Sunday, 28 August 2016
Sunday, 7 September 2014
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Boko Haram negotiator explodes Again: ‘How Shekau went wild, started beheading victims’
Amid the dust raised by his allegation linking a former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and an erstwhile Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, with the sponsorship of Boko Haram, an Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis, at the weekend, gave insight into how Abubakar Shekau hijacked the Islamist group.
“The Boko Haram we see today is not the Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa wal Jihad (JAS) that was operational under Yusuf – former JAS leader killed by the police in 2009”, Davis told Sunday Vanguard in an interview.
In the interview conducted online, the negotiator said: “Shekau formed Ansaru which he used for kidnapping and beheading victims. This behaviour was a major departure from the original mandate of the JAS which was to purify Islam and return it to the exemplary life of the Prophet. Many among the JAS leadership are no longer active and others have been killed. This has allowed Shekau to take the JAS to a more extreme action and expand the frontiers of kidnapping, bombing and slaughtering. The Boko Haram we have today is a much expanded Ansaru. What we see now is not the Yusufiya which wanted very much to settle a score with former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. It is Boko Haram as a partner to ISIS and Al Shabaab”.
Davis admitted that he came to Nigeria in April to facilitate the release of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram, but denied that he was engaged by any party and therefore had no obligation to report to anyone.
He claimed to have interacted with former commanders of JAS and others close to Boko Haram during his visit to Nigeria.
Davis didn’t speak with real Boko Haram leaders – Nigerian negotiator
Meanwhile, a Nigerian negotiator claimed, yesterday, that Sheriff and Ihejirika could not have been Boko Haram sponsors as the two men were actually sworn enemies of the Islamist group.
The negotiator, who didn’t want to be named for security reasons, told Sunday Vanguard that neither Sherrif nor Ihejirika was a sponsor of the sect.
Shekau in the video released to AFP. Photo: AFP.
The source, who has been assisting the government to find a lasting solution to the insurgency in the North-east, pointed out that Sheriff was even one of the three most wanted enemies of the sect. He did not say who the other two were.
“The statement credited to advise that Sherriff and Ihejirika are sponsors of Boko Haram is far from the truth because, as at today, the former Borno governor remains one of the three worst enemies of Boko Haram”, he stated.
“I can tell you that the group has not forgiven Sheriff over the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who was arrested and killed during his tenure as governor”.
Confirming the claim by Davis that he was not hired by the Nigerian government to broker peace with the sect, the source said that the Australian came on his own to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
He said that while in Nigeria, Davis never met the real commanders of Boko Haram but depended on information from a member of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Amnesty for information on the activities of the sect.
The source blamed what is now playing out on the issue of Boko Haram sponsorship on the information given to Davis by the member of the presidential committee.
He said,”We can say with all amount of seriousness that Davis did not meet the leadership and main commanders of Boko Haram during his visit to the North-east.
“If Davis insists that he met with any senior commander or leader of the sect, we challenge him to mention their names and ranks”.
“The Boko Haram we see today is not the Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa wal Jihad (JAS) that was operational under Yusuf – former JAS leader killed by the police in 2009”, Davis told Sunday Vanguard in an interview.
In the interview conducted online, the negotiator said: “Shekau formed Ansaru which he used for kidnapping and beheading victims. This behaviour was a major departure from the original mandate of the JAS which was to purify Islam and return it to the exemplary life of the Prophet. Many among the JAS leadership are no longer active and others have been killed. This has allowed Shekau to take the JAS to a more extreme action and expand the frontiers of kidnapping, bombing and slaughtering. The Boko Haram we have today is a much expanded Ansaru. What we see now is not the Yusufiya which wanted very much to settle a score with former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. It is Boko Haram as a partner to ISIS and Al Shabaab”.
Davis admitted that he came to Nigeria in April to facilitate the release of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram, but denied that he was engaged by any party and therefore had no obligation to report to anyone.
He claimed to have interacted with former commanders of JAS and others close to Boko Haram during his visit to Nigeria.
Davis didn’t speak with real Boko Haram leaders – Nigerian negotiator
Meanwhile, a Nigerian negotiator claimed, yesterday, that Sheriff and Ihejirika could not have been Boko Haram sponsors as the two men were actually sworn enemies of the Islamist group.
The negotiator, who didn’t want to be named for security reasons, told Sunday Vanguard that neither Sherrif nor Ihejirika was a sponsor of the sect.
Shekau in the video released to AFP. Photo: AFP.
The source, who has been assisting the government to find a lasting solution to the insurgency in the North-east, pointed out that Sheriff was even one of the three most wanted enemies of the sect. He did not say who the other two were.
“The statement credited to advise that Sherriff and Ihejirika are sponsors of Boko Haram is far from the truth because, as at today, the former Borno governor remains one of the three worst enemies of Boko Haram”, he stated.
“I can tell you that the group has not forgiven Sheriff over the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who was arrested and killed during his tenure as governor”.
Confirming the claim by Davis that he was not hired by the Nigerian government to broker peace with the sect, the source said that the Australian came on his own to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
He said that while in Nigeria, Davis never met the real commanders of Boko Haram but depended on information from a member of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Amnesty for information on the activities of the sect.
The source blamed what is now playing out on the issue of Boko Haram sponsorship on the information given to Davis by the member of the presidential committee.
He said,”We can say with all amount of seriousness that Davis did not meet the leadership and main commanders of Boko Haram during his visit to the North-east.
“If Davis insists that he met with any senior commander or leader of the sect, we challenge him to mention their names and ranks”.
Who will be APC’s consensus candidate? on september 06, 20
The above question was asked by The Cable, the new but increasingly popular online newspaper in its analysis of the different aspirants on September 1, 2014, and I expected that the analysis will go all the way to answer the question.
Perhaps the first question should be: Does the APC really want to win the presidential election next year? If they want to win, then, they must do their homework. As it appears today, there is nothing to suggest that they want to win. Any party that wants to choose a consensus candidate among several aspirants must use certain objective criteria devoid of selfish interests. To do so, the APC must ponder what the key issues are right now that are likely going to influence the direction of voting next year. In my opinion, there are four key issues today:
1.Nigeria has become dangerously polarized on the issue of religion caused directly by the Boko Haram phenomenon and President Jonathan’s divisive actions along those lines. This appears to be PDP’s main strategy for 2015 as the party’s big wigs continue to associate the APC with Boko Haram without bordering to back up their assertion with any evidence. It would also appear that the PDP has enlisted the SSS in this dangerous strategy considering the fact that Marilyn Ogar, the spokesperson of the SSS has started echoing that line too recently. The PDP has continuously referred to the APC as an Islamic party from the first day it was established.
2. Beating a sitting president has so far not been possible in Nigeria no matter how unpopular he is. To defeat particularly this one will require the mobilization of the entire country, in order to neutralize the rigging machine.
3. Jonathan has currently been roundly branded, and rightly so, as incompetent and unfit to govern, and therefore extremely unpopular but because of (1) above, that does not necessarily mean any APC candidate can defeat him.
4. The unity of the north shall also be key as this will determine whether a northern candidate can win in 2015. To defeat Jonathan in 2015, APC must field a candidate who has the capacity to unite the whole north and who can be supported by all the contending and power centres within the party. The credential of that candidate must also be such as to be able to neutralize Jonathan and PDP’s strategy of balkanizing the nation along petty religious lines in the 2015 election.
So in determining which of the APC presidential aspirants comes closest to qualifying as a consensus candidate using these criteria, let us re-examine the names mentioned by TheCable viz Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Sam Nda-Isaiah.
I will also examine the prospects of Rochas Okorocha and Bukola Saraki
• Muhammadu Buhari: Buhari is a very well-respected former head of state. He is straight as an arrow. His greatest strength is that he is very popular among the masses of the far North. But history has shown that politicians with such massive following among their people are held in suspicion in other parts of the country. Consequently, such people usually cannot garner the national appeal to become president. Very popular politicians of old who fall into that category and never became president include Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mallam Aminu Kano and Dr. Joseph Tarka. That is the real reason Buhari lost in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and will lose again in 2015 if fielded by APC as its presidential candidate. Buhari’s case has also been worsened by the fact that his opponents have successfully branded him as a fundamentalist. Even though there is no evidence to support this, the perception has stuck. It does not matter who Buhari’s running mate is, that perception will stick. That is why in spite of Pastor Tunde Bakare,
a well-known Christian clergy, being his running mate in 2011, he lost almost all of the Christian votes in Nigeria. Buhari’s supporters always brandish his over 12 million votes in the 2011 presidential election as the strongest reason he should be APC’s candidate, but they forget that of this more than 12 million votes, less than 250,000 v
Somalia's al Shabaab name new leader after U.S. strike, warn of revenge
The Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab confirmed on Saturday that its leader Ahmed Godane had been killed in a U.S. air strike this week and named a new leader, promising "great distress" to its enemies.
U.S. forces struck Godane's encampment in south-central Somalia with Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions on Monday, but the Pentagon did not confirm his death until Friday.
Western governments and neighboring countries want to neutralize a group that they say has exploited Somalia's chaos to attract jihadists and train them to fight.
In a statement, al Shabaab reaffirmed its affiliation to al Qaeda, and named its new leader as Sheikh Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah, warning its enemies to "expect only that which will cause you great distress".
Little is known of al Shabaab's new leader, but a local elder who asked not be named said he had joined al Shabaab in 2006 and, like Godane, hailed from the Dir clan.
Godane himself was named head of al Shabaab in 2008, less than a week after his predecessor Aden Hashi Ayro was killed in a similar U.S. raid.
Godane dramatically raised the group's profile, carrying out bombings and suicide attacks in Somalia and elsewhere in the region, including last September's attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in which 67 people died.
Godane publicly claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was revenge for Kenyan and Western involvement in Somalia and noting its proximity to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The militants have also staged guerrilla attacks in parts of the capital, as well as in neighboring Kenya and Uganda.
The Pentagon said on Friday that Godane's killing was a "major symbolic and operational loss" for al Shabaab, but some analysts have said it could bring more violence.
Al Shabaab, whose name means "The Youth", said two of Godane's companions had been killed in the attack, adding: "Avenging the death of our scholars and leaders is a binding obligation on our shoulders that we will never relinquish or forget, no matter how long it takes."
The group, which aims to impose its own strict version of Islam, controlled Mogadishu and the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011. It was forced out of the capital by peacekeeping forces deployed by the African Union, who have launched a new offensive against the Islamists this year.
Kenya deployed troops with the AU force to try to prevent al Shabaab encroaching onto its own territory, and suffered retribution in the shape of the attack on the Westgate mall.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta thanked the United States for killing Godane, and "for bringing an end to Godane's career of death and destruction; and finally allowing us to begin our healing process".
Explosions in east Ukraine threaten ceasefire
Powerful explosions in a key frontline city in eastern Ukraine on Saturday raised fears that a day-old truce between government and rebel forces had already collapsed. Numerous explosions were heard and thick smoke was visible on the horizon of Mariupol, a government-held port city in the east of the country. A checkpoint held by Ukraine loyalists seemed to be on fire late on Saturday, according to AFP journalists close to the scene. The renewed violence came just hours after a phone call between Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who agreed that a ceasefire signed on Friday "was generally being observed".
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