Nigerian military has arrested the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a Shi’te Islamic group in Nigeria, Ibrahim Elzakzaky at his residence.
This is barely 24hours after Shi’te group allegedly attack the Chief of Army Staff convoy, Tukur Buratai which led to the military opening fire at the groups in Kaduna.
According to Premium Times report, a top leader of the movement, Muhammadu Turi and the head of the medical team of the sect, Mustapha Saidu, and several others were killed during the siege.
While the army accused Elzakzaky and its group of attempting to assassinate the Military Chief, the Islamic Movement said soldiers simply attacked defenseless people
According to the information gathered, Nigerian troops sustained a crackdown on the members of the sect throughout the night as heavy shootings and sounds of explosion were head in Gellesu and Sokoto Road, where Hussainiyya the spiritual centre of the sect is located.
Residents, according to Premium Times confirmed that they saw the Hussainiyya shrine and the residence of the leader of the sect being demolished by armoured tanks
The Online medium quoted a source as saying that 19 bodies of Shi’te members killed in the raid were brought to military hospital in Chindit Barracks Depot of the Nigerian Army in Zaria.
The attack on the military chief may be unconnected to the incident that led to the death of Ibrahim Elzakzaky’s three children in July 2014.
The clash in 2014 also led to the death of thirty-two other persons, all of them followers of the Shi’tes leader during the sect’s annual street procession in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State.
Ibrahim Elzakzaky who lamented the loss of his children whom he said were studying abroad added that his fourth son was shot on his leg.
Elzakzaky said: “We tried to rush him to the hospital but the soldiers blocked everywhere along the way. He bled to death,”.
He claimed that his two other sons and many of his followers were all arrested by the army and later killed in cold blood.
He said: “When we demanded for the release of our people, the Army refused. They said they would take them to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) for medication not knowing that the two were killed.
“The soldiers also arrested some people including three of my sons. They were taken alive and later killed two of them. I want to assure you that these two children were cold bloodedly murdered because they were taken alive.”
Some soldiers allegedly attached to some expatriates working with the Setraco Construction Company on Wednesday beat up officials of the Edo State Committee on War Against Indiscipline.
Army Brutality
The soldiers also attacked officials of the Task Force on Transport at the premises of the state Ministry of Transport before they proceeded to the State Magistrate Court at Evboriaria.
At the court premises, the soldiers chased out Magistrates and court officials brandishing guns and later released four persons who were to be arraigned by the WAI officials for traffic related offence.
The soldiers came to the court in two white Hilux Vans accompanied by a whiteman whose country of origin could not be verified.
Trouble started for the WAI officials after they arrested a woman identified as Edna Oriakogba for violating traffic along Airport road in Benin City.
Edna was said to have called two males while at WAI office.
The two males later made phone calls that brought the soldiers to the WAI office along Ezoti Street.
One of the soldiers charged at journalists and corked his gun to prevent them from covering their assault.
At the court premises, one of the soldiers who held a horse whip, was heard saying it was rubbish for any policeman to talk to them.
Among the five WAI officials injured in the fracas are Lucky Jeff, Kingsley Ade and Sunday Omera.
Jeff showed reporters his back and head where he was whipped severally.
There are strong indications that the Islamic sect Boko Haram has forged a strong operational alliance with the ruthless Islamic State as the two bodies have released a joint video for the first time on Saturday.
boko Haram and ISIS
This is the first video recording since Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State last year.
The video showed the picture of a suspected Nigerian soldier in a kneeling position surrounded by three terrorists with AK47 assault rifles. Later in the video, the body of the soldier was shown without the head.
The location of the action was not specified in the latest video.
Also, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, did not speak in the video.
Mail Online reported that the audio message, which was entitled ‘kill and be killed,’ was read by an unidentified spokesman for ISIS.
The audio message released through the militants’ vast social media channels was read by an ISIS spokesperson who also threatened further violence against Christian and Jewish communities.
The video carried a West African insignia of the ISIS which indicated that the group has set up media wing in Nigeria.
The horrific pictures displayed in the video bore a striking similarity with the horrendous acts and scenes in ISIS videos.
The video also showed the insurgents in a battle against security forces who were not visible and did not return the fire of the enemy.
Our correspondent could not get the Director, Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade to comment on the video.
However, Olukolade, who is believed to be outside the country, responded to a text message on the issue and referred our correspondent to the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. SK Usman.
A General Military Court Martial set up by the authorities of the Nigerian Army have arraigned 59 soldiers on a two-count of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny and murder in Abuja on Wednesday.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah
The accused soldiers comprise two corporals, nine lance corporals and 48 private soldiers belonging to the 111 Special Forces Battalion, Maiduguri, Borno State.
