Assistant Editor, Dapo Falade, writes on the continued threat to national security by the dreaded Boko Haram sect which has threatened to take its 'jihad' beyond the Niger in reaction to the recent conviction of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha for murder.EVENTS in the last few days have demonstrated, once again,that some people are not really interested in Nigeria remaining one indivisible entity, or are, at most, working in variance with the desire and efforts by some people to ensure a relatively stable and secured polity. Beside the judiciary's termination of the tenure of five state governors, last Friday and the appointment of a new Inspector General of Police, two days earlier, the major news was the eventual conviction of Major Hamza Al-Mustpaha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late former Head of State, General Sani Abacha.Al-Mustapha who, without doubt, was one of the few powerful men in the Abacha administration, along with Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, was, on Monday, sentenced to death by hanging by Justice Mojisola Dada of a Lagos State High Court for their involvement in the conspiracy to kill and for killing, on 4 June, 1996, the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of the annulled 12 June, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.The fortunes of Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan, one of the aides of the late Kudirat, took a turn for the worse as they were clamped into detention in 1998 when General Abubakar Abdulsalami assumed the mantle of leadership following the demise of the late maximum military ruler, General Abacha.While the duo have immediately appealed the judgment, the turn of events, following the conviction, is becoming a source of worry and concern to those at the helms of affairs in the nation's security circle, as well as analysts and many Nigerians alike, with Al-Mustapha's kinsmen threatening fire and brimstone should the former CSO be eventually executed as ordered by the court. The use of force to set Al-Mustapha free was coming closely on the heels of moves by prominent northern leaders to achieve same end. As an indication that this, indeed, is not the best of times for the nation's security apparatus, particularly, the Nigeria Police, the notorious Boko Haram sect had threatened to unsettle the Federal Government and the judiciary should Al-Mustapha be hanged. The same sect had earlier issued a warning to attack Sokoto State if some members of the fundamentalist Islamic sect detained by security agencies in the state, for their acts and actions which are not in the national interest, are not released immediately.Taking a position on the death sentence passed on the CSO, the Boko Haram sect, who have come to be known as matching virtually all their words with actions, said that it would extend its attacks beyond Northern Nigeria, to judges and courts all over the country. According to reports, the sect's spokesman, Abul Qaga, on Monday night, said: 'Should the Nigerian government dare carry out the sentence announced earlier today on Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd), the full scale attacks will be expanded from security agencies and agents to the judiciary, from police stations to courts and so on. All chief justices, High Court judges and Appeal Court judges should take note. The blood of Al-Mustapha is the blood of the Nigerian masses.' The Boko Haram threat would have been dismissed with a wave of the hand in an ideal society where there is a semblance of adequate security. However, the Nigerian situation is not the case; indeed, the upsurge in the activities of the insurgent group has been a major source of headache for the Dr Goodluck Jonathan presidency, as well as the stakeholders in the nation's security circle. In fact, the sphere of influence of the group has become a national embarrassment, costing the erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, his exalted office last week, with the incumbent occupant, Alhaji Dikko Abubakar, not yet seen by many as been able to rise up to the Boko Haram challenge.The assurances given by the presidency and the security agencies that adequate measures had been put in place to checkmate the sect's insurgency notwithstanding, numerous cases abound of the group rubbishing the government, carrying out dangerous bomb attacks in several parts of Northern Nigeria. It was in the light of this apparently helplessness that many Nigerians have come to the conclusion that they would rather follow instructions given by the sect than those ordered by the government.As Nigerians are still battling with the Boko Haram threat, prominent northern traditional rulers held an emergency meeting, on Tuesday, in Kaduna over the plight of Al-Mustapha and the precarious security situation in Nigeria. The meeting, which took place at the Lugard Hall of the Government House for about three hours, was led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar and others in attendance included the emirs of Katsina, Alhaji Kabir Nagogo and Dr Shehu Idris (Zazzau), as well as the Etsu Nupe, the Tor Tiv and the Olofa of Ofa, Oba Muftau Osuoye. It is therefore becoming a disturbing subject of national discourse that it is apparent that the latest threat by the sect over Al-Mustapha was a clear indication that some powerful individuals are indeed working in tandem with the militant Islamic sect. It is glaring that while nobody was questioning the fact that Al-Mustapha committed the offence for which he was convicted, members of the Boko Haram sect and some northern leaders are angling for his release from death, based on the fact that he is one of them. Besides this, it is more confounding that while two people, Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan (a Yoruba man), were sentenced to death over their acts, the former CSO's kinsmen were only scheming for the release of their own; a case of 'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than the others.' As Nigerians are still battling the Boko Haram menace, another security crisis looms in the horizon as another militant Islamic group, Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis, have vowed to end the Boko Haram violence monopoly as it declared that it would wrestle down the sect and 'eliminate' it from the society. In an apparent showdown over ideological differences, Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis, a splinter group allegedly from Boko Haram, in a statement signed by one Abu Usamata Al'Ansari and made available to Nigeria Politics Online, expressed displeasure with Boko Haram's style of operations, which it described as inhuman to the Muslim Ummah. While many people in some quarters would heave a sigh of relief that the Boko Haram dominance may eventually come to an end with the coming on board of the splinter group, this development would however be a source of more worry for the government and Nigerians as this may signal the beginning of an implosion that would be beyond the Boko Haram sect and its alleged sponsors.
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