Gunmen have attacked the residence of Joe Igbokwe, the Special Adviser on Drainage and Water Resources to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in Nnewi, Anambra State
There was said to have been heavy gunfire during the attack.
Igbokwe in a Facebook post on Sunday said some parts of the building were burnt by the gunmen.
He added that CCTV cameras captured the arsonists arriving in a vehicle at his residence in the town.
He said, “Here it is. My Home in Nnewi has been sacrificed. No life was lost. To God be the glory.
“IPOB invaded my house in Nnewi about now. I am sure they raised down the my house giving the jerrycans of petrol I saw being offloaded from their Sienna car via CCTV. To God be the glory. I am still alive.”
This comes shortly after the All Progressives Congress (APC) party chieftain blamed all attacks in the South-East region on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“SENATOR ABARIBE PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT I AM FROM SOUTH EAST AND I AM ALSO A CRITICAL STAKEHOLDER IN THE REGION AND NIGERIA. YOU KNOW IT AND I KNOW IT ALSO THAT IPOB IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BLOODSHED IN THE SOUTH EAST. THIS IS THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. LET US FOR ONCE FEAR GOD AND SPEAK THE TRUTH SO AS TO PUT THE ENEMIES TO SHAME,” he had posted earlier on Sunday.
Efforts to reach him on his mobile phone were not successful as he did not answer his calls.
Three suspected kidnappers have been nabbed following a joint raid of their hideout in forests located in Nasko Local Government Area of Niger State.
Monday Kuryas, police commissioner in Niger disclosed this to reporters in Minna on Sunday.
He said the police squad in the Nasko Division and members of the local vigilante group, numbering about 97, ransacked the Manini, Isana and Etere forest hideouts of the suspects on October 2.
“Three suspects were arrested after the raid, including one Abubakar, Aliyu Abubakar and Mohamed Aliyu,” Mr Kuryas offered. “The suspects confessed to have kidnapped one Alhaji Mohammed Bariki of Magaman Daji village, Nasko LGA where they collected N5 million ransom and one Usman Maiyana of Ibana village Nasko LGA where they collected N 3 million as ransom.”
“The sum of N 100,000 was recovered from them which was part of the ransom,” he added.
Mr Kuryas said that the command has deployed an anti kidnap squad to the area to ensure the arrest of others at large and recover their arms.
“We appeal strongly for more working support and cooperation from members of the public who should give us intelligence information that could aid in apprehending miscreants in their midst.
“We are battle ready to confront any persons or group of miscreants undermining the peace of our state, through well- coordinated security approach to enhance peaceful coexistence among our people,’’ Mr Kuryas said.
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a suspected fake soldier, Hayatu Galadima and his accomplice, Hamisu Adamu.
They were in possession of hard drugs, ammunition and communication equipment suspected to be for use by bandits in Kaduna State.
NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja that the duo was arrested around Gwagwalada, on the outskirts of Abuja on Thursday, September 30.
He stated that items recovered from them included 21 RLA 7.45mm ammunition concealed in a water bottle; 16 packs of new two-way radio (walkie- talkie); four army-coloured head masks and wallet containing an army identity card.
Mr Babafemi added that also found in the possession of the duo were ATM cards issued by FCMB, First Bank, ECO bank, UBA, Skye Bank and one U.S. dollar.
Also recovered from them were Indian hemp, tablets of tramadol, three MTN, two 9mobile and one Airtel SIM card packs and one iPhone 12 pro cell phone.
“Others include one Samsung A31, one Nokia phone, seven Nigerian Army pass letters, five handbags and one “Bagco’’ bag containing personal belongings, as well as a gallon of palm oil.
“One of the suspects, Galadima, claimed to be an army Lance Corporal serving in Ibadan, and that they were taking the exhibits to Kaduna and Kano,’’ Mr Babafemi stated.
He stressed that preliminary investigation indicated that the suspects may have contact with bandits in the North-West parts of the country.
He stated that the suspects were possibly moving the ammunition and the two-way radios to bandits who were presently excommunicated due to the suspension of telecommunications services in Zamfara, Sokoto and Kaduna states.
He quoted NDLEA Chairman, retired Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, as directing the FCT Command of the agency, which made the arrest, to transfer the suspects to relevant authorities for further investigation.
This, he said included the Nigerian Army and another intelligence agency which had earlier placed the two men on their watch list, for further investigation.
rmed attackers on Sunday set alight the police and State Security Service field offices in Nnewi, witnesses told Peoples Gazette.
The incident occurred at about 1:00 p.m. when hoodlums stormed the offices, overpowered personnel and torched “everywhere,” a witness said.
