All About Boko Haram

Another Bomb Blast in Bauchi - Kills 4 People

2011-11-12T09:06:00.001-08:00

Another roadside bomb has once again happened in Bauchi recently. The roadside bomb occurred in Bauchi killing at least 4 people, said, the Police.

The Bauchi State police spokes man, Mohammed Barau told AFP, “There was a bomb blast in Wuntin-dada suburb of the city in which four people were injured.”

He said that the incident happened on Friday evening as workers were returning their home.

“The bomb which was planted by the roadside went off as people were closing for the day. Forensic experts have been conducting investigation into the incident and bomb fragments have been taken to Abuja for analysis,” Barau said.

He also said that no arrests had been made and it was too early for people to start blaming any group for the incident.

Boko Haram, the radical Islamist sect has been blamed for many occurrences of bomb blasts and gun attacks in the northern part of the country, especially the federal capital, Abuja.

"The sect claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja which killed at least 24 people and coordinated attacks in the country’s northeast last week that left some 150 people dead."

This is a post by a technology blog writing team, the site writes about tech and tricks.

Vanguar News contributed to this news.

Don't Panic Over Boko Haram - FG Urges

2011-11-08T01:42:00.000-08:00

"ABUJA— Following the renewed threat by Boko Haram sect to carry out more bomb attacks in Abuja after weekend bloodbath in Damaturu, Yobe State capital which claimed more than 150 lives, the Federal Government yesterday asked members of the public not to panic assuring that security agencies have put in place adequate measures to secure lives and property.
Govt. assurance came just as Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Mr Sulaiman Lawal released details of the casualty suffered by members of the security agencies in the attack.
The United States Embassy in Nigeria on Monday warned its citizens to steer clear of three major hotels in Abuja claiming it had intelligence report that the sect was planning to attack the hotels.
The National Security Adviser, General Owoeye Azazi (rtd) in a statement yesterday said the Federal Government has put in place adequate measures to secure three top hotels in the Federal Capital city suspected to be targets of the fundamentalists.

It reads: “The attention of the Federal Government has been drawn to a publication making the rounds in the media concerning planned attacks on three major hotels in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

