Toyin Adepoju,
Even as a great armchair terrorism expert, you are not alone or even original about the prejudiced perceptions that you have listed out in this thread, concerning Shehu Usman dan Fodio, in my humble view, the greatest Nigerian that ever lived, concerning Brother Buhari, MIyetti Allah, Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram. Your extreme distinction – also in my view an act of folly, is your penchant for attributing each and every atrocity or act of terror to our Brethren, the Fulani Herdsmen. it's especially distasteful that you say that the are the terrorist wing of the Buhari Administration.
The experts and the non-experts know that the military wing of HAMAS is the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades; I wonder what kind of adjunct the Nigerian Military is to the Buhari Government, according to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness!"
Have you ever thought of setting up an anti-terrorism school, or undergoing the necessary training before declaring yourself the operational head/chief anti-terror ideologue and commander-in-chief of Nigeria's anti-terrorism Brigade?
With all my heart, I wish you well. I don't doubt your sincerity, your determination, your passion.
Among the many dubious speculations that you have contributed to this forum, true to form, the only speculative accusation possibly, currently in the making in your paranoid imagination is the equally absurd idea most probably gestating in your mind that it was certainly some omnipresent, itinerant Fulani Herdsmen backed by Miyetti Allah that sneaked into Owerri with their cows and then kidnapped the Bishop of Owerri a few days ago and are now asking for a few hundred thousand dollars ransom money otherwise they are going to dispatch the Bishop to paradise or to the other place without any further delay.
Your anti-terrorism position on these matters will stand you in good stead when you are applying for a scholar's scholarship visa to the United States. With such anti-terrorism and Islamophobic credentials, Homeland Security will not place you in quarantine or on a list of potential terrorists. After that near miss by would-be Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab alias "Omar Farooq al-Nigeri", I guess Homeland Security has been a bit nervous about potential terrorists from Nigeria being let in to the country. Of course, a Boko Harami will not be beating his chest saying "My name is Boko Haram, my niyat is to obtain a sound Western Education at Harvard!" Indeed, even Lucifer is reputed to have been an angel of light, and everyone knows that the serpent in the garden, was too clever by half. In the art of war, deception is at top of the agenda; personally I do not think that thou doth protest too loudly.
Please continue. Cheers! Happy New Year!
In his day of despair President Goodluck Jonathan said " Boko Haram is everywhere!"
To be more precise,
"In September, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan said, "Boko Haram is everywhere, in the executive arm of government, in the legislative arm of government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house."
I anticipate that sitting in your balcony where you are sitting presently in Lagos, tucked well away from harm's way, you will keep on grinding your anti-Buhari, anti "Northern-hegemony", anti-Miyetti Allah – Fulani Herdsmen axe for as long as you breathe. You have been[CH1] regurgitating these same points ad nauseum, ad infinitum, no end in sight or perhaps the only end you have in sight is the light that you hope to see at the end of the tunnel of terror and so far, the only tangible light / ray of hope in this thread is Femi Segun resting his case with this Parthian shot:
"Can you hear the President saying it is only God who can deliver us from terrorists barely two weeks after his Chief of Army Staff said it will take more than twenty years to defeat Boko Haram? What does this tell us?"
It's a Sherlock Holmes question to Watson. As far as I am concerned
If Mr. President has indeed said that it is only God Who can deliver us from terrorists – and indeed from the Corona Virus, then I'm inclined to agree with him. It's variously known as bitachon in the Hebrew Faith and tawakkul in al-Islam: I have often heard the expression " God helps those who help themselves…"
I hope that some bandits don't kidnap you and you get to understand that they are neither Boko Haram nor Fulani Herdsmen when they request members of USA Africa Dialogue Series to contribute to your ransom - or else!
You should then expect Baba Kadiri and me to be among the heaviest contributors as you pen your memoir about the days you spent in captivity....
On Thursday, 31 December 2020 at 15:19:36 UTC+1 toyin....@gmail.com wrote:Thanks, Cornelius.You state-We are not talking about any of the cases that are certified instances of Fulani Herdsmen and other Nigerians engaged in internecine disputes, committing violent crimes which they themselves have either owned up to, or verdicts of guilty based on overwhelming evidence that's beyond any dispute or any reasonable doubt.
Good to know you admit that Fulani herdsmen are engaged in these atrocities and have owned up to them.
You continue:
''But, we are talking about /disputing your own specific accusations based on speculation, and it's easy to speculate, sometimes wrongfully accusing the innocent.''
Please help identify and refute these speculative accusations by Adepoju. Thats all you need to do.
Its not enough to denounce Adepoju's declaration that Miyetti Allah is the terrorist wing of Buhari's govt, a case Adepoju has been making for years.
I have correlated Buhari/Fulani herdsmen/Miyetti Allah to Sudan's Bashir and his use of the janjaweed against the South Sudanese.
I have related this alliance to the controversial role of Hezbollah in Lebanese history.
I have described it as demonstrating ethnic supremacist delusions relatable to the Islamic jihad of Uthman dan Fodio, which, even though partly projected in terms of Islamic revolution, was to a large extent a drive of ethnic imperialism in creating a monarchical Fulani ruling class that subsists till today.
You need to demonstrate why these claims of Adepoju's which he has severally argued based on contemporary history represent speculative thinking rather than analysis based on empirically evidential unfolding realities.Anybody can search on this group, on Facebook and on Google, ''Adepoju, Fulani herdsmen'' ''Adepoju, right wing Fulani,'', ''Adepoju, Boko Haram'' and ''Adepoju, Buhari,'' and get a listing of Adepoju's writings on this subject for almost ten years.Feel free to use any sources you wish, since the most powerful information source in a world globalized through digitalization is not good enough for you.
