The concerned group of the Nigerians in Diaspora on security in the United Kingdom has pledged to work with the Nigerian military through intelligence gathering and development of software needed in its operations in the North East. The group, led by the Chairperson House of Representative Committee on Diaspora matters, Honourable Barrister Rita Orji made this pledge at the Defence Headquarters Abuja, during the presentation of an award to the Chief of Defence Staff General Gabriel Olonisakin.
Honourable Barrister Orji stated that the award was given to the CDS in appreciation of the gallantry and doggedness of the military in keeping the nation united despite predictions of a break-up Nigeria before the 2015 general election. She noted that Nigerians in Diaspora acknowledged the sacrifices the members of Armed Forces are rendering towards keeping Nigeria safe from insurgency and insecurity. The award of gallantry presented to the Chief of Defence Staff, according to Honourable Barrister Orji, was to say thank you to the members of Armed Forces through the CDS so as to spur the military to do more in this noble endeavour.
Receiving the award, General Olonisakin expressed appreciation to the group for identifying with the military, especially at this trying period in our nation’s history. He stated that the award was for the Nigerian military, both the dead and the living, as well as members of their families who also bear the brunt of the insecurity in the North East and other parts of the country.
General Olonisakin noted that terrorism is a global phenomenon and therefore urged Nigerians in diaspora and international community to rise up to challenges and join hands to wage war against insurgency and terrorism. Present at the occasion, apart from the group of Nigerians in diaspora, are some members of the House of Rep Committee on diaspora and Principal Staff Officers of the Defence Headquarters.
An ardent critic and a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode who recently changed his name to Olufemi Olu-Kayode has taken a sweep on Buhari led-government on its action against the Shi’tes in Kaduna on Monday.
President Buhari
Fani-Kayode in a series of tweets condemned the act and the international media for muting on the massacre.
The former Aviation minister described Nigeria as a country governed, run by sadists, adding that they malign the weak and discipline the innocent.
The critic who expressed anger towards the recent incident in Kaduna where soldiers lay siege at the residence of Shi’tes leader Sheikh al-Zakzaky killing over hundred, with rumours saying that his wife was also shot, said”100 Shia Muslims are massacred in one night in Kaduna and there is no mention of it on BBC and CNN and no sense of outrage in our country.
“A man is granted bail but the minute he steps out of court he is dragged off the streets and whisked away yet there is no sense of outrage.
“This is a government of sadists, run by sadists and for sadists. They are cowardly, wicked, malicious, petty, vicious and incompetent. They are a government of liars, run by liars and for liars. They malign the weak and punish the innocent but God will see their end.
“They are soft on Boko Haram whilst they kill the shia, the christians, the Biafrans, the young, the old, the weak and the vulnerable. ”
Referring to the way the accused persons in the ongoing $2.1bn arms deal saga are treated, Fani-Kayode said “They defy court orders and mock the judges. They abuse power and defy the word of God. Instead of being just and true they are perverse in all their ways. May God curse them and may He bring them down. May He show Himself mighty in battle and may He avenge the innocent.”
The angry and disappointed Fani-Kayode also took a sweep on those who are in support of the current government. He said “Shame unto all those that have chosen to dine with the devil by joining this government. There is no fellowship between light and darkness.
Picture of bleeding sheikh Zakzaky. Source: @ZahradeenAAhmad
“I would rather die than join a government of Haramites and closet fundamentalists. By the time it’s over Nigeria will beg PDP to come back.
“Like the proverbial frog that is slowly being boiled in water but that does not even feel it,our people are being taken for a ride by Buhari
“To sedate them and distract them from his monumental failures and their own misery and hardship he feeds them with daily doses of lies, falsehood and sensational and unsubstantiated allegations of the so-called corruption of key players in the previous administration.
“Sadly they lap it up with joy and accept all they are being told without question. They forget that allegations are a dime a dozen and that trial by media does not often result in a conviction in the courts of law. Meanwhile as this obscene circus show of labelling everyone but himself as a crook and feeding the innocents to the lions continuous, Buhari is destroying the lives of the people, ruining the economy, crushing his opponents, silencing his detractors, discrediting his adversaries and dividing our nation.
“The botton line is this: Nigeria is turning into a police state where state-sponsored lies and propaganda hold sway and where fear, coercion and intimidation is the primary tool of governance. May God grant us courage and may the forces of light, truth and justice prevail.
“The bottom line is this: Nigeria is turning into a police state where state-sponsored lies and propaganda hold sway and where fear, coercion and intimidation is the primary tool of governance. May God grant us courage and may the forces of light, truth and justice prevail.”