A Police anti-bomb squad vehicle burnt on November 4 by members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect in Damaturu, Yobe State. AFP PHOTO
The Federal Government wants to advise members of the public that it would continue to ensure the security of lives and property under its jurisdiction despite the unfortunate events in Maiduguri and Yobe over the weekend.”
Azazi stated that the current threat of attack on the three hotels in Abuja was not news, stressing that for over three months, the security services have taken pro-active measures to protect the designated critical facilities and others.
See more photos of Damaturu, Yobe State killingsThe NSA urged members of the public not to worry about the report but to go about their normal duties and businesses without fear and be assured that security agencies have put in place adequate counter measures to secure lives and property.”
Situation under control
Speaking to newsmen on the issue yesterday, the Assistant Director (Press) of the State Security Service, SSS, Marilyn Ogar said the present situation was not beyond the security agencies, even as she admitted that there were internal security challenges to contend with.
She said: “We have internal security challenges and it is nothing new. And if you ask where did this information come from, it is basically from the internet, which subsequently somebody sent as an e-mail and we thought that had been addressed. I don’t see any problem that is beyond the Nigerian security agencies. Of course, we have deployed men and beefed up security everywhere.
“We had said that on 26th or 27th of October; we have had text messages making the rounds that some targets were going to be bombed in Abuja. In my subsequent press release on the 2nd of November, we did say that we traced those that sent the message to a secondary school in Kagara in Niger State. Students of 18 and 17 years and of course, may be out of mischief, because they said there was an advert in the national daily that said anybody who has information concerning Boko Haram should send this information to a particular number.
“May be because they were idle, they decided to play pranks with it. So you find out that Nigerians always use several security challenges we have as instrument may be to frighten or create unnecessary fear and panic within the society. There is nothing that is above the security agencies”, she stated
On America and Canada’s messages to their citizens, she said: “If America sent out that message it is nothing too strange. It is not because our country is disintegrating. If Canada has followed suit, there is nothing new to it. We have had wonderful Sallah though with some pockets of crisis here and there but they are not issues that we have not been able to contain.”
Pointing out that there is no nation without its security challenges, she said: “Even the US has security challenges and I don’t think they will say it is beyond their security agencies. It is not right to pass judgement”.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim yesterday directed the release of 50 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC’s), Police Patrol vans and the deployment of both plain clothes and armed police personnel in and around the FCT.
However, the APC's have been deployed to such hotels as Transcorp Hilton, Sheraton, Nicon Luxury and NANET Hotels.
Aside the hotels, Vanguard observed that security has been heavily beefed up in and around the FCT with such important national assets like the NNPC towers, CBN headquarters, Three Arms Zone, NTA, and Radio House, getting increased security presence.
A senior Police source said that the Armoured Personnel Carriers, Anti-Terrorist as well as Bomb Disposal squads have been deployed to all the exit and entry points in the federal capital territory with a view to checkmating activities of the Islamic terrorist group.
Vanguard also gathered that the Inspector General of Police has directed all Police Commands in the country to remain at red alert and to also dispatch plain clothes security personnel in and around the city centers as intelligence indicate that the attacks in Yobe state may be the first of many others planned by the group.
However, Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Mr Sulaiman Lawal yesterday gave the breakdown of casualty suffered by security agencies in last weekend attacks by Boko Haram in the state. Apart of civilian victims, he said 11 policemen, one soldier, one customs official, one Federal Road Safety Commission Corp marshal and an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps were killed in the attack.
Addressing a press briefing yesterday, he explained that with the deployment of soldiers from the 241 Recce Battalion Nguru to patrol the streets of the state capital, normalcy has returned to the state. He said that curfew has also been imposed on the state capital from 7 pm to 7 am."

Vanguard

Nigerian Boko Haram Threatens More Deadly Attacks in coming weeks

2011-11-06T07:11:00.001-08:00

Nigeria's Boko Haram has threatened to carry out more attacks, a day after a series of blasts and gun battles claimed by the group killed at least 69 people in the West African nation's northeast.

The group's spokesman, using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa, promised "more attacks are on the way", speaking hours after witnesses reported "scenes of carnage" in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege", has claimed responsibility for previous attacks and Friday's was the deadliest since the group attacked a UN building in the capital Abuja in August, killing at least 20 people.

"We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians," Abul-Qaqa said in an interview with the the Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north.

Suleimon Lawal, the police commissioner of Damaturu, told Al Jazeera a suicide bomber drove a vehicle apparently laden with explosives into a building housing the anti-terrorist court.

Lawal said the attack killed 53 people but he did not disclose how many among the casualties were security officials.

"I know for a fact that there're Nigerian groups in and outside the government, including the media, who are suggesting that the government should try to talk to Boko Haram, but my own impression is that they don't seem to be particularly ready or inclined to talk."
- Nii Akuetteh, former executive director of Africa Action in Washington, DC

"The explosives rocked the building and there were casualties. Two of them [suicide bombers] perished in the bomb," he said.

Lawal insisted the group was not gaining an upper hand and vowed that it would be crushed.

"My strategy is a security strategy [that] I cannot disclose on air. So as they're not [Boko Haram] disclosing their security strategy, I don't think it is safe for me to tell the whole world what I am doing," he said.

The Red Cross said the death toll stood at 63. But an official of the country's road safety agency who took part in the collection of bodies, told the AFP news agency that 150 people had been killed.

An AFP reporter counted 97 bodies in a hospital mortuary in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday. The remaining bodies had reportedly been already collected for burial.

"It is diffcult to verify these reports especially since this is a very remote part of the country," Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reported from Abuja.

The violence followed a series of attacks reported in the neighbouring cities of Maiduguri and Potiskum on Friday afternoon.

"There's that fear that something might possibly happen again," Ibrahim Bulama, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said.

