The dreaded Islamic Terrorist
group, Boko Haram has
responded to the challenge by
President Jonatjan to it to show
its face if its leaders want to
dialogue. Abu Qaqa, the
spokesman of Boko Haram told
the Guardian of the London
that it will only negotiate with
the government after it has
forced them to do the will of
Allah and brought government
to its knees.
Qaqa told the newspaper that
“We will consider negotiation
only when we have brought
the government to its knees.
Once we see that things are
being done according to the
dictates of Allah, and our
members are released (from
prison), we will only put aside
our arms - but we will not lay
them down. You don’t put
down your arms in Islam, you
only put them aside.”
The Guardian of London
published an exclusive
interview with Boko Haram
spokesman, Abu Qaqa in which
he confirmed that the group’s
leaders met with the Al Qaida
in Saudi Arabia last August
where they cemented the
group’s financial and logistics
base.
Qaqa, whose name is a
pseudonym, said the group’s
members were spiritual
followers of al-Qaida, and
claimed they had met senior
figures in the network founded
by Osama bin Laden during
visits to Saudia Arabia.
Qaqa said the group’s leader,
Shekau and others had
travelled to Saudi Arabia for
training and funding. “Al-Qaida
are our elder brothers. During
the lesser Hajj [last August],
our leader travelled to Saudi
Arabia and met al-Qaida there.
We enjoy financial and
technical support from them.
Anything we want from them
we ask them.”
Qaqa disclosed that recruits
from neighbouring Chad,
Cameroon and Niger had
joined the group. A recent UN
report said weapons from
Libya may have been
smuggled to Boko Haram and
al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb via Chad, Niger and
Nigeria.
He added that his group which
has killed almost 1,000 people
in Nigeria, will continue its
campaign of violence until the
country is ruled by sharia law.
“We will consider negotiation
only when we have brought
the government to their
knees,” Qaqa said in the
group’s first major interview
with a western newspaper.
“Once we see that things are
being done according to the
dictates of Allah, and our
members are released [from
prison], we will only put aside
our arms – but we will not lay
them down. You don’t put
down your arms in Islam, you
only put them aside.”
The interview came a week
after Boko Haram claimed
responsibility for Nigeria’s
single deadliest terrorist
attack, which killed 186 people
in the northern city of Kano.
The Guardian of London said it
was able to contact Abu Qaqa
through an intermediary from
the group’s home state. The
go-between has been in
contact with the group since its
inception, and met with its
founder, Mohammed Yusuf,
several times before he was
killed in 2009. For most of the
interview he used a voice
modulator, but local journalists
confirmed that his undisguised
voice matched recordings of
previous interviews.
Security officials and diplomats
in Abuja said they had no
evidence of a link with al-Qaida
in Saudi Arabia, but an official
confirmed that “elements of
Boko Haram have made
contact with external groups”.
The extent and frequency of
that contact was unknown, the
official said.
In the decade since it first
appeared, Boko Haram has
graduated from crude driveby
attacks on beer parlours to
bombing security buildings in
the northern Muslim heartland.
Its most audacious attack
targeted the United Nations
building in the capital, Abuja,
killing 25 in August. In recent
weeks, Christians institutions
have increasingly come under
fire. A Christmas Day bomb
attack on a packed church just
outside the capital claimed
almost 40 lives.
But Qaqa said the rights of the
country’s 70 million Christians,
who represent half of Nigeria’s
population, “would be
protected” under the group’s
envisioned Islamic state. “Even
the prophet Mohammed lived
with non-Muslims and he gave
them their dues.” But he said
everyone must abide by sharia
law: “There are no exceptions.
Even if you are a Muslim and
you don’t abide by sharia, we
will kill you. Even if you are my
own father, we will kill you.”
Speaking fluent but non-native
Hausa, the lingua franca
across the Sahelian belt on the
cusp of the Sahara desert, he
said: “It’s the secular state that
is responsible for the woes we
are seeing today. People
should understand that we are
not saying we have to rule
Nigeria, but we have been
motivated by the stark
injustice in the land. People
underrate us but we have our
sights set on [bringing sharia
to] the whole world, not just
Nigeria.”
Sharia law is already in place
across 12 states in the Muslim-
majority north. Few believe the
group’s radical ideology has
traction in Nigeria’s mainly
Christian south, which is also
home to millions of Muslims
and has so far been out of the
group’s reach.
Raising his voice for the only
time during the interview,
Qaqa denied reports that some
governors in northern Nigeria
paid the group monthly
allowances in exchange for
immunity from attacks. “May
God punish anyone that said
so,” he said, before adding that
the group has popular support
in the north.
“Poor people are tired of the
injustice, people are crying for
saviours and they know the
messiahs are Boko Haram.
“People were singing songs in
[northern cities] Kano and
Kaduna saying: ‘We want Boko
Haram’,” Qaqa said, describing
how the group can blend into
the communities in which it
operates.
“If the masses don’t like us
they would have exposed us by
now. When Islam comes
everyone would be happy,” he
said.
Diplomats say Nigeria’s
security services are belatedly
attempting to gain control of
the situation, which was
previously dismissed as an
internal, northern squabble
often fuelled by politicians with
personal grievances.
“There is an ongoing review of
all security agencies,” the
presidential aide Ken Wiwa
said.
“This is a relatively new
phenomenon in Nigeria and
the administration is working
hard to improve its capacity to
respond. There are various
other initiatives which will be
implemented but this is as
much a political as a security
issue.”
An official said Nigeria’s
central bank was involved in
measures aimed at strangling
the group’s external funding
sources, including speeding up
a cashless economy.
In an audio message posted on
YouTube on Friday, the group’s
current leader, Abubakar
Shekau, threatened to bomb
schools and kidnap family
members of government
officials.
“If [security forces] are going
to places of worship and
destroying them, like mosques
and Quranic schools, you have
primary schools as well, you
have secondary schools and
universities, and we will start
bombing them.”
Shekau rejected calls for a
negotiated peace from
President Goodluck Jonathan,
who on Thursday called for the
shadowy sect to step out of the
shadows and engage in
dialogue.
Nigerian officials have voiced
hopes for a negotiated
settlement with “moderate
elements” of the group.
“Under the circumstances, if
you look hard enough, you can
find moderate elements you
can communicate with,”
General Andrew Azazi, the
National Security Adviser to
the president, told the Wall
Street Journal on Friday.
Western diplomats say Boko
Haram has splintered and the
hardliners leading the factions
responsible for the wave of
violence that has killed some
250 people this year appear to
have rejected any suggestion
of dialogue.

www.naijapundit.com/news/boko-haram-to-president-jonathan-we-will-negotiate-after-bringing-government-to-its-knees

Boko guys trying so hard to be on the U.S terror list