails in that so-called 'religious' but vastly morally corrupt country)..

And those group of persons may NOT be from the North.

And they may well be in close association with tose who were sponsoring violence in the Niger Delta.

Did islam just start in Nigeria? Less than 10 years ago, the North was the MOST peaceful and arguably the most hospitable region in the country. Ask the southerners who have spent their lives there or even your brothers and cousins who did their NYSC there. So what went wrong? All will be revealed soon. Too much innocent blood has been shed.

We vilify muslims and Northerners daily on this forum without pity for these people living in these places where bombs are going off. We say they are boko haram sympathizers. People who have lost relatives, sources of income, freedom, peace, PEACE, to bokoharam millitants on one hand and Nigerian millitary on the other. But since they are mostly muslims, and bokoharam claims to be fighting for islam (even in ramadan, just like last ramadan and two ramadans ago when I believe even a MOSQUE was attacked in the evening), we refuse to reason and still call them sympathisers, with some even saying "they should continue killing themselves". And that is why now that a report has come out saying there is a link between bokoharam fighters and ND millitants, we easily dismiss it as false.

I'm not directing all of this at you Obinoscopy but I'm just sad that the citizens who live in fear daily are the same people being accused of supporting their attackers, all because it is convenient to do so.

Sunstorm:

Who made you judge in our affairs if you are not a Nigerian and what dealings if I may ask have you transpired with us that was so frustrating other than gleaning reports about Nigeria from CNN.

Don't be fooled my brother, the same Nigeria that you read about as space about to conflagrate to armagedon is the number one investors haven and bussiness hub in subsaharan Africa. Little wonder your captain Thomas couldn't get his greedy fangs off our riches.

You must be on adulterated anti-psychotic to convolute such frivolous and deluded insinuation that our missing girls story is a hoax.

Just because" your" America failed to ascertain the where about of the kidnapped Chibok girls does not invalidate their disappearance. I bet you will want to also invalidate the missing Malaysia flight MH370 since "your" America has not found an iota of evidence as to it's disappearance despite the quantum of technology deployed ?

Body of Lies.

The day you severe any link to these B.S. MSMs the better.

Boko Haram and the Niger-Delta Militant group share no single similarity.

This is a classic attempt to revamp antagonism against the Niger-Delta movement and it should be obviously clear by now the myriad of eventual game plan the northern insurgency is geared towards. Which is to destabilize the Nation and cause a war of attrition against the country as a whole.

The ND Militant movement at worse may have degenerated to a criminal enterprise but definitely no way can it be compared to the madness coming from the north with no single link.

The write up follows a classic failed and weak attempt to link polarized groups in effort to continue destabilization across our country.

Before nkor?
They both monsters na.
Thieves.
Gej till 2015!

America is the grand daddy of evil but its information gathering is second to none.
It's something that shouldn't be brushed off for the following reasons.
1. Azazi who was a pdp and a security chief in the know said "pdp is bokoharam and bokoharam is pdp" just before he was mysteriously killed.
2. Jonathan claimed bokoharam are in his goverment and he's yet to go after them for fear of going down with them.
3. An eastern pdp governor once said " he would unleash bokoharam on his opponents"
4. And now America is saying nigerdelta millitants that are already linked with a sitting pdp president, Jonathan are in contact with bokoharam. The puzzles are now coming together.

Find Out!:




Maybe they know the "difference" even better than you. Maybe they know that boko haram militants might be speaking hausa or arabic, but are no different from the Niger Delta millitants who were sponsored by some people who neded some violence at a particular region at a particular time for reasons best known to them. What most Nigerians have refused to accept (due to tribalism and religious bigotry) is that boko haram is NOT fighting for any religious ideology. Those guys are criminals, pure and simple. Someone/group somewhere is funding and sustaining them, encouraging them to wipe out as many Northerners (xtians and muslims alike) as possible, render that region totally useless and use religion as the tool for further division (which never fails in that so-called 'religious' but vastly morally corrupt country)..

And those group of persons may NOT be from the North.

And they may well be in close association with tose who were sponsoring violence in the Niger Delta.

Did islam just start in Nigeria? Less than 10 years ago, the North was the MOST peaceful and arguably the most hospitable region in the country. Ask the southerners who have spent their lives there or even your brothers and cousins who did their NYSC there. So what went wrong? All will be revealed soon. Too much innocent blood has been shed.

We vilify muslims and Northerners daily on this forum without pity for these people living in these places where bombs are going off. We say they are boko haram sympathizers. People who have lost relatives, sources of income, freedom, peace, PEACE, to bokoharam millitants on one hand and Nigerian millitary on the other. But since they are mostly muslims, and bokoharam claims to be fighting for islam (even in ramadan, just like last ramadan and two ramadans ago when I believe even a MOSQUE was attacked in the evening), we refuse to reason and still call them sympathisers, with some even saying "they should continue killing themselves". And that is why now that a report has come out saying there is a link between bokoharam fighters and ND millitants, we easily dismiss it as false.

I'm not directing all of this at you Obinoscopy but I'm just sad that the citizens who live in fear daily are the same people being accused of supporting their attackers, all because it is convenient to do so.

Truly on nairaland exist the most daft of all humans.

Why not say all the killings carried out since 1945 in Northern Nigeria were sponsored by the Nigerdeltans.

Even maitaitsine was lead by an ijaw.

Madmen parading as sane men.


GEJ till 2019.

whitecat007: America is the grand daddy of evil but its information gathering is second to none.
It's something that shouldn't be brushed off for the following reasons.
1. Azazi who was a pdp and a security chief in the know said "pdp is bokoharam and bokoharam is pdp" just before he was mysteriously killed.
2. Jonathan claimed bokoharam are in his goverment and he's yet to go after them for fear of going down with them.
3. An eastern pdp governor once said " he would unleash bokoharam on his opponents"
4. And now America is saying nigerdelta millitants that are already linked with a sitting pdp president, Jonathan are in contact with bokoharam. The puzzles are now coming together.

And those Eastern governors exposed BH hiding in their states.

Azazi said it is the breach of power rotation that is the root cause of BH. He was accusing Northern PDP members.

Guy keep the lies rolling.


GEJ till 2019

Of course all GEJ haters will latch onto this confusing post to say anything they want.

Topic says CNN claims boko haram works with Niger Delta militants

Post says CNN cannot independently confirm whether Boko Haram received any money from the kidnapping...

Confused much?
Poor sensationalism.
For the xtupid minded anyway

In GEJ voice America will know, is it not their money!

Debating B.S. from an outfit like CNN is ret@rded at best

Which bokoharam do they have? You mean the catch and release they are doing? Why did they let them go if they are bokoharam? Wait till another governor rounds you guys up and label you terrorrist too.

You are the lair here and you can spin it any way you want, but the fact is they made those comments. I quoted them word for word and it's up to Nigerians to think for themselves what those words meant and how they relate to what is going on in Nigeria today.

EasternLeopard:

And those Eastern governors exposed BH hiding in their states.

Azazi said it is the breach of power rotation that is the root cause of BH. He was accusing Northern PDP members.

Guy keep the lies rolling.


GEJ till 2019

EasternLeopard:

Truly on nairaland exist the most daft of all humans.

Why not say all the killings carried out since 1945 in Northern Nigeria were sponsored by the Nigerdeltans.

Even maitaitsine was lead by an ijaw.

Madmen parading as sane men.


GEJ till 2019.

Lol. I'll ignore your display of lack of basic comprehension but I can't resist asking you these:

What happens after the 2019? Won't GEJ leave Aso rock? How do you think Nigeria will be by then? How much better (or worse) would the poor people have fared? How much better (or worse) would security, healthcare etc have improved (or deteriorated) ? How proud would you be to be a Nigerian? GEJ on the other hand would almost certainly be very wealthy, wealthier than he is now, via stealing/corruption, but how about YOU? and million of Nigerians out there who are not happy.

Think....at least try.

:oThe US must be tripping. Nonsense. The US must be tripping. Nonsense.

dgitrader: this rediculous, CNN just promoted junk journalism here. this captain Thomas is still suffering deeply from the jungle treatment he got. go and watch the video clip, he is not yet in the right frame of mind to recall the entire event nor the role played by the FBI towards his release. how can CNN use a sentence by this mentally injured man to reach such a damaging conclusion. this American interest in Nigeria never cease to amaze some of us. we are watching.

so so so funny, That CNN has started publishing statements from people currently suffering from some sort of mental problems. Let them come to Yaba left or Uselu Benin city, they dont need to look for articles again.

CNN the western propaganda channel.... very crappy article