Security vehicles torched

News agencies, quoting officials, said after the attack on the building, armed men went through Damaturu, blowing up a bank and attacking at least three police stations and five churches, leaving behind their rubble.

People began hesitantly leaving their homes on Saturday morning, after seeing the destruction left behind, which included military and police vehicles burned by the armed men, with the burned corpses of the drivers who died still in their seats.

Boko Haram wants the strict implementation of Islamic law across the nation of more than 160 million people, which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north.

Nii Akuetteh, a former executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based rights group, said the group appeared to be growing strong.

"The government has been saying that it will deal with them and that it will get a handle on the problem, but it's not been able to," he told Al Jazeera.

"Previously, the attempt made was to try and fight them militarily - to send the secuirty forces after them - but that has created its own problem.

"I know for a fact that there're Nigerian groups in and outside the government, including the media, who are suggesting that the government should try to talk to Boko Haram. But my own impression is that they don't seem to be particularly ready or inclined to talk."

Split into factions

The Associated Press news agency, quoting a diplomat, said the government was facing an increasingly dangerous threat from Boko Haram, adding that the group had split into three factions, one allied with al-Qaeda's North Africa branch.

It said one faction remains moderate and welcomes an end to the violence while another wants a peace agreement with rewards similar to those offered to MEND, which has been fighting for a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth.

The attacks occured just before Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world.

Police elsewhere in Nigeria had warned of violence in the run-up to the celebration in the country that has previously been rocked by religious violence.

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's Christian president who took office amid religious and political rioting that saw at least 800 die in April, cancelled a trip to his home state of Bayelsa for his younger brother's wedding on Saturday.

His spokesman, Reuben Abati, said the president did not consider those who launched the attacks "true Muslims," as the assault came during a holy period.

Abati also promised that "every step will be taken" to arrest those responsible - the same pledge made again and again as Jonathan has visited other sites bombed by Boko Haram.

"The security agencies will tell you that what happens on this scale is even a fraction of what could have happened considering the scope of the threat," Abati said.

"The security agencies are busy at work trying to make sure the will of the majority of the Nigerian people is not subverted by a minority [group] with a suicidal streak."

Nigeria radical Muslim sect kills another security agent

2011-11-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

"A radical Muslim sect in northeast Nigeria on Sunday gunned down another security agent following attacks earlier this week that left at least 69 people dead.
The latest attack by the sect known locally as Boko Haram targeted a police inspector in the city of Maiduguri, the sect's spiritual home. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.
Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector to death, Midenda said. The sect members later allowed his family to drive the car away, he said.
The killing prompted a frank acknowledgment from the police commander, whose men remain under siege from constant assassinations by the radical sect.
"Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe," Midenda said.
Meanwhile, statements issued late Saturday show the U.N. Security Council called the attacks Friday in the cities of Damaturu and Maiduguri "criminal and unjustifiable" and asked members to help Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice.
A statement on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "an end to all violence in the area," while offering sympathy for the victims.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks Friday, which included suicide bombings and shootings. Nearly all the deaths occurred in and around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state.
Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north. Its name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, but instead of schooling, it rejects Western ideals like Nigeria's U.S.-styled democracy that followers believe have destroyed the country with corrupt politicians.
Boko Haram's attacks occurred ahead of Sunday's Eid al-Adha celebration, or the feast of sacrifice, when Muslims around the world slaughter sheep and cattle in remembrance of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son. Police elsewhere in the country had warned of violence ahead of the celebration in Nigeria.
An Associated Press count shows the group has killed at least 330 people this year alone.
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Associated Press writer Njadvara Musa in Maiduguri, Nigeria was the brain behind this information.

Boko Haram Bomb Maiduguri Yesterday - Another Bomb Blast

2011-10-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Boko haram's the sect in Nigeria as they are fondly called has made another powerful and most dangerous step in bombing an area in Maiduguri yesterday and the mission was successfully achieved according to the news from a local newspaper in the country.