{"id":31413,"date":"2014-09-22T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=31413"},"modified":"2014-09-22T09:31:35","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T08:31:35","slug":"boko-haram-something-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/boko-haram-something-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Boko Haram: Something Is Not Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In the early hours of April 14 2014, Boko Haram militants invaded the sleepy little town of Chibok.\u00a0 They made off with about 234 school girls, and then the school was razed to the ground.<\/p>\n

\n

Expectedly, the Nigerian military and security operatives descended on the town and its environs in what was supposed to be a formidable military\/rescue operation.\u00a0\u00a0 However, there continues to be incessant Boko Haram operations and mayhem in and around that general locale.<\/p>\n

\n

On May 5, in an attack lasting several hours, Boko Haram attacked a village used as a base by our security officers in the search for the missing school girls.\u00a0 13th<\/sup> May, there was an attack on three villages.\u00a0 June 2, three communities in Gwoza were sacked.\u00a0 On 20th<\/sup> May three villages not far from Chibok were attacked.\u00a0 Between 29th<\/sup> May and June 5, six attacks were carried out and twenty women were abducted.\u00a0 June 3, Boko Haram attacked four more villages.\u00a0 June 10, twenty more women were kidnapped from a nomadic settlement near Chibok. \u00a0June 13 to 19th<\/sup> June saw two more attacks.\u00a0 July 4 to July 10, four more attacks.\u00a0 6th<\/sup> of August, Boko Haram attacked Gwoza on a large scale.\u00a0 Their men arrived on motorcycles and up to fifty Toyota Hilux trucks.\u00a0 On 11th<\/sup> August, during attacks on local villages, ninety seven men and young boys were kidnapped.\u00a0 In all of these attacks, hundreds of innocent people were killed, homes and properties were destroyed.\u00a0 Quite a few of our military personnel lost their lives too.<\/p>\n

\n

All of these attacks took place in the general Chibok \u2013 Gwoza axis, an area supposedly suffused with military presence, and under a State of Emergency.\u00a0 Yet, Boko Haram continues to operate there and elsewhere with impunity.\u00a0 Clearly, something is wrong.\u00a0 It is akin to Al Qaeda never leaving Manhattan in New York immediately after 9\/11, and just kept going back and bombing \u2018ground zero.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

We are talking about the Nigerian military here; a body that has acquitted itself excellently well since the 1960s.\u00a0 A Force that has conducted successful operations in much more volatile environments – from the Congo to Sierra Leone.\u00a0 And now we are to believe that this same Force that has garnered even more experience and more expertise over time is suddenly unable to see-off a ragtag band of criminals? \u00a0Something is not right.<\/p>\n

\n

That is not all.<\/p>\n

\n

One Reverend Stephen Davis recently went to town with revelations about Boko Haram.\u00a0 Davis, an Australian, is something of a \u2018hostage negotiator.\u2019\u00a0 He had invited himself to Nigeria on the back of the Chibok school girls\u2019 abduction.\u00a0 After about four months of negotiations, the girls are still in captivity, however, Davis cut loose on the alleged sponsors of Boko Haram.\u00a0 He reported that Ali Modu Sherrif (former Governor of Borno), General Ihejirika (former Chief of Army Staff, COAS), and a couple of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officials (one \u201cwho recently left the bank,\u201d) were all in on it.<\/p>\n

\n

For me, the surprise is the Ihejirika and CBN links.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t know whether the good Reverend has been duped or not, but if I were Gen Ihejirika, I will insist on an immediate and thorough investigation to clear my name.<\/p>\n

\n

As COAS, Ihejirika was a real thorn in the flesh of Boko Haram.\u00a0 At one time, he shut down the telecommunication network in the Northeast.\u00a0 That began to strangulate Boko Haram until some elders and politicians up there protested.\u00a0 Ihejirika then went after the insurgents with a singleness of purpose that caused the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to cry \u2018time out.\u2019\u00a0 NEF claimed that the General was committing genocide against Northern youths.\u00a0 They prevailed on Jonathan to have him removed.\u00a0 Not satisfied, the NEF promised to drag Ihejirika to the International Criminal Court at The Hague to face prosecution for Human Rights abuses.<\/p>\n

\n

Sherriff is a different kettle of fish.\u00a0 His protestations notwithstanding, the chap has been neck-deep with Boko Haram.\u00a0 True, he later fell out with them, but he was certainly their main financier in the early years (just like a few South-south governors initially financed the gentlemen who later morphed into what we know today as Niger Delta militants).\u00a0 After his electoral victory, Sherriff didn\u2019t give the boys the type of Sharia they craved; instead he gave them a short-lived Commissioner.\u00a0 To add salt to a religiously-fermented injury, Sherriff was complicit in their leader\u2019s earlier-than-planned coadunation with his afterlife virgins.\u00a0 The battle line between the two camps has been drawn ever since.<\/p>\n

\n

You could see why \u2013 assuming the people with whom Davis have been hanging out wanted to be mischievous \u2013 Ihejirika and Sherriff\u2019s names would be top of the list of possible Boko Haram sponsors.<\/p>\n

\n

But who knows.\u00a0 The whole thing gets messier every day.\u00a0 Running for elective office in Nigeria is very expensive.\u00a0 The speed with which Ihejirika jumped into partisan politics so soon after his controversial stint as COAS has not helped matters either.<\/p>\n

\n

All I know is that the Northeast is being used as cannon fodder and a laboratory in a macabre test of political wills in Nigeria.\u00a0 Look at the huge money being spent to keep Boko Haram in business.\u00a0 Imagine the difference it would have made in the lives of the people if that same money has been spent in the same region on youth employment, training and the provision of socio-infrastructure.\u00a0 But would any government deliberately allow a section of its domain to go to ruins for electoral purposes; and would we not automatically treat as suspect any presidential candidate who campaigns on the theme of restoring security and bringing Boko Haram to an end?<\/p>\n

\n

Clearly, there\u2019s more to this whole Boko Haram business than meets the eye and things are beginning to point in uncomfortable directions.\u00a0 And as if all that isn\u2019t troubling enough, the federal government owns up to a dubious act of money laundering and\/or a covert arms purchase deal gone bad, using \u2013 of all things! \u2013 the private jet of the president of CAN.\u00a0 That just puts the cherry on the parfait, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Yep\u2026something is not right.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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