“The attackers said they don’t want to see any Nigerian flag standing in the area,” a witness said.
Figures as to death and injuries could not be immediately ascertained by The Gazette. Spokespersons for the police and the SSS did not immediately return a request seeking comments.
The attack marked yet another escalation of hostilities raging over separatist agitations across the region, as well as attacks by armed herders, cultists and other violent criminals.
No fewer than twenty-four fighters of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been reportedly killed by Boko Haram terrorists in a recent clash.
Naija News learnt that the the two terrorist groups engaged each other in a gun duel during the weekend in Gwoza axis of Borno State.
Reports made available to newsmen on Sunday by a seasoned intelligence source, revealed that a group of terrorists affiliated to Boko Haram on Friday neutralized at least 24 ISWAP fighters at Mandra and Gaba Mountains in the Gwoza axis.
Naija News understands that a faction of Boko Haram terrorists, under the control of one Commander Aliyu Ngulde, exchanged fire with ISWAP fighters led by one Abou Aseeya, at the mountainous axis. It was further revealed that many members of the ISWAP fighters were captured alive by the rival dreaded group.
Sources who disclosed the incident and pleaded anonymity said the duel between the two terrorist organisations was a reprisal attack, fueled by an onslaught ISWAP elements had earlier launched at Boko Haram members in recent weeks.
Subsequently, ISWAP fighters on Saturday evening returned to Damboa town in an attempt to launch a reprisal attack, but their mission was thwarted by Troops of the Nigerian military.
The insurgents according to reports, stormed the Borno town in a convoy of gun trucks on Saturday.
“The camp is where hundreds of repentant Boko Haram members have been staying since they renounced terrorism,” the source said.
However, he added that troops who were swiftly deployed after a distress call engaged the ISWAP fighters.
“Though the terrorists were repelled, and their mission thwarted after a brutal gunfire, I cannot give the actual number of casualties they could have suffered,” said the intelligence officer.
President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, Comrade Jonathan Asake has given an eyewitness rundown of the activities of bandits and kidnappers in Kaduna State in 2021.
Asake described the security situation in the State as strange and pointed to the alleged insensitivity of leaders to the plight of most communities.
According to Jonathan, children in some communities have been out of schools for the past five years due to the atrocious activities of terrorists, while mainly communities have been chased out of their original communities by armed terrorists and most of these attacks and displacements go unreported in the media.
Comrade Asake spoke at the 2021 human rights lecture organised by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, with the theme: “Nigerian School Children; Insecurity and Human Rights”, held in Abuja.
“In line with the topic, our children, particularly school children, and what insecurity has caused in their rights,” he began.
“I’ll make no attempt to talk about last year or the year before or attempt to go out of Kaduna State.
“I’ll only say what is happening in Kaduna State and this year alone. And you will be able to put them up together.
“On the 30th of January this year, kidnappers went into a school just very close to Kaduna called Good Shepherd Seminary and kidnapped 4 seminarians there.
“One of them was killed because the kidnappers wanted to show that if ransom is not paid, they’re very serious, they’ll kill the rest. The dead body was kept on the roadside. Ransom was paid and the others were freed.
“On the 11th of March this same year, kidnappers went to the school of forestry where 39 students were kidnapped and on the 20th of April that the students of Greenfield University were kidnapped.
“On July 5, they went to a town called Danutshi and kidnapped 126 Bethel Baptist Students and it’s been over two months now. They’ve released many of them. They’re releasing them in batches. The first payment was N100m paid by the parents totally abandoned by the government.
“They have 11 of them two months after. Now if you think this picture is a very gorry one, this is just a tip of the iceberg. This is just the ones you’ve heard being reported of the atrocious activities of what we call bandits and kidnappers in Kaduna State.
“But on a daily basis, communities are being chased out and chased into neighbouring communities and for some it has lasted for over five years with all the children being out of schools.
“Most of these communities are being chased into IDPs camps, no schools, no facilities, no food and imagine children that have been out of school for five years running. And this is the story. Farmers have also been chased out.
“Farming communities have left their schools and schools have been shut down for a very long time in Kaduna State. We don’t get to hear this in the media. The ones we hear are when schoolchildren are kidnapped .
“And oftentimes these people are arrested, paraded and interrogated and that’s the end. Some of them the’re paraded and you see the video going viral in the media social media and after that you see the same person being paraded again. So something strange is happening.
“The rights of children are being violated. It Is insensitive on the part of some of our leaders where we know that people have been displaced and there is no facilities and nothing is done.
