Parents seek probe into killing of sect membersA WAVE of fresh attacks by suspected gunmen of the Boko Haram sect has claimed the lives of a soldier, two policemen and two civilians. Two other policemen and a soldier have also been injured.The sect attacked the Gambouru/ Ngala Police Station, Joint Task Force (JTF) checkpoint and the Nigeria Air Force Barracks, Maiduguri on Monday at about 6.30 p.m.This came a day before the Federal Government disclosed that it had drafted a counter-terrorism strategy, and some parents of suspected members of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad otherwise known as Boko Haram sought a probe into the killing of their children.Besides, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Onyeabo Azubike Ihejirika, has said that the Boko Haram sect has become a regional problem, which the member countries of the sub-region are looking up to Nigeria to resolve quickly.Ihejirika told the House of Representatives Committee on Internal Security led by Ibrahim Gebi at the Army Headquarters, Garki , Abuja yesterday that Nigerians should therefore rise in unison and cooperate with law enforcement agencies by exposing those perpetrating terror on fellow citizens.Gambouru/Ngala is a border town with Chad Republic, and 150 kilometres North-East of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.Confirming Monday's attacks, the Borno State Police Public Relations Officer, Samuel Tizhe, said: 'The attacks on the Air Force Barracks occurred when two suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked one of the apartments in the barracks and fired several gunshots at the soldier, who was returning to the house in mufti after six o'clock. After the soldier was shot dead, the gunmen also shot and killed two civilians and residents of the barracks.'Tizhe told The Guardian that the sect attacked the Gambouru/Ngala police station with explosive devices, killing two police officers on duty andinjured two others, before the sect attacked the border area police station.Gambouru/Ngala is one of the five council areas in Borno State under the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan on December 31, 2011.The Police spokesman said the bodies of the soldier and the two civilians had been deposited at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) for identification and removal of bullets from them.He said no arrest had been made in the attacks, as investigations were being conducted by the Police and JTF.But the Fields Operations Officer of JTF, Col. Victor Ebhaleme, said that no soldier was killed at the Polo military checkpoint attacks, addingthat one of the soldiers was shot in the arm, and was admitted, treated and discharged at the UMTH yesterday.The parents of the nine suspected Boko Haram sect members, allegedly killed by the JTF in Maiduguri, Borno State, in an exchange of gunfire last Saturday in Shehuri ward of the metropolis, urged the Federal Government to investigate the killings of their children in their houses without any genuine reason. The parents also said that none of their children killed belonged to the Boko Haram sect. The parents spoke yesterday at a press conference atthe Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Maiduguri.Dala Abacha, a resident of Shehuri ward, and father of three children (Ali, Ba-Kaka, and Mohammed Wakil) who were allegedly killed, said: 'We were sleeping when three soldiers with guns came into the house and demanded my three children for questioning. On taking away my children, we never knew of their whereabouts, until we discovered the bodies of nine children at the UMTH mortuary on Sunday.'He said all the nine children allegedly killed were innocent, stating that none of them belonged to the Boko Haram sect.He said the other six boys of other parents, included Adam Konto, Mamman Rosi, Hassan Mohammed, Mamman Mustapha, Babangida Adamu, and Baba Kaka Goni.Amnesty International has consistently warned Nigeria against extra-judicial killings especially during this trying period of indiscriminate bombing and shooting by members of the loathed Boko Haram.Senior diplomats, military andother security chiefs converged in Abuja yesterday to proffer solutions to the problem posed by the Boko Haram sect and other groups.The Coordinator of Counter-terrorism in the office of the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Sarkin Yaki Bello, disclosed that for the first time, the Federal Government had drafted a National Counter-terrorism Strategy in its bid to contain terrorism and other forms of insecurity.Bello said at a one-day seminar held at the National Defence College, Abuja for its Course 20 with the title, 'Fighting terrorism in Nigeria,' that the new draft policy would detail the roles agencies of government and the citizens would play in eradicating the menace, stating that the draft policy would soon be available for Nigerians to critique and fine-tune. Nigeria, Bello added, was cooperating with its development partners in the fight against terrorism, citing the cooperation with Britain as the model.The Director General of State Security Services (SSS), Mr. Ita Ekpeyong; British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Giles Lever, other diplomats and senior military officers also canvassed ways the war against terrorism could be won by Nigeria. Ekpeyong advocated improvement of governance as one of the ways of tackling the menace of terrorism. The SSS helmsman told the audience that, 'development is part of security. If you are fighting Boko Haram, you also need to provide development. In most places where there is concentration of the sect, there is no light, no water, no roads. If you develop a place, more than half of the Boko Haram will be off the group. Most of them see it (joining the sect) as a job, as a business. The SSS is an advocate for good governance and good government. We want a situation where there is reduction of poverty.'He cited the origin of the Boko Haram group when their late founder, Mohammed Yusuf, cashed in on the lack of government amenities during the formative years of the group by providing water to the people of the area of Maiduguri where they were based.Ekpeyong stated that, 'because there was a vacuum created by government, he (Mohammed Yusuf) came in and filled the vacuum and started helping the people by providing them water. They had a sense of injustice that their benefactor filled.'Categorising the Boko Haram sect into three groups - real, political and criminal - Ekpeyong regretted that Nigerians did not appreciate the efforts of his organisation, saying that it was like in a football game where 'all the shots the goalkeeper stopped, no one remembers. The one not stopped by the goalkeeper that becomes a goal, that is the one nobody forgets. No one is remembering all the attacks we have been stopping.'Ambassador Lever also stated that if Nigeria was to win the war against terrorism, then it must strengthen its institutions, embrace the rule of law, good governance and establish legitimacy through democratic tenets.Drawing from the lessons of Britain's fight against terrorism, the British Defence Attache in Nigeria, Col. James Hall added that the Boko Haram sect was using the tactics of provocation to cause the government and the military to over-react.According to Hall who served in the British Army during its counter-insurgency operation against the Irish Republican Army in Northern Island, 'the politicians have to find the solution with the assistance of the military. At the heart of counter-terrorism is a battle of minds in the middle ground. Unfortunately, the Boko Haram is drawing the government and the military to over-react in ways not seen as legitimate. The insurgent's strategy of provocation worked in Northern Island. If you act as provoked, you alienate the local population. That way, you win the war but not the battle of the minds.
Click here to read full news..