You might have done first hand research on the subject.
You might have extensively studied first hand explorations of the subject.Do help us. Many wish to understand what is happening.
thanks
toyin
On Thu, 31 Dec 2020 at 13:43, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Toyin Adepoju,
I'm sorry. A malicious disposition, a suspicion, an accusation, even a reasonable explanation is not a proof.
Baba Kadiri has previously dispensed with all that you have ever come up with, with regard to Miyetti Allah and our Brethren, the much-maligned Fulani Herdsmen. Baba Kadiri has ably dispelled all the darkness from your darkest corners. The theme is, innocent unless proven guilty. It's all in the archives. You yourself search and you shall find. He doesn't have infinite time at his disposal to be repeating himself for your pleasure/ displeasure when he has more worthwhile matters to attend to.
It's plain for all the wrongfully accused to see that you are an undisputed genius when it comes to making specific, spurious accusations without evidence or proof to support your vile accusations.
You may well ask, "What does Cornelius Ignoramus know about genius?" And you may be right, because Cornelius Ignoramus has only read about some of them in Harold Bloom's book, "Genius" – and just because you are one of the genius folks doesn't mean that you are right about the subject matter we are discussing in this thread or that you are always right about everything.
Please, let's be fair. This is not lashon hara: I'm sure that if you were wrongfully accused of murder, kidnapping, rape, you would do your very best to defend yourself and to clear your good name, right?
We are not talking about any of the cases that are certified instances of Fulani Herdsmen and other Nigerians engaged in internecine disputes, committing violent crimes which they themselves have either owned up to, or verdicts of guilty based on overwhelming evidence that's beyond any dispute or any reasonable doubt.
But, we are talking about /disputing your own specific accusations based on speculation, and it's easy to speculate, sometimes wrongfully accusing the innocent : A 419 scam is perpetrated on some poor farmer in the South of Sweden and Nigerians (a more inclusive and by far a more extensive category than the Miyetti Allah Brotherhood) includes Tony Adepoju as a prime suspect, since 419 is a Nigerian trademark and that line of reasoning is supported / satisfied by the basic syllogism you find in the Duck Test : it quacks like Adepoju : It must be a Nigerian! Adepoju is a Nigerian, therefore Adepoju is guilty. Q.E.D.
What you ask in that your first paragraph is but a rhetorical question. For the kind of proof that is required are we to turn to the less than omniscient Professor Google to "confirm" the existence of Olodumare ? Turn to Professor Google and then to British Intelligence ( MI5) and their sexed-up report , first to confirm the existence and then the non-existence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction?
In that regard, I still swing with the bard who sang,
I - Don't put my faith in nobody, not even a scientist.
And by " various international terrorist watch agencies", I suppose that you and they (Baba Google) would like to include the likes of the Islamophobe known as Robert Spencer and his "Jihad Watch"
Dear Adepoju of testicular fortitude, the unfounded worst you have said so far is that "Miyetti Allah is the terrorist arm of Buhari's govt."
You should count yourself lucky to be still alive and living in Nigeria, a democracy, that's why you have the temerity to say that "Miyetti Allah is the terrorist arm of Buhari's govt."
On your pilgrimage to pray or bathe in the Jordan River, when you get to Ben-Gurion Airport just say something like "The IDF is the terrorist arm of the Netanyahu Government" and after the Shin Bet have whisked you away, you will be praying to General Buhari to please come and save you from what's about to happen to you. Make a similar kind of statement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and shortly afterwards you will not be able to feel any pain.
On Thursday, 31 December 2020 at 10:53:12 UTC+1 toyin....@gmail.com wrote:But Cornelius,What do you say to the evidence of Fulani herdsmen militia as one of the world's deadliest terrorist groups, with a year by year mapping of their atrocities by various international terrorist watch agencies, which I have recurrently posted on this group and which Google can readily confirm?It's only in Nigerian centred spaces that Fulani herdsmen terrorism and Miyetti Allah sponsorship of this along with the sheer invulnerability of this terrorist organization composed of the nation's most elite Fulani is an issue in question.Cornelius, don't wait for Kadiri to do the impossible task of pretending Fulani herdsmen terrorism does not exist, a task you like to leave to him while you vacillate between positions.You can start with trying to refute the year by year evidence from those terrorist watch agencies to start with, since the evidence in the Nigerian media might not be enough for you.Please don't retreat into the usual tactic of silence.Don't obfuscate through name calling.Don't create smoke by bringing up unrelated issues.Simply focus on proving that Fulani herdsmen terrorism is not one of the greatest security threats in Nigeria and one that is aided rather than challenged by Nigeria's Fulani right wing ethnic supremacist led govt by debunking the evidence from international terrorist watch agencies, observers outside the usual claims of intra-Nigerian politiking.Don't ask for those reports to be presented for your analysis.That has been done severally on this group and a simple Google search will find them.The menace of Fulani herdsmen brigandage and terrorism is a prime topic in contemporary African security issues, attracting huge commentary.So a defender of the renegades should be up to date.I have for years done my own analysis of these issues.It would be good to have yours.Don't wait for help from Salimonu.Be a man and stand up for your own views through logic and not bluster.Thanks.ToyinOn Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 03:00 Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Toyin Adepoju The Genius,
We have been here before, many times. You love bearing false witness.
You are now bearing false witness against thy neighbour Baba Kadiri, when you claim falsely "Salimonu is a terrorist ideologue" and that "The only person left of defenders of Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen terrorism on this group is Salimonu Kadiri"
In my view, he should take you to court and you should pay damages - through the nose, