MEND draws oil war outside Niger Delta, 5 die
Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:09:57 GMT
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Oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation at the Altas Cove in Lagos were destroyed in a MEND attack.
Five people have been killed after MEND rebels launched an "unprecedented attack" on the Atlas Cove Jetty in Nigeria.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility on Monday for the destruction of the oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation at the Atlas Cove Jetty.

The attack on the country's economic heart, which came only hours before the release of a top MEND leader Henry Okah as part of an amnesty deal, marked a major escalation in the group's activities. It is the group's first attack outside Delta states.

While some government officials have confirmed the attack, there have been reports suggesting that the fire had not been caused by militants.

The Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos is the main entry point for oil tankers and for ships entering Nigerian waters from the West.

Seeking a greater share of the country's oil wealth, MEND rebels launched their "oil war" in the swamps and creeks of southern Nigeria in 2006.

The group has managed to reduce Nigeria's oil production by one-fifth in the last three years.

Why North is on fire
The inside story
From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN
Sunday, August 2, 2009
•Dead bodies of some of the fundamentalists
Photo: The Sun Publishing
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He had just returned from Jigawa State, where he went to drop his family members who paid him a visit in Bama, a Council in Borno State. But when his family bid him farewell that Monday, little did they know that was the last they would see of him.

“Eagle Eye,” as he was fondly called at the Abuja Force Headquarters, because of his intelligence prowess, returned to Bama, his station, hale and hearty that Monday evening.

However, in the wee hours of Tuesday, his sleep was punctured by sporadic shootings. As the Area Commander-in-Charge of Bama, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Ismail Sirajo, dutifully left his house in his Peugeot car to the station to ascertain what was responsible for the rather unusual sporadic shootings.

Unknown to him however, the police station had been surrounded by the self-styled “Nigerian Talibans.” And because the authorities in charge of electricity supply chose that period to go to bed, the eagle eye in Sirajo failed him.
Sirajo, who was at the CIB, Force Headquarters, Abuja before his re-deployment to Bama, drove into the station and asked “what is happening here?” .Those were his last words before the Talibans sent the Kano State-born “Eagle Eye,” into six feet under the ground.

This was exactly how it happened on Tuesday, September 21, 2004. But that was not the first time the Talibans were striking in the North-East region. They had struck in Yobe State in December 2003, precisely December 22, a day after, according to the then governor, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, they had promised to leave the State. The group equally struck again on December 31 2003, in Yobe State, and was on their way to Borno on a New Year day, when they engaged in a gun duel with military personnel drafted to the borders between Borno and Yobe States, a situation that left two of their members dead.

Sunday Sun recalls that their initial abode was Burkarti, in Bursari Council of Yobe State before leaving for Kanamma, a border town between Nigeria and Niger. Kanamma is the headquarters of Yunusari Council, also in Yobe State. It is also not far from Gaidam Council, where the leader of the group, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf hails from. The incumbent governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam hails from the area.
Since after the invasion of Borno and Yobe States about six years ago, the group decided to settle in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, from where its members from all over country, especially the north, converge from time-to-time.

What therefore did the Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who is also the Chief Security Officer of the State do between January 2005, when Ustaz Yusuf re-settled in Bayan Quarters, Maiduguri and Sunday June 14, 2009 when the leader of the group threatened a reprisal attack following the attack on his members on June 11, 2009?

What did the SSS headquarters in the State, responsible for gathering intelligence report do within the same period? Is it possible that there was a report, but someone ignored it, especially in the light of the fact that those who attacked Bauchi were mobilized from Borno? What did the Muslim clerics who know very well that some of the teachings of the group are at variance with Islam do before the attack?
These are some of the burning questions Nigerians, especially those who are just recovering from the trauma of the attacks across the four States in the north, which has also claim over 300 lives, including non-members of the group, are asking.

Sunday Sun gathered exclusively that the group which initially drew membership from the South-West was first invited to Yobe State during the build-up to the 2003 elections, in the wake of Sharia implementation in some States in the north. But that because the election in the State did not assume the dimension their host thought it would take, the group was abandoned to its fate, before the State government ordered them to vacate its vicinity.

In one of the encounters with Ustaz Yusuf in 2005, shortly after one of his arrests, he confessed to this reporter that the northern governors advocating for the implementation of Sharia in Nigeria were hypocrites, as they do not really believe in Islam. But he was quick to add in that interview which was published in Daily Sun in 2005 that he had since severed his relationship with the Taliban group because of their “extremist” tendencies.

He was however quick to admit that, his group would not relent until an “independent and a just State, devoid of anything haram (unGodly) was established.”
Since that 2005 till their recent attacks in Kano, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno, he has always been a guest of the security operatives in Abuja. Sunday Sun has it on good authority that as at the last count he was arrested, his release was facilitated by a frontline Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftain and a former Presidential aspirant from far away Niger State, in North Central, Nigeria.

WHY THEY STRUCK AGAIN
Sources in Kaduna, Maiduguri and Bauchi states revealed to Sunday Sun that the threat from Ustaz Yusuf to launch a reprisal attack, after the attack on his group in June this year in Maiduguri was just used as a smokescreen, as the group had for long been planning to embark on insurrection following what they described as a “failure of the Nigerian State,” to cater for the needy and the down-trodden in the society. One of them told Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity that the actions of the present leadership of the country, led by a Muslim including most of the northern governors did not in anyway reflect the teachings of Islam.