A charge sheet signed by the Commander of the Army Headquarters Garrison, Brig. Gen. B.T. Ndiomu, the convening authority for the court, stated that the offences of mutiny and the conspiracy to commit mutiny were punishable under Section 52(1)(a) of the Armed Forces Act Cap A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The offence of mutiny carries the death penalty.
The Lead Counsel for the accused soldiers, Mr. Femi Falana, said that the arraignment of the 59 soldiers was the largest number of soldiers ever arraigned for mutiny in the history of the Nigerian Army.
All the 59 soldiers, who were arraigned, pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them by the Judge Advocate of the Court, Lt. Col. Ukpe Ukpe.
The 59 soldiers are being accused of refusing to join the 111 Special Forces Battalion troops at Mulai Primary School, Maiduguri, for an advance operation to recapture Delwa, and to prepare the ground for further operations to recapture Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram insurgents on August 4, 2014.
Although, it was the initial plan of the Army authorities to put 60 soldiers on trial for mutiny, the lead prosecutor, Capt. Joseph Nwosu, told the court that one of the accused, Cpl. Anthony Nwosu, was too sick to play the requisite role of a defendant in court.
He said that the charges against Nwosu, who was the 11 accused person on the earlier list of 60 accused person, were dropped for now. The motion was allowed after an initial resistance by a defence lawyer, Maj. Oluwafemi Oyebanji, (retd.), who led the defence team, before the arrival of Falana.
On the first day of the trial, the prosecution called its first witness, Lt. Col. Timothy Opurum, the Commanding Officer of the 111 Special Forces Battalion, to testify before the court. He was subjected to a fierce grilling for over an hour by Falana and Oyebanji.
The Commanding Officer told the court that he was given an order by the Army authorities to lead his men to capture Delwa, to prepare passage for 251 Battalion and 254 Battalion to advance to Bulabulin and Damboa, but only 34 soldiers and four officers responded to the order out of the 98 soldiers and four officers found fit for the operation.
He said that he had to lead the 34 soldiers and four officers as against 98 soldiers and four officers for the Delwa battle as the Acting GOC Brig. Gen. M.Y Ibrahim and Maj. Gen. Ali from Army Headquarters were already calling for the mission to commence.
Opurum said that he led his men to Delwa and carried out the task without any casualty.
However, Opurum said in his testimony which he reaffirmed under cross-examination by Falana, that eight of the men of the Battalion deserted while 47 of the soldiers being tried returned voluntarily to defend the unit when it came under an ambush from the insurgents and 13 others arrested on the orders of the GOC.
The commander during the cross-examination said that the soldiers did not commit any further offence after they joined the unit in the fight to reclaim its position in Delwa.
The Commanding Officer admitted that the boys were parts of the Special Forces who had fought in several part of the North and had done so well.
He said during the intense cross-examination that the boys had earlier deserted when the unit came under an ambush in which three soldiers were killed, and two officers and 33 soldiers were injured.
When he was asked to tell the court what he did when he realised that it was the presumed opinion of the Army authorities in Maiduguri, that the boys had issues with mind pollution as stated in his written statement, he said he spoke to them like a father and a brother and brought many of them back to the battlefront.
“They are Special Forces who have fought in all parts of the North-East, they have done so much, they initially deserted but I brought them back, spoke to them like a father and a brother…,” he said.
Falana whose cross-examination of Opurum focussed on a written statement admitted in evidence sought to know if the situation of the accused soldiers was the same in other theatre of operations within and outside the country in the area of operations.
Falana, who emphasised that 47 of the soldiers turned out voluntarily to fight with the unit when it came under attack, while 13 were arrested on the orders of the GOC, also pointed out that the soldiers requested for arms which were not supplied.
The Defence counsel then filed an application to have a record of the arms and ammunition that was supplied to and taken back from the soldiers for the record purposes, which the President of the Court, Brig. Gen. Musa Yusuf, said had been noted.
When asked whether the boys asked for weapons to prosecute the battle, the commander said, “all units in the North-East ask for equipment but we had enough to carry out the task.”
The Nigerian Army had inaugurated the General Court Martial to try 97 officers and men of service for alleged offences in connection with counter-terrorism operation in the North-East on October 2, 2014.
Fifteen of the accused Army personnel are officers, while 72 belong to the rank and file.
It was gathered that the Army authorities would put the rest 37 on trial after concluding the mutiny cases.
ABUJA—Military authorities prosecuting the war against terrorism in the North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe have arrested several soldiers, who were discovered to have leaked vital security information on the troops’ strategies and tactics to Boko Haram that led to a series of ambush and killing of over 30 Nigerian soldiers in recent times.
