The Muslim Rights Concern , MURIC, on Monday alleged that some staff of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, are attempting to turn the organization into a Christian crusade camp.
MURIC alleged that some senior staff of NPA usually give out Christian literature as parting gifts to official visitors to the facility.
The body said such an act is part of evidence to Christianize Nigeria.
In a statement by its Director, Ishaq Akintola, MURIC urged the authority of NPA to probe such acts.
Akintola said it’s unethical for staff of NPA to use the facility for evangelization.
The statement reads: “The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is now in the habit of giving Christian literature as gifts to its visitors. A group of people who visited the port recently were told that they should wait for gifts after their data capture for a port pass identity card. To their surprise, the same NPA staff who did their capturing gave them copies of Pastor Chris’s Rapsody.
This is absolutely unwholesome, unethical and highly demeaning. Who owns these gifts and on whose behalf are they being handed out to visitors? NPA is now being used for Christian evangelisation. It depicts NPA staff as an idle and unserious bunch. How can a federal facility be used to promote one religion? It is an assault on our sensibilities. It is unacceptable.
“It is unthinkable that the same people who lodge complaints of Islamisation are hell bent on Christianising Nigeria. But whereas we cannot find concrete evidence of Islamisation, there are several proofs of Christianisation and what is happening in NPA is one of them.
“We had cause to complain about the Ikoyi immigration office sometime ago. Visitors are compelled to either participate or watch helplessly as the staff conduct Christian morning devotion in the same spot that those who came for international travelling documents are sitting.
It is taking religious practice and proselytisation to ridiculous heights. It smirks of desperation. But for what? What is the desperation about? It is also a manifestation of lack of sensitivity for the feelings of people of other faiths. Morning devotion should not be conducted during official periods and where official duties are performed. Is that what the workers are paid for? Neither should religious literature of any faith be circulated by workers.
“MURIC demands investigation of these unwholesome practices. The authorities of NPA should take immediate steps to put a stop to the distribution of Christian literature to unsuspecting members of the public. NPA is a federal facility, not a Christian crusade camp.”
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.
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.”
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.
Gun-wielding bandits have again launched an attack on the Niger State government officials with their latest pick being the Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Ibrahim Garba Musa, along with his granddaughter.
It was learnt that Musa was abducted in his house in Zungeru where he went for a wedding ceremony and he was picked up by the gunmen in the night after the party.
One of the family members narrated that the gunmen entered into the house by breaking down the gate to abduct the Permanent Secretary who was relaxing after the celebration.
He added that the family members had reached out to the state government to inform them about the incident.
The Secretary to the Niger state government, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane when contacted said he has just been informed about the incident and he was yet to confirm it.
He however said that the state government would do its best to ensure the Permanent Secretary is rescued unharmed.
The Niger State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abiodun Wasiu, had yet to issue the police’s confirmation.
Some bandits from Zamfara State said they are moving to Sabon Birni area of Sokoto State in expectation of arrival of troops from Niger Republic who “are coming to assist Nigeria” in tackling the marauding armed men.
A leader of the bandits said gunmen had set up presence in the villages of Ballazu and Gangara, in the area.
Sabon Birni Local Government Area borders Niger Republic with many of the villages under it close to the border line.
There has been escalation of bandits’ attacks on Sabon Birni, and neighbouring local governments recently, including one on a military base at Burkusuma where at least 15 personnel were killed, and many others injured last weekend.
Sources confirmed to this newspaper at the time, that the attack was carried out by gunmen from the gangs of notorious bandits’ leader, Turji, with others loyal to Halilu Sububu. The two bandits’ kingpins operate around Zurmi and Shinkafi, two local governments bordering Sabon Birni.
The Defence Headquarters in a statement on Monday confirmed the attack but attributed it to forces from the jihadist’s Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Speaking to Daily Trust, one of the arrowheads of the bandits, Shehu Rekeb, claimed responsibility for the last weekend’s attack on the Nigerian security forces.
Rekeb said some security personnel kidnapped by the attackers were being held by the bandits.
He said Turji led his men to launch the attack in order to take position around the border town to avert any incursion by the Nigerien troops who, he said, were preparing to move in to support the push against the bandits operating in the area.
“It is said Niger is coming through there to support Nigeria; that is why we said the boys should go there to monitor,” he said.
He asked Nigerien President Mahamed Bazoum to stay out of what he described as a “family affair” and Nigeria’s internal affairs, warning that the bandits would begin to launch attacks on the Nigerien side.
On the claim that ISWAP was responsible for the attack, Rekeb said: “They know the attack was done by Fulani boys. They know them all. Many of their men were taken away; if they call them, they know who answers them.”
Suspected gunmen Friday murdered a herder in Ago Are, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.
The incident is coming some months after the deceased’s brother was killed in a similar fashion.
In the fresh attack, the assailants in their large numbers stormed the premises of the deceased and shot him at close range, leaving him in the pool of his blood.
The motive for the latest incident could not be established last night.
The spokesman of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kwara State Command, Babawale Afolabi, confirmed the incident.
“Yes, we got the report on Friday through our divisional officer in the town about another attack in Ago Are. This time around, a Fulani herdsman simply known as Ibrahim was attacked and killed,” he said.
The PRO further added that a manhunt has been launched to apprehend the perpetrators of the criminal act.
According to him, NSCDC will work with other security agencies to bring the assailants to justice.