“Journalists that have attempted to report the atrocities that have been going on have been arrested and thrown into detention. That’s why I said this is just a tip of the iceberg.”
The foremost and leading civil rights advocacy group; Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged for the speedy consideration of the request officially made to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the setting up of a solid footing of a Trust Fund for youths under the auspices of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme.
HURIWA, in a statement by the National Coordinator; Comrade Emanuel Onwubiko revealed that aside the positive, transformational and constructive social impacts the youth trust fund would bring, the initiative is about the surest panacea to end the perennial youths involvement in social crimes, noting that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Endorsing the proposal put forward by the Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim- led NYSC, which now beckons for the urgent approval by the President, HURIWA informed that the Trust Fund will create partial or full financial autonomy for the scheme in funding its administrative operations while also assisting Nigerian graduates, privileged to pass through the scheme in offering a window to draw capital for their entrepreneurial exploits, after the post-service era.
More so, HURIWA noted that the investment capital which will be offered by the NYSC Trust fund to graduated Corps members will be a formidable backup to the knowledge acquired in the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme. This in the examination of HURIWA is the motivation of Brigadier-General Ibrahim for his recommendation and loud preachments for the creation of this trust fund that would ensure the financial empowerment of all corps members after the national service year.
“The Director- General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme; Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim is a foresighted administrator. He is an administrative pathfinder of admirable qualities. In matters of public administration, he is like the famed seers of ancient days. He sees tomorrow with crystal clarity and begins to work on any obstacle today. His inclination to a prosperous Nigerian youths is unbeatable.
“Since assumption of office, as the NYSC boss, Brigadier Gen. Ibrahim has been in ceaseless motion in the search for better ways to reposition the scheme to fully discharge its mandate. The DG has reactivated NYSC investment platforms; upgraded and modernized the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme. Obviously, corps members are savouring the gains of his repositioned NYSC in diverse ways.
“In further pursuit of his dreams to bequeath a better scheme to Nigeria, Brigadier General Ibrahim has proposed a vigorous campaign for the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund. When he first voiced the idea, doubters might have probably assumed he is bluffing. But the national endorsements and acceptability of this proposal now is amazing, which is only comparable to the Scriptural mustard seed”, HURIWA enthused.
Highlighting further on the need of having a transparently administered NYSC Youths Trust Fund, HURIWA averred that the brilliant idea by the management of NYSC would definitely change the fortunes of the scheme and its participants dramatically being that the NYSC management envisaged a Trust Fund which will be backed by legislation and draw its funding from a stipulated percentage of profits of corporate bodies in Nigeria as graduate unemployment is one of Nigeria’s greatest headache.
Continuing, the rights group asserted that once the NYSC Trust fund is approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and takes off, the number of young Nigerians who pass out from the scheme to face a depressing future by roaming the streets and knocking on the doors of government offices in search of white-collar jobs would reduce drastically.
“The NYSC Trust Fund is designed to assist them with seed capital based on the stipulations of the Act establishing it, in order to try their entrepreneurial skills and possibly, transform into employers of labour. It is a foundation to self-reliance and financial independence.
“Truly, the moments of joblessness after graduation and the mandatory service year are frustrating and quite traumatic. It stains the joy and pride of citizenship. So, an effectively managed NYSC Youth Trust Fund will be another method of tackling massive youth employment in the country.
“The pride of every patriotic citizen is to render service to his nation. In Nigeria, the NYSC is providing a veritable platform for the actualization of this aspiration for educated Nigerian youths below 30 years of age. And the excitement of service year, lingers long in the minds of young Nigerian graduates. Besides, the scheme has served as weapon for cultural and social integration among Nigerians”, HURIWA posited.
Again, HURIWA believes that an NYSC Trust Fund will conveniently address the subsisting challenges of infrastructural decay and funding which have strangulated the smooth operations of the scheme over the years. The rights group further trusts that the proposed NYSC Trust Fund will serve as a vault that will provide ‘seed money’ for graduate youth entrepreneurs after the service year for the effective utilization of knowledge taught at the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
Additionally, HURIWA informed that other foreseeable and solid impacts of an NYSC Trust Fund, which includes unburdening State Governments from financial commitments on the scheme in the magnitude presently obtained will equally serve as another frontal attack on the menace of unemployment in Nigeria and an instrument of curbing the increasing rate of crime in the country by meaningfully engaging youths. “The NYSC Trust fund will also provide funds for expanding NYSC Orientation Camps and the renovation of dilapidated camp facilities.
