The national body of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) yesterday told the federal government to immediately punish the culprits of the last post-election crises or forget the war against insecurity.
According to the JIN: “Perpetrators of last April post election crises are now enjoying and doing whatever they want … these people will add to the insecurity that is becoming a problem to our country.
?“If there is anything serious these people would have been arrested and made to face the wrath of the law and this will in turn create a sense of security that the government is serious about.”
The JNI secretary general, Dr. Khalid Aliyu Abubakar, who stated this while briefing journalists in Kaduna, also called on the federal government to look into the plight of the Kaduna post-election violence refugees who have been camping at the Kaduna Hajj Transit Camp for the past 10months, saying they are the responsibility of the government.
The secretary-general said the people have been subjected to enough hardship and have had to contend with the loss of most of their loved ones to the riot that took place after the announcement of results of the presidential election.
“There are camps that are within including the Laduga camp, the Hajj camp, the Zango camp, the Saminaka camp, the Mariri camp and so on. These are the main ones, there are so many others that are not known and, by our findings, there are no fewer than 10, 000 refugees up till this moment,” he stated.
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Confusion As Director Is Shot At Kaduna Govt House
Meanwhile, security operatives stationed at the entrance of the Kaduna State Government House yesterday shot one Pastor Isuwa Kiforo, director of finance and administration in the state Ministry of Information, because he failed to subject himself to normal security checks.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the director was mistaken for a suicide bomber by the stern-looking security operatives.
One of the soldiers posted to block the press from going near the gate, who volunteered information to LEADERSHIP unofficially, said: “The man came to the main gate and said he wanted to see the governor. When told to open his boot for searching, he kicked his car and sped to the gate used by the governor. He slammed at the gate. He reversed and slammed the gate again and it fell open. Then, soldiers started firing at the car and stopped it. The car could not move. The man came out and soldiers started shooting at him. He was shot in the leg. The man is now at 44 Army Hospital here in Kaduna.”
The commissioner of police Kaduna State Command, Ballah Magaji Nasarawa, who confirmed the incident, said a combined team of security personnel attached to Government House Main Gate, intercepted a Toyota Corolla, saloon car, maroon in colour, with Kaduna State Government official reg. no. KD-06-A04.
He said: “The driver drove dangerously in a suspicious manner towards the Government House gate. The security personnel stopped the lone occupant, but instead of stopping, he forced himself through the exit gate and found his way into the Government House.
?“The security agencies thereafter opened fire and shot the suspect on the leg and lower abdominal part of his body. The suspect was later identified as Pastor Isuwa Kiforo, director, finance and administration, Ministry of Information, Kaduna State.”
Another top security source who would not want his name mentioned in print said “the attempted suicide bomber forcefully broke the key on the gate. We tried stopping him but he refused. So we started firing at him but the bullets could not penetrate his body as he was throwing substances suspected to be explosives. We finally succeeded at shooting his two legs and detonated the explosives found in his possession.”?
Meanwhile, the routes leading to the Government House had been barricaded by well-armed security men. Journalists were also prevented from getting to the scene for firsthand information.
Another source told LEADERSHIP that the said suspect has a mental case and, most times, behaves abnormally.
The sound of the gunshot caused serious panic and pandemonium as those residing around the Government House hurriedly took to their heels while those in the Government House had their hearts in their mouth.
Most shops around and the central market were forced to close at the sound of the gunshots. People hurriedly picked their wards from schools close to the Government House.
At the time, Governor Patrick Yakowa was said to have travelled to Abuja on official engagement.
The commissioner of information, Saidu Adamu, and other top government officials refused to pick their calls.
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TUC On Boko Haram
Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on? heads of security? agencies to dig deeper into the activities of Boko Haram and unravel its operational dynamics, field tactics and political collaborators.
A statement signed by TUC president, Comrade Peter Esele and general secretary John Kolawole read: “We congratulate the Nigerian security especially the State Security Service (SSS) for the arrest of Kabiru Sokoto.
“It does show that even with the present parlous state of the nation’s security system, heights could be attained when there is commitment and determination on the part of all, especially the field operatives.”