Girls rescued from Boko Haram terror camps in Sambisa Forest on Tuesday are “not the Chibok girls,” Nigerian Army spokesman Sani Usman said.
However, one official did not rule out that captives from other Boko Haram camps that were raided might include some of the 200 girls abducted in April 2014 from a school in Chibok.
Nigerian troops rescued 200 girls and 93 women Tuesday in the Sambisa Forest in the northeastern part of the country, the Nigerian Armed Forces announced on its official Twitter account. The forest is a stronghold for the militant Boko Haram group and is not far from Chibok.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade said the rescued girls and women are still being screened and none has spoken to their families yet.
The 2014 mass abduction from Chibok led to an international social media movement, #BringBackOurGirls, to rescue them. Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, has been kidnapping females for years and has hundreds in their custody.
The Tokumbere, Sassa and Tlafa terror camps were raided and destroyed, said a source close to the military. The Tokumbere camp is the most notorious, where the training of small children by Boko Haram is said to have occurred, the source said. Boko Haram terrorists were killed in the operation, but the military did not say how many.
In recent weeks, Nigerian troops and vigilantes moved into the Sambisa Forest. Last Wednesday the troops had to retreat because of explosive devices Boko Haram planted in the forest, according to military sources and a vigilante who was with the troops.
On Monday, troops re-entered the forest and on Tuesday afternoon they raided Boko Haram camps and rescued scores of girls and women.
“We stumbled on the girls and may find more,” Usman said.
Information about the fate of the kidnapped schoolgirls has been spotty and inconsistent, with some school officials giving conflicting figures for the number of girls who were abducted or escaped their captors.
“We have no idea where the Chibok girls are or were,” CNN correspondent Christian Purefoy said Tuesday.
Nigerians have frowned at the video which was said to have been released by Amnesty International accusing the military of killing innocent civilians by slitting their throat in the war zone in North East of Nigeria.
Amnesty in their report said a video footage received from some residence of Borno shows ”military personnel and civilian vigilantes calling five detainees out from a row of 16 young men and boys, then slitting their throats one by one before dumping their bodies into an open grave.”
The International right group also accused the military of killing over 600 Boko Haram detainees who attempted prison break in Giwa barracks, warning that violence against civilians constitutes “war crimes,”.
Reacting to the video report, Nigerians accused Amnesty International of taking sides in support of the terrorist, questioning their whereabouts since the sect has been killing innocent Nigerians in the North.
One commentator with the username omoyooba said “What I know about Nigerian military is that, if they are going to kill a human being, they shoot. I also know that, in Nigeria; only northern islamists slit throats to kill human beings.
”I have gone to AI website, even the video I saw blamed both BH and the army for the killings and it said soldiers shot their victims (not slit their throat).
”Google search: “Amnesty International gruesome video Nigeria”. go to the section on videos. then watch the video report yourself. BBC must have made the mistake and Nigerian journalists copied and pasted.”
Another one, Daniel Dalon80 who supported the first comment by Omoyooba said ”And we know for sure that BH wears military uniforms for many of its operations. The Nigerian Army’s fatigues are usually supplied by shody contractors and, just like their weapons, are substandard. Boko Harams uniforms and weapons are usually more superior to the military’s. But of course, Boko Haram prefers to behead than to shoot, that gives their game away.
”As usual Amnesty is more concern about the lot of the terrorists than that of the victims…and we understand why. They need to stay relevant, they need to raise money…and whats more sensational? Blaming TERRORIST LIKE Al Qaeda and Boko Haram for atrocities or blaming govts like American or Nigerian?
Another one said ”BBC, also quote that soldiers slits their throat. But anything the military do to Boko Haram, they deserved it.”
A username Fide said ”Amnesty how many cases of abuse have you people recorded on the side of boko haram since their emancipation?”
Responding to Fide question, NWA_Africa said ”If they try such they will be killed the next day. Nigeria should ban the useless amnesty because they are foreign terrorist.
It cannot be ruled out that some members of the sect operate in military uniform and it is also unbelievable that Nigerian soldiers slit throats of innocent Nigerians as that is usually the barbaric method of killing by the Boko Haram members, said one Nigerians who seems to strongly oppose the accusation
According to Christian Ejiofor, one of the commentators said ”Just yesterday i just watched a video of how these animals slit the throat of a police officer, i don’t want to upload it here because it is cruel ,disgusting ,and the fools and beast are shouting Allah ku bar , i wept, i couldn’t watch again,the other videos of how they killed others in the way, and the idiots was caught and there killing was more honorable by shooting the fools ,and amnesty or what ever they call them is talking shit, where were amnesty when America destroyed Irag .Libya ,Syria,etc, if i have my way all the villages surrounding these fools ,who do not want to give security agencies information on them should wiped out with them,Amnesty ni ,Amnesty ko,,nonsense”
Meanwhile, Defence Headquarters spokesman, Chris Olukolade said that the video footage is being studied with a view to identifying those behind such arts,
He assured that there will be a ”legal action against any personnel or anyone found culpable.”