“They (governors) were the ones who first told us about Sharia. And we have come to realize that the western knowledge they have is what is aiding the atrocities they commit every now and then, so that is why we are asking the youth to withdraw from school and join our crusade.
“In a just Islamic society, somebody will not just wake up over night and say because he’s been elected a councilor, erect one big mansion. And you want me to sit down and watch such a person? If we allow it, such a person will further corrupt the society,” he said.
To confirm that the plan was well thought out, sources in Maiduguri told Sunday Sun that the group had sent words to all its members to sell and their properties, while the women should sell gold and jewelries to buy arms in preparation for Jihad.
But he neither denied nor confirmed the allegation of move to carry out insurrection against the Nigerian government by the group.

Sunday Sun gathered authoritatively that sometime in June, the group met somewhere in Badarawa, Kaduna, shortly after attempting to seize the Central Mosque in SMC (Sardauna Memorial College) and toyed with the plan of reviving the Kaduna Muslim Youth group, a group that also toyed with the idea of seizing the rein of power in Nigeria, through insurrection, in 2004. But that the idea fell on the deaf ears of most of those who were part of the meeting, as they were said to have cautioned the group to tread with caution, as it did not posses the wherewithal and the fire power to confront the Nigerian State. One interesting thing about the said meeting was that it was attended by one of the new coverts in Kaduna (name withheld).

The convert, Sunday Sun can reveal, was until recently a legal officer with one of the big banks operating in Kaduna, only for him to suddenly resign his appointment with the bank, following his sudden realization that the interest banks charge in Nigeria was unIslamic. As at the time of filing this report, Sunday Sun gathered that the ex-banker was among those who left for Maiduguri in the wake of the crisis but Sunday Sun could not readily ascertain whether or not he was still alive.

Sunday Sun further learnt that after the attempt to seize the mosque, other Muslims in the community, including some government officials intervened, and requested the leader of the group in Kaduna, simply called AbdulMalik to relocate to Rigasa, another hitherto volatile area in Kaduna. But the said Mosque has since been closed down by security operatives following the crisis in Maiduguri.

WHO IS USTAZ MOHAMMED YUSUF?
There are conflicting claims concerning his educational qualification. But Sunday Sun can authoritatively reveal that Yusuf is unlettered in the real sense of it, as it is doubtful if he ever went beyond primary school. He can also hardly speak passable English language, as in all the encounters with him by this reporter in the past, Hausa language has always been the mode of communication.
However, one thing no one can deny him is his oratory prowess. He can convince the dead to rise up and follow his beliefs and principles about Islam. His group was never known as “Boko Haram (Western education is a sin),” but it is known to be against Western education and forbids one working in any government establishment. The name Boko Haram may have been given to it by members of the public. The group started off as “Allulsunnah Yama’a.”

Available records show that he is from Gaidam, in Yobe State. But he grew up in Maiduguri. In the early stage of the group, he was able to attract membership from the families of the high and mighty in Borno and Yobe States. In fact, at a point, one of the sons of a former SSG in one of the States in the North-East region was a member of his group.

He has links with Bello Damagun, the man allegedly accused of ferrying young Muslim lads to Mauritania for the purpose of receiving combat training in terrorism. Like Yusuf, Bello also hails from Yobe State. And by omission or commission, Yobe, his State of origin and Yusuf’s became the first State in Nigeria where Nigerian Muslim youths publicly acknowledged that they were ‘Talibans,’ even though they are Nigerians.
Part of the allegations against Damagun then was that he allegedly gave out various sums of money and a 10-seater bus with registration Number, KADUNA AN 379 ANC and 30 loud speakers to Muhammed Yusuf, leader of the Islamic sect terrorizing the north. His support to Yusuf, his accusers claim then was to facilitate the spread of “Islamic extremism” and various acts and techniques on terrorism.
Yusuf believes in farming to keep body and soul together. But he is not known to be a mechanized farmer, yet Sunday Sun gathers that he doles out at least N1million every week to some of his followers to engage in what he termed “legitimate business.”
Although Sunday Sun gathered that he has an army of sponsors in Nigeria, but their identities could not be readily ascertained as at press time.

WHY JNI, NORTHERN TRADITIONAL RULERS, COUNCIL OF ULAMAS HAVE BEEN RELUCTANT IN ACTING
Sunday Sun gathered authoritatively that one of the reasons the umbrella body of all Muslims in the north, JNI, Council of Ulamas and even traditional rulers have been reluctant in acting was that most of its members feel that the present government, both at the State and federal level have not treated them fairly, as they feel relegated.

According to sources, even though as a group, they could not have come out to sanction what the Yusuf-led group is doing, there are few of them who share the group’s belief.
And to buttress the government, the source said “if you notice, since the activities of the group began, the only time JNI came close to opposing the group’s view was the communiqué it issued in Kaduna, sometimes in June after one of its meetings in Kaduna, where it condemned the campaign by some Muslims it described as “misguided people” who are telling Muslims not to seek western education and denounce conventional government services. Apart from that time, have heard anything again? The source asked rhetorically.
The source further said that “you see, our leaders in the north have not helped matters. They profess what they cannot do. You remember late Sheik Jafa’ar? He was with Shekarau (Kano governor) at the beginning. But they fell apart because he claimed that the way Mallam (Shekarau) was going about his Sharia, was not in accordance with laid down rules and procedures. The late Islamic scholar believed strongly that Mallam was not sincere with Sharia, period!” the source added.

LAST LINE
All said and done, it would certainly be difficult to attempt to wipe out all the followers of Yusuf from the surface of the earth. Nor matter how hard the security operatives try; there would still some remnants that would be left behind.  But all hands must be on deck to monitor activities of people like Yusuf and his followers in the society, for his gospel has gone far beyond the Nigerian government thinks, and he keeps getting new converts every now and then, especially those already in primary and secondary schools.

None of those idiotic tugs have justifiable claims.