According to Esele, “Nigerian workers would want complete openness in the interrogation and investigation of Mallam Kabiru so as to avoid cover-ups especially in the light of the speculation making the rounds that Nigerians have already been misled by the security system as it concerns the real activities of the re-arrested suspect.”
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I Have Never Sponsored Boko Haram —IBB
Meanwhile, former Military President General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has debunked an allegation by one Sheik Sani Haliru being circulated within social media circle that he was one of the sponsors of Boko Haram. The claim is spurious and unfounded, he said.
The social media, especially Facebook, have been inundated with a purported interview granted by Sheik Haliru in which he pointed fingers at Babangida as one of the sponsors of Boko Haram. The story is entitled: “Shocking confessions of Ex-Boko Haram who converted to Christianity alleged IBB is the major sponsor of Boko Haram”.
In a statement posted on the Facebook wall of the former military president yesterday, IBB’s media aide Mr. Kazeem Afegbua, said: “We have read and assimilated the effusions of a deluded mind by name Sheik Sani Haliru, who for want of very cheap relevance decided to mention the highly respected name of IBB as one of the ‘sponsors’ of what he called Boko Haram. From our first reading, we felt it would amount to giving undue relevance to a confused mind if we volunteer a response, but for our teeming supporters, associates and friends of IBB, and for the price we owe history, we decided to offer this disclaimer.”
The statement said IBB in his frame of mind could not remember such name that claimed to know him whether as almajiri or a jihadist but said: “Reading through the interview, one is easily confronted with a number of inconsistencies and well orchestrated conclusions that are spuriously out of place.”
According to the statement, one of the inconsistencies of the said interview was the claim that Dele Giwa died through suicide bombing, which it was common knowledge that Dele Giwa died of a parcel bomb.
?“We have every cause to believe that the interview was carefully scripted to convey the message intended and not one conducted under a question-and-answer basis. The responses of the said Sani Haliru attest to this fact. From that premise, therefore, it will be safe to conclude that the interview was structured by certain agents of government to satisfy pre-determined position,” the statement added.
He said the questions by the interviewer are also misleading questions, tending to achieve the predetermined end of the initiators of the interview while adding that the motive was to mislead people on agenda clearly set out to achieve.
Afegua said in the statement: “He talked about his fear of going to jail. Why will a man of God be afraid of incarceration or jail if the cause he is pursuing is truly altruistic? How could someone with facts about Boko Haram be saying that he is afraid the SSS will arrest him if he ventured those facts, when the whole wide world is patiently waiting to get a road map out of the Boko Haram pogrom? There are also instances where third-person narrative tenor is given to Sheik Sani Haliru, thus making the whole exercise curiously misleading and utterly unconscionable to warrant any serious recognition.
“We are therefore at sea to reconcile any of the claims as truly reflective of any sound mind, save that we have every reason to believe that this is purely a well-scripted interview to give our revered IBB a bad name. What the real motive of the interview is remains to us very worrisome because we cannot in any way rationalize the immediate or remote intentions of the interviewee and the interviewer”.
?“For purposes of record, General IBB wishes to disclaim whoever that might have granted such interview and wish to emphatically state that there is no iota of truth in whatever the interviewee must have put down. There is no connection whatsoever between himself and the so-called Sheik Sani Haliru.
?“It will serve good purpose if the said Sani Haliru could disclose his age in 1985, 1987 and 1992, because his claim of 44 years of Boko Haram activities could be self-contradicting if we are able to know his real age. 1985 till date is a record 27 years. By the time we subtract that age from 44 , the guess is as good as mine. One couldn’t possibly know what feat a 17- year-old boy would perform in 1985 to warrant any linkage with IBB. It will also be of good use if he could disclose the instances where IBB is directly and indirectly connected or linked to his activities, how much money he was given, who gave the money and what period of time?
?“We therefore wish to inform the public to disregard and ignore whoever might be the face behind that name called Sheik Sani Haliru and the message of doom that he seems desperate to propagate.”
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