The military authorities also rejected past accusations, insisting the military follows international best practice in its fight against the group.
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While the United States explores more ways to help rescue the missing girls, it is faced with growing concerns about the Nigerian authorities.
Senior United States military and civilian officials have questioned the capacity of the Nigerian military-even with foreign assistance- to rescue more than 250 schoolgirls abducted over a month ago in Chibok, Borno State, in an unusually frank assessment that may shape the outcome of an international effort to release the missing students.
One official said the Nigerian security forces have so diminished in capability that they are currently “afraid to even engage” Boko Haram, the terrorist group responsible for the abductions, and the deaths of more than 5,000 Nigerians.
We’re now looking at a military force that’s, quite frankly, becoming afraid to even engage,” said Alice Friend, the Pentagon’s principal director for African affairs. “The Nigerian military has the same challenges with corruption that every other institution in Nigeria does. Much of the funding that goes to the Nigerian military is skimmed off the top, if you will.”
Ms. Friend was testifying before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday.
Other senior officials including Chuck Hagel, Defence Secretary; Robert Jackson, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; and Earl Gast, United States Agency for International Development Assistant Administrator for Africa, also testified before the committee.
The officials gave a troubling evaluation of the Nigerian government’s tactics against Boko Haram, and the military’s refusal to up its games and improve on its human rights record in the fight against a five-year brutal insurgency launched by the sect.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been widely condemned for his handling of the Boko Haram crisis, and his slow response to the group’s abduction of the girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.
Mr. Jonathan this week rejected an offer by Boko Haram’s Abubakar Shekau to swap the missing schoolgirls with detained Boko Haram fighters. Other top officials, however, have signalled the government may be willing to negotiate with the extremists.
While the abduction of the more than 250 girls appears to be temporarily losing the steam that set off an international campaign for action using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, the matter is gaining more attention within the U.S. government with calls for more action.
All 20 female U.S. senators have raised call for action against the abduction.
The female senators gathered for a private dinner with Secretary of State John Kerry, at which, according to the New York Times, they pushed to have the United Nations designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization on its Qaeda sanctions list; to provide surveillance assets to try to locate the missing girls; to consider assistance to the Nigerian government by providing a team of Special Forces to locate and rescue the girls; and to coordinate the search for the girls on an international front.
The U.S. military is said to consider any option of being asked to send in Special Forces to locate and rescue the schoolgirls “risky”.
Currently, the United States is leading an international effort including the United Kingdom, France, Israel and China, to help free the schoolgirls.
The assistance comes in the form of intelligence support, surveillance and hostage negotiation. The actual effort on the ground to find and retrieve the missing girls to safety, is left in the hands of the Nigerian military, scorned for corruption, poor equipment and human rights issues.
Those concerns have fuelled frustration among the foreign partners offering assistance.
Asked whether Nigerian forces were capable of rescuing the hostages, U.S. Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, said in an interview with CBS television Friday that it remains “an open question.”
“We just don’t know enough yet to be able to assess what we will recommend to the Nigerians, where they need to go, what they need to do, to get those girls back,” Mr. Hagel said.
The officials who addressed the U.S senators Thursday echoed that frustration, accusing the Nigerian government of ignoring their advice in the past years to seek new methods against Boko Haram.
“We have been urging Nigeria to reform its approach to Boko Haram,” said Mr. Jackson. “From our own difficult experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, we know that turning the tide of an insurgency requires more than force. The state must demonstrate to its citizens that it can protect them and offer them opportunity. When soldiers destroy towns, kill civilians and detain innocent people with impunity, mistrust takes root.”
They said the Nigerian authorities had been persuaded by the Pentagon to adopt a more holistic approach to fighting Boko Haram, for instance, to build programmes to counter Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and build improved understanding between the Nigerian military and the public, in part to help generate tips on suspected terrorists.
On Human Rights, a report by the United States State Department in 2013 showed that of 1,377 Nigerian soldiers vetted in 2012 to receive training, 211 were rejected or suspended because of human rights concerns.
“We have struggled a great deal in the past to locate units we can deal with,” Ms. Friend said. “One unit of rangers has finally been found and is currently undergoing training.”
One official said the Nigerian security forces have so diminished in capability that they are currently “afraid to even engage” Boko Haram, the terrorist group responsible for the abductions, and the deaths of more than 5,000 Nigerians.