“And for the fact that it is intended that the beneficiaries will require neither collateral nor godfather to access the ‘seed money’ offered by the trust fund, all Nigerians can attest to the viability of the scheme and how it will help young Nigerians in various fields of entrepreneurial endevours.
“This could explain why when some members of the House of Representatives tinkered with the idea of scrapping the NYSC, Nigerians stood up in unison to resist the move. Earlier in the year, a report released by data bank and research organization (NOIPolls) indicated that over 83% of Nigerians resoundingly rejected the scrapping of the NYSC scheme for whatever reason”, said HURIWA.
Nonetheless, HURIWA observed that while the NYSC, like other initiatives of the FGN has faced it’s fair share of setbacks ranging from poor funding to maladministration, the scheme has tottered over the years just as the group added that the scheme has not closed its doors to innovations and improvements, with successive administrations in Nigeria. “And from all indications, the NYSC’s moments of glory have berthed eventually under the leadership of Brigadier General Ibrahim.
“This assertion also finds expression in the favorable disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari who is passionate about youth engagement and empowerment. Therefore, the President has seen the NYSC as a platform to railroad the transformation of Nigerian young graduates into formidable and productive citizens.
“His appointment of Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim to head the scheme was a conscious attempt at re-engineering and repositioning the scheme for the maximum benefits of Nigerian youths and Nigeria.
“Hence, the idea of the NYSC Trust Fund which started like a whisper is now trumpeted by all stakeholders and leaders. Almost every notable Nigerian has lent a voice in its support. They are at the forefront of reeling out the benefits of the NYSC Trust Fund. HURIWA’s statement was issued after it held a consultative parley at the Weekend with about 56 registered non governmental and civil society groups which collectively endorsed the proposed NYSC YOUTHS TRUST FUND.
Likewise, while explaining that the Youth Trust Fund to be managed by the National Youth Service Corps would go a long way in raising entrepreneurs who would deploy their entrepreneurial potential for national development, the prominent civil rights advocacy group (HURIWA) noted that the urgent approval by President Buhari for the trust fund geared towards equipping corps members with requisite skills they need for value addition and financial empowerment as they are completing their national services cannot be overemphasized.
More so, when approved, according to HURIWA, the trust fund will also provide resources for the training and empowerment of corps members, especially on skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development.
“It is a strategy to end poverty as the president has envisaged to lift 100 million out of poverty by 2030. Fortuitously, the Brigadier-General Ibrahim Shuaibu’s led management of the National Youth Service Corps has listed the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED)’s achievement to include the establishment of a full-pledged department that would be saddled with the responsibility of streamlining the skills and entrepreneurial activities of the Corps members. The Rights group promised to provide civil society oversight on the implementation.this of the NYSC’S YOUTH TRUST FUND when it is actualized and hopefully soon.
“Therefore, HURIWA is canvasing for the urgent approval of the trust fund for its take-off as it has been adjudged helpful in actualising President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of unemployment before the next decade. HURIWA assures that as long as the management of NYSC does not deviate from the time honoured template of adherence to the principles of transparency and accountability, the Rights group will continue to support it.
“By and large, the Trust Fund is a testament that the NYSC has diversified its approach from career advisory to entrepreneurship development with the high rate of poverty and unemployment in the nation”, HURIWA concluded.
Nigeria’s organised Islamic terrorism problem did not start in 2009. It’s a lot more insidious than you think.
David Hundeyin
In May 2021, a 96 year-old businessman died in Rome, Italy. In his lifetime, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin might have amassed a personal fortune of close to half a billion dollars, but the death of NASCO Group’s multimillionaire founder barely made the news. At first glance, the only extraordinary thing about his life story was that it embodied the African entrepreneurship dream.
Nasreddin was an Eritrean who moved to Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau State, and grew his father’s small manufacturing business into a $460 million conglomerate involved in everything from breakfast cereal and confectionery to pharmaceuticals, real estate and energy. After many years of growth and success, he eventually handed his sprawling business empire over to his son Attia Nasreddin, and retired at an old, satisfied age.
In an official statement released after Nasreddin’s death in March, Plateau State governor Simon Lalong said:
“NASCO has over the years remained a major employer of labour in Plateau and continues to contribute to the economic prosperity of the State and Nigeria at large through tax revenue and corporate social responsibility.”
Well that was the cover story, anyway.
In reality, as is so often the case in Nigeria, the gap between the facts and the information released to the public is so wide as to be scarcely believable. What on earth could this shrewd, respectable businessman who looked like he could not hurt a fly have done, to put him in the same article as a story about the world’s deadliest terrorist organisation? Why would the brand he built, which to many Nigerians evokes memories of a beloved childhood breakfast staple, appear in the same sentence as Boko Haram?