Soldiers tasked with fighting Boko Haram militants arrive to face trials for mutiny in Abuja on October 2, 2014. Nearly 100 soldiers tasked with fighting Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s far northeast appeared at a military court martial on Thursday, facing a range of charges including mutiny. The hearing comes just weeks after a tribunal sentenced 12 soldiers to death following their conviction for shooting at their commanding officer in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, in May. AFP PHOTO
Most of the arrested soldiers serve as orderlies or aide-de-camps, ADCs to Commanders of Troops on the field.
It was gathered that the alleged moles among the soldiers leaked the information on the deployment of soldiers from Maimalari Barracks in April this year to the terrorists which led to an ambush and killing of so many soldiers of the 101 Battalion that consequently led to soldiers’ mutiny and the shooting at the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed. His armoured official car saved his life.
Vanguard further gathered that the activities of these moles may have been responsible for the recent shooting of the Nigerian Airforce Alpha Jet on September 12 which took off from Yola airport and was reported missing until Boko Haram terrorists said they shot it down and killed one of its pilot, which was confirmed by the Facebook account of friends of the military.
Speaking under condition of anonymity, a reliable source said Commanders on the field had for long wondered how information on strategies for deployment, type of weaponry and fall back tactics easily filtered out to the terrorists to the extent that soldiers’ movement, timing of deployment, and routes to take, became known to Boko Haram insurgents.
“The situation became so bad that there was mutual suspicion among fellow commanders, the Brigade headquarters and even the Division headquarters. But at last, the moles were found out to be some of the orderlies and aides of Commanders. What they do is that after operational briefings and troops take off, these moles immediately pass on the information through calls.”
Asked why it was difficult to discover the traitors before now, the source said, “Who will suspect that an orderly or the ADC of a Commander will be the one giving out information. He does everything for the Commander and he is with him all the time. He is the last person that would be suspected. But thank God, they have been exposed; the truth is now known”.
Already, the source noted that a Board of Inquiry (BOI) has been set up to carry out further investigations into the activities of the traitors and to try to find out if there were fellow fifth columnists still existing among the troops, after which a General Court Martial will be constituted to try the soldiers for Criminal Conspiracy among others.
Also, Vanguard was told at the weekend that six officers taking part in the offensive to flush out the terrorists from the Adamawa axis recently shot themselves in parts of their bodies that were not life threatening with a view to escape being drafted to the battle field to confront Boko Haram terrorists.
After allegedly shooting themselves in the arm, hip, foot and making sure that the bullets did not affect any bones in these parts of their bodies, the officers ran to a military hospital and claimed that they were shot by terrorists.
Medical experts attached to the hospital in Vintim, after carrying out several checks and x-rays on the gunshot wounds, discovered that the officers had ‘clean gunshot wounds’ which meant the injuries were 99% self inflicted.
Vanguard gathered that the Army High Command ordered that further medical tests be carried out to be doubly sure and that the x-rays were sent to Abuja where experts did further analysis and came out with the same results of ‘Clean Gunshot Wounds’ .
“In one instance, an officer expertly shot at his arm from the front and the bullet came out from the back without touching any bone neither did it destroy any artery that would endanger the treatment of the hand. In another instance, an officer just opened fire on his foot but made sure no toe or dangerous part of the foot was affected,” a source said.
Nigerian soldiers are turning back fleeing residents of Mubi in Adamawa State as they engage Boko Haram insurgents in an attempt to regain the town.
The soldiers are also said to be engaging in a fierce battle with members of the sect all through Sunday night and Monday morning to regain full control of Michika.
Fighter jets are bombing the hideouts of the insurgents while foot soldiers battle their locations around Michika local government area secretariat.
Executive Director of Stefanos, Mr. Mark Lipdo, quoting military sources in the battle field, said that the military are turning back Nigerians running out of Mubi in reaction to the news of insurgents approaching Mubi town.
A curfew is now in place to enable the military restore order as reports say that the military are gaining ground over the insurgents.
Violence broke out today, Tuesday at Dangote Cement Factory in Gboko, Benue State. One of the worker was said to have stolen a spare tyre and was caught by the army. When his colleagues tried to get him off the hook, an angry soldier shot the young man and killed him instantly.
The incident has triggered a riot with shelling of gun fire. An eye witness said he saw two dead bodies and one seriously injured victim.
The Cement Factory is now locked down with staff are trapped inside the premises stranded.
It will be recalled that there was a similar incident last year that claimed thirteen lives and over one hundred trucks.
