MAIDUGURI - The Jama’atul Ahlus Sunna Lid Da’awatis Jihad, JASLIDAT, otherwise known as Boko Haram has been quoted by an on-line report that the masterminds of the radical Islamic sect are some prominent Northerners, whose identities would be made public soon.
According to the report, by an adherent of the slain leader of the group, Muhammad Yusuf, who also serves as the spokesman, Mallam Ali Teshako, the sect emerged due to lack of good governance and injustice in the country.

He said the original brains behind the sect’s formation were Northern elite who, under the pretext of sponsoring youths to study in the Middle-East, offered them as mercenaries to countries interested in training terrorists.

The spokesperson of the sect, also known as Yusufiyya, named after its slain leader, said the original name of the group was Taliban. He said Boko Haram was not its name, but that it was given to it by people in the states where they have followers and have been clashing with security operatives.
According to him, those who formed JASLIDAT thought they could manipulate Yusuf into toeing their line, but he resisted.

“If he were alive, he would have spilled the beans on them. Nonetheless, we will reveal their identities at our convenience.”
He said the clashes between the group and security operatives was as a result of provocations by the police. He recalled that in 2009, the police, who had shot dead two of their members, traced them to a cemetery where they went to bury them and wounded 20 more people.

Teshako added: “Not satisfied, they trailed those wounded to a hospital in Maiduguri and prevented them from getting blood donations and treatments. In the wake of all these, we were hounded, chased from our homes, some of us were killed and many were arrested including myself.”

He indicated that many of the atrocities attributed to JASLIDAT were perpetrated by killer-squads funded by some serving and former governors in the North-East. He cited the attack on a police station that was carried out by ECOMOG militia allegedly sponsored by a former Borno State governor. He said, after the attack, his group was blamed.

Dismisses Akhwat Akwop threats

Meantime, Teshako has dismissed the Akhwat Akwop as another “group of vultures” that wants to feast on misfortunes of the apex government.

“This is another group of thieves who want to seek relevance from the government.”

Investigations, however, revealed that in August 2009, shortly after Muhammad Yusuf was killed, he was linked with one businessman Bello Damagum, who was alleged to have been receiving money from an alleged al-Qaeda group in Sudan to recruit youngmen to his organisation.

Part of the funds were also allegedly passed on to Yusuf. In 2004, one Mohammed Salman (aka Ibrahim) was arrested in Lahore in Pakistan and linked to Al-Qaeda.

Same year, the State Security Service,SSS, in Kano, paraded some young men who absconded from an al-Qaeda training camp in Mauritania. The SSS director in Kano then, Sadiq Dalhatu, who is now retired, paraded them, saying they were sent to be turned into “extreme Islamic zealots.”

This led to the arrest and detention of Damagum, a director with Media Trust Limited (publishers of Daily Trust titles), and two others by SSS. Later, a court in Kano ruled that their detention was unlawful and a violation of their fundamental human rights as enshrined under chapter 4 section 35 of the constitution.

Damagum and the other suspects were detained from June 23 to July 7, 2004. They were awarded N150, 000 cost as damages. SSS was also directed to write a public apology to the three applicants, for their unlawful detention.

Teshako, however, said in Damagum was a small fry in the complex matrix of the Boko Haram web created by Northern elites. His claim was corroborated by a news website which reported that evidence of the movement’s emergence gathered by SSS were given to the police which refused to act.

It said: “Inroads made by SSS were thwarted by Muslim leaders who attacked the Director-General of SSS, Mr. Afakirya Gadzama, for trying to humiliate Islam because he is a Christian.”

The report, entitled, ‘Nigeria: al-Qaeda presence in Nigeria has been kept under wraps’ stated that “to allay fears of religious prejudices the SSS chief organised a meeting with some top Muslim leaders and some of the arrested members of Boko Haram. They (the Northern leaders) have come out to accept the findings of the security services.”

Youth Corpers relocate from Borno

Meanwhile, following the insecurity in Borno State as a result of activities of Boko Haram members, only 140 of the 1,254 Batch “B” National Youth Service Corps members posted to the state for their one year mandatory service will remain.

It will be recalled that when the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga, visited the state recently, he directed all corps members who were not indigenes of the state to apply for relocation out of the state which would automatically be approved, as the security situation posed a great danger to their lives.

The state Coordinator of the NYSC, Mr. Nuhu Kwaghe, told newsmen, yesterday, after the passing out parade which marked the end of the three-week orientation course of the 2011 Batch B corps members recently deployed in Maiduguri, that all those who had applied for relocation have been approved and most of them would be posted to Yobe, Adamawa, Kaduna, Cross River and Abia states, among others.
He added that NYSC has also approved more than N4 million to convey all the corps members to wherever they were posted to. He stressed that adequate security has been provided for those who had expressed the desire to stay back in Maiduguri.

Tsiga said: “I sympathise with Borno State Government, because most of these corps members are relocating from the state, had it been that the state is safe, they would have remained and they would have contributed to the educational and socio-economic development of the state, as most of them would be posted to rural areas and public schools.”

He,therefore, urged all the corps members to rededicate themselves and be prepared to serve honestly and faithfully as well as appreciate and cherish the culture and traditions of their host communities.

Reacting to the development, the Director of Press to Governor Kashim Shettima, Alhaji Zanna Ciroma, expressed worry over the relocation of corps members from the state, rueing that Borno would not benefit from the immense contributions of corps members who recently concluded their orientation course in the state.

Ciroma said some of the corps members were trained doctors and nurses whose services are needed in most of the health institutions of the state government.

He stated that despite the assurance from government to ensure security of life and property of corps members, some still felt insecure, even as he said normalcy had returned to the state,
He called on the corps members to feel free, as government was doing everything possible to enhance their welfare package in the state.

Cds tasks Service Chiefs, others

Against the backdrop of security challenges facing the nation, Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, yesterday, called for a more proactive leadership among security agencies in combating the problems of Boko Haram and other violent crises rocking the nation.
According to CDS, the time had come for leaders of security agencies to apply strategic and other means of pre-empting dangerous societal outbursts and other threats capable of putting at risks, the peace and stability of the country.

Petirin, who was addressing participants of Course 19 intakes of the National Defence College, Abuja, told the senior officers that the Nigerian Armed Forces, in particular, must imbibe new ways of managing security.

On the recalcitrant Boko Haram menace, the CDS who delivered a lecture, entitled, ‘Leadership; A New Approach in the Armed Forces’ insisted that the armed forces and other security agencies were on top of the security challenges posed by the group.

He said the purpose of the lecture was to re-orientate members of the armed forces towards new ways of doing things, especially as it concerned pro-activeness in the fight against threats of terrorism, violent crimes and other acts capable of undermining the nation.
He spoke after the lecture which was held behind closed doors.

Earlier, Commandant of the college, Rear-Admiral Thomas Lokosun, said most leaders in several spheres of the society had lost sight of what they should be doing to keep the nation safer. He advised members of the armed forces to lead the way in charting the way forward by being more pro-active.

Sect kills district head, daughter

Suspected members of Boko Haram, yesterday, shot and killed Mohammed Ali Lawal, the district head of Bulabulin in Maiduguri at 8 a.m. in Maiduguri.

Alhaji Ali’s attackers numbering three also shot and killed his nine-year-old daughter. A neighbour’s daughter was also caught in the cross-fire. Family sources claimed she sustained serious injuries.

Since its resurgence about a year ago, the sect has targetted and killed several districts heads, Islamic scholars, local officials and security agents in a campaign of violence. (Vanguard)