To answer these questions, our story begins on another continent in 1955, some 8 years before his father would move to Nigeria and establish NASCO Group.
A Scholar From Zamfara
The year is 1955, and a 33 year-old Islamic scholar from Gummi in modern day Zamfara State has made his way to Mecca for his first Hajj pilgrimage. Alongside him is a certain Ahmadu Bello, who is the Premier of Northern Nigeria. During this trip, the scholar impresses both Ahmadu Bello and the Saudi King Sa’ud with his Arabic translation skills. He rapidly makes a big impression on many locals and clerics in Mecca.
These relationships will later become his most valuable asset following the events that take place after his subsequent return to Nigeria. Upon returning to Nigeria, he takes up positions teaching Arabic Studies at Islamic schools in Kano and Kaduna. His style of teaching focuses on educating his students about the differences between Islamic religious doctrine and local customs. Based on his strict Sunni understanding of the Qur’an, he teaches his students to adopt a ‘pure’ Islamic identity at the expense of practises that he considered bid’ah (roughly translated as ‘innovation’ or ‘corruption’).
What is a bidah? | Hadith quotes, Islamic teachings, Islamic messages
He also becomes the first Islamic scholar to translate the Qur’an from Arabic into Hausa, which puts him in a uniquely influential position comparable to that of Ajayi Crowther in 19th century southwestern Nigeria. Using this leverage, he becomes an increasingly powerful figure in Northern Nigeria, with his essentialist views on Islamic doctrine gaining popularity. To him, the existing Sufi orders of Northern Nigeria are polluted with bid’ah and unfit for purpose. He becomes well known for attacking the Tijaniya and Qadriyya brotherhoods during his appearances on Radio Kaduna, while advocating for a ‘return’ to ‘Islamic purity.’
Following the death of his friend and benefactor Ahmadu Bello, the scholar finds himself in a precarious situation. The new Nigerian federal government led by soldiers has a motive to crack down on anyone who is outspoken and influential. He may be a giant in Northern Nigeria, but he is a giant with feet of clay. His solution is to seek financial, doctrinal and political help from his friends in Mecca. The Saudis, as always, are ready to help.
His Saudi backers are keen to use him to espouse the Saudi Arabian state’s official interpretation of Islam, which is based on the work of 18th century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab. This fundamentalist doctrine, often known as Wahabbism fits very closely with the teachings of our hero in Northern Nigeria, and he enthusiastically sets about gathering support for this new Saudi-funded project. In the 2009 book ‘The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia,’ historian David Commins says:
“The [Saudi-funded Muslim World] League also sent missionaries to West Africa, where it funded schools, distributed religious literature and gave scholarships to attend Saudi religious universities. These efforts bore fruit in Nigeria’s Muslim northern region with the creation of a movement (the Izala Society) dedicated to wiping out ritual innovations. Essential texts for members of the Izala Society are Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s treatise of God’s unity and commentaries by his grandsons.
Reaching out to his erstwhile students across Kaduna and Kano over the course of the 1970s, the scholar-turned-politician slowly builds a coalition of strategically-aligned individuals who will someday become very powerful people in Northern Nigeria. In 1978, one of his prominent students, Sheikh Ismaila Idris takes charge of this increasingly powerful but somewhat unofficial movement, and calls it Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (Society of Removal of Innovation and Re-establishment of the Sunnah), also known as JIBWIS.
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi
Based in Jos and known colloquially as the Izala Movement, this organisation will go on to become the most influential Islamic body in Nigeria over the next few decades. Its members will become some of Nigeria’s most revered Imams and clerics. They will achieve high ranks in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Banditry: Taliban victory warning for those considering military onslaught -Gumi – Punch Newspapers
They will sit on the Federal Executive Council.
Isa Pantami
JIBWIS will come to exert a level of influence over Nigeria’s national politics and governance that is unprecedented for a religious body in Nigeria. Soon, it will become almost impossible to achieve power in many parts of Northern Nigeria without identifying with the Izala Movement.
Among other things, the scholar states that Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim as ruler, which can be interpreted as a call for insurrection against a Christian Nigerian president. He is never held to account for this statement. In any case, he no longer believes that writing books or teaching people about Islam will on their own, lead to an Islamic renaissance in Northern Nigeria. Now he is all about partnership and politicking. He maintains his membership in Northern Nigeria’s legacy Islamic group, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (“Group for the Victory of Islam”), but he is unmistakably the beating heart of the new Izala Movement. To all intents and purposes, this is the birth of modern Salafist Islam in Nigeria.
Without firing a shot or winning an election, this Islamic scholar has become one of the most powerful men in Northern Nigeria
His name?
Abubakar Mahmud Gumi
The Clerics, The Saudis and What Happened in Algeria
Fast forward 33 years. It is Christmas Day in 2011 and Abubakar Gumi has been dead for over 19 years. A bomb suddenly goes off at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 35 people and wounding a further 52. Almost simultaneously, a series of coordinated bomb attacks and shootings take place at churches in Jos, Gadaka and Damaturu. An obscure Islamist group calling itself Boko Haram claims responsibility for the attacks.
During the trial of the main suspect Kabiru Umar A.K.A Kabiru Sokoto 2 years later, a masked witness claims that an Algerian Islamist group provided funding and support worth N40,000,000 ($250,000 at the time) to carry out the attacks. To the general public, it is unclear what the link is between Islamists in Northern Nigeria and well-funded terror groups in North Africa.
St. Theresa Catholic Church Madalla
To those in the know however, the incidents of December 25, 2011 are not only expected, but are likely to intensify and become more regular. This is because while the Nigerian public up to this point has been fed with what amounts to a tiny percentage of the actual story behind the Boko Haram group, this group has in fact been incubating and nurtured at the highest levels of the theological, economic and political spaces in Northern Nigeria. Boko Haram in reality, is so much bigger than Mohammed Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau that reducing it to those 2 men serves to miss the actual story spectacularly.
To start to get some of the picture of what Boko Haram is and where it came from, let us retreat from 2011 to 2006 to read an excerpt from a letter written by the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Aminu B. Wali, addressed to the Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. This letter is available in full here from the official repository for UN documents. Written by the Nigerian government to the UN, it lays out the measures it has taken to fight terrorism in Nigeria. Take special note of the names mentioned in bold.
A Wikileaks cable from 2002 confirms that this arrest actually did take place, only for the suspect to be released inexplicably after 27 days in detention.
For those who are not aware, Yakubu Musa Kafanchan, also known as Sheikh Yakubu Musa Katsina and Yakubu Musa Hassan is a founding member of the Izala Movement (JIBWIS), and is in fact, the current Chairman of its board of trustees and the Chairman of the Katsina State JIBWIS chapter. He is a widely respected Islamic cleric and a very close personal friend and public associate of – no prizes for guessing – Isa Ali Pantami. Yes, that Isa Pantami.
Official Visit to Elder Statesman, Sheikh Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina, shortly before proceeding for the formal launch of the National Emergency Toll-Free Number (112) and the Commissioning of the Katsina State Emergency Communications Center.@DrIsaPantami#FMoCtoday#FMoC19pic.twitter.com/g4i336XUie
— Fed. Min. of Comms, Innovation & Digital Economy (@FMCIDENigeria) September 23, 2019
Mr. Kafanchan was even recently named as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a Jordanian government-affiliated NGO. More on that later.
Apparently Mr. Kafanchan has been known to the Nigerian security forces as the leader of a terror network trying to set up terror cells in Katsina and Kano as far back as 2002. Keep that date in mind because it will become even more important as we unravel this further. According to official Nigerian government communication to the UN, this real-life Islamic terror organiser is known to have affiliations with a certain ‘GSPC’ group trying to carry out terror attacks in Nigeria, and he was even arrested for it in 2005 – 4 whole years before the world ever heard of a “Boko Haram.”
Sheikh Yakubu Musa Kafanchan
Yet in 2021 he is not only a free man, but a powerful free man, with access to federal ministers, state governors and President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
And then there is the GSPC angle. ‘GSPC’ stands for “Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat” (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). A full primer on the origin of the group and what it stands for is available here. Cliff notes summary: It is an illegal Salafi terrorist organisation based in Algeria which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It specialises in providing training, funding and support to Islamists and jihadi fighters around the world using a vast global network of smugglers, money launderers and rat lines.
Which brings us to the second name in the above letter excerpt. Alhaji Shahru Haruna, in the Nigerian government’s own words, is a GSPC agent who funds the activities of people like Kabiru Sokoto by laundering proceeds from smuggled goods. He too, was arrested and held on terror financing charges. Somehow he too, is not only a free man today, but a powerful one in his own right too.
It will not surprise the reader to find out that Alhaji Haruna is also a ranking member of the Izala Movement. According to these posts I dug up from Facebook accounts linked to the Kano State Izala Movement chapter, Alhaji Haruna is the Deputy President of the Kano State chapter of JIBWIS. Like Yakubu Kafanchan, this indicted terror funder not only retains his position in Nigeria’s most influential Muslim body, but is also a respected Islamic preacher with access to the Who’s Who of Nigerian politics and governance.
Even more interestingly, when I do some digging into Mr. Haruna, I discover something potentially even more alarming. It will be recalled that in September 2021, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele claimed that a significant portion of dollars bought by Bureau de Change (BDC) operators in Nigeria goes into illegal importation of arms. Speaking at the end of the monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting, he said:
“Whether it’s Boko Haram, kidnapping and all sorts of nefarious activities, BDCs take our country’s dollar and sell to people to go and buy arms and ammunition to come and hurt us. That’s what people want us to continue to do. We cannot do that any longer. We can’t. If you have any legal, legitimate business you want to conduct, please take your business to a bank, they will sell you forex.”
A search of Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission database for the name “Shahru Haruna” turns up a plethora of companies registered under the “Dan Diyma” name.
A man identified by the Nigerian government itself as a security threat for funding terror via money laundering was somehow allowed to own and operate a BDC, which according to the CBN governor, could well have been doing precisely that. A CBN circular from October 2020 confirms that at least as recently as last year, Haruna Shahru was allowed to run a BDC in Nigeria, potentially giving him access to the very funding infrastructure that he should not have under any circumstances.
A glance at one of the other “Dan Diyma” business entities shows that even the email address used to register this entity – purportedly a petroleum company, albeit one with zero identifiable corporate footprint – belongs to Dan Diyma BDC, which says everything about how important the BDC is to Haruna Shahru. The question left unanswered is “Why?”
In case the reader is wondering if this picture can get any worse, the answer is yes. It can, and it will. Take note of the name circled in red below.
Zahraddeen Shahru Haruna is Shahru Haruna’s son, so it is no surprise for him to show up as a director on his father’s BDC registration documents. There’s just one problem. Remember Emefiele saying that BDCs facilitate terror financing? Well just a month before he made that comment, a circular was sent out to banks by the CBN with the names of 18 companies and individuals whose bank accounts were to be frozen with a PND (Post No Debit) mandate. Very unusually, no reason was given for the instruction, and also unusually, on a list made up of corporate accounts, there was an account belonging to an individual. His name?
From Eritrea With Love
We now rejoin our Eritrean friend in the year 2006. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has recently been gazetted, and one of the first things its counter-terrorism unit does is to freeze all assets linked to NASCO Group Nigeria Limited. Apparently, Mr. Nasreddin has been doing some creative accounting to hide the fact that he is moving money around the world to fund Islamist terror organisations. Or at least, that was what the Nigerian government itself wrote to the UN in the same letter.
A Wikileaks cable from 2002 hints at American hesitancy on the subject of freezing NASCO’s Nigerian assets due to the economic implications for Plateau State and political implications in Nigeria.
The real proof of Nasreddin’s double life however, comes from the US Treasury Department which publishes a comprehensive account of how he launders and moves money around the world for terrorist entities. Want to hear the real kicker? Nasreddin has been funding and laundering money for none other than GSPC – the Algerian terrorist group which Yakubu Katsina and Shahru Haruna are also involved with at the exact same time.
The Nigerian jihadis being trained in Algerian camps in 2002 will later return to Nigeria and make up the core of what will later become known as “Boko Haram.” And – what a coincidence – NASCO is also based in Jos, which so happens to be the headquarters of the Izala Movement and its many North African dalliances.
Using money made from selling market-leading FMCGs to Nigerian consumers, a cross-border network of terrorism is being nurtured that will someday kill the very kids eating NASCO cornflakes every morning.
And it’s all thanks to this nice gentleman from Eritrea.
Ahmed Idris Nasreddin
Nasreddin however, is a very rich man. Like all very rich men, he appears to have a way around problems that would ground other people. In 2005, Lisa Myers and Aram Roston of the NBC News Investigative Unit discover that despite his designation as a terror financier in the US, Nasreddin’s Nigerian business empire and his Italian hotel are still operating as normal. Quoted in the story, Victor Comras, a former terror-finance expert at the State Department says:
“This isn’t a loophole, this is failure to implement the sanctions appropriately. He’s been involved in terrorist financing. Let’s put him out of business.”
That would prove easier said than done because just 2 years later in 2007, the LA Times publishes a story indicating that – to all intents and purposes – Nasreddin has cut some kind of deal with the US government, likely involving asset forfeitures, to get his name off the list of terror financiers. He has been indicted for funding terror, some of which has found its way into the lives of the Nigerian consumers who have made him fabulously wealthy, but he is off the hook.
For the people who have died in the Madalla Christmas Day Bombings facilitated by the people he funded and supported, there will be no justice. Nasreddin gets to hand over NASCO to his son, and he lives out the rest of his life in peace and comfort, dying at the ripe old age of 92.
Friends and Alliances in High Places
I mentioned earlier, that the date of Yakubu Katsina’s initial attempt to establish terror cells and Taliban training camps in Kano and Katsina was important. Here is why. Remember Abubakar Gumi’s stated position that Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim as ruler? It just so happens that the concerted push for Sharia Law across 12 of Northern Nigeria’s states lines up perfectly with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo as president in 1999.
Examining the eras of Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar as consecutive Muslim Nigerian heads of state, it is nearly impossible to establish the existence of directed and coordinated push for Islamic law in that area. Following Obasanjo’s entry however, Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and Gombe decided in quick succession to embrace a separate penal code from southern Nigeria, based on Sharia law.
Understanding the political resonance of the Izala Movement in Northern Nigeria and the power wielded by the indicted terror financiers and terrorists who still sit on its board is key to understanding 2 things about terrorism in Nigeria.
Boko Haram is a logical development growing out of the rise of political Islam in Nigeria, with its roots in Salafism, popularised by Abubakar Gumi and his ideological heirs. It is impossible to divorce Abubakar Gumi’s use of Saudi money and Wahhabi indoctrination in the 1970s, from the adoption of Sharia Law in Northern Nigeria, the rise of violent Salafists like Abubakar Shekau and Isa Pantami, and the eventual inevitable mass uprising against the Nigerian state that will take place in the north.
While the Boko Haram brand is an unattractive one, the goals of Boko Haram are by no means unattractive to those who make up the ideological core of the Izala Movement, which is Nigeria’s most influential Islamic sect. Aminu Daurawa who famously praised the September 11 attacks in a 2001 sermon with a quote claiming that “Allah is a suicide bomber,” is today the head of Kano’s Hisbah police and a high ranking Izala Movement member. With sympathisers and collaborators up to and including President Buhari himself, the Izala Sect has no incentive or reason to fundamentally rethink or change its ideology – which is directly and provably linked to Salafist terrorism.
As long as Isa Pantami’s “Mr Zero Zero” (a reference to an ideologically pure Muslim with zero tolerance for bid’ah. i.e a hardline Salafist) retains his obvious and unapologetic sympathy for an organisation with clear and ongoing links to the enemy he claims to be fighting against as Nigeria’s president, the Izala Movement has no incentive to reinvent itself. There is no way that the Nigerian president is not aware of Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina’s history as a known terrorist, as well as the Izala Movement’s extremely problematic history and current composition. And yet, as recently as 2018, President Buhari was pictured in Aso Rock meeting with Izala Movement president Abdullahi Bala Lau, Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina, Kabiru Gombe and Ibrahim Jalo Jalingo.
It is either I have more access to information about his friends and associates than the Nigerian president does, with a plethora of intelligence and information gathering agencies at his disposal, or he knows all this already and he has chosen a side. Clearly, to the Izala Movement, this picture taken in 2018, was a statement. An Obasanjo government may have arrested Yakubu Katsina and his likes in 2005, but 13 years later, Katsina’s ideological ally is in office standing solidly next to him, as he stood solidly next to Isa Pantami. The Izala Movement has won and everybody else has lost.
The only other angle of high level involvement not yet addressed is that of the Jordanian government. Recall that Yakubu Katsina was named among the world’s 500 Most Influential Muslims by a Jordanian state-backed NGO? Well it turns out that the NGO in question – The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre – is itself affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought. A visit to this institute’s website reveals something strange.
One of its publications titled ‘Report on the Inter-Religious Tensions and Crisis in Nigeria’ published in May 2012 has the following to say about ending violence between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria.
This report, produced by a state-funded NGO in Jordan as far back as 2012, is prima facie evidence of a coordinated international campaign of strategic disinformation for the purpose of framing the reality of terrorism in Nigeria in a way that is completely dishonest. Making reference to alleged income disparity between Nigeria’s “Christian South” and “Muslim North,” the report attempts to portray the latter as the victim of economic bullying and poverty, without citing data to support this conclusion.
Very tellingly, at a time when conversations about violence related to nomadic cattle herding were not yet present in Nigeria’s political equation, a Jordanian organisation with links to Yakubu Katsina – a known Nigerian terrorist – was already recommending “grazing routes” as a solution for a problem that for the most part, did not actually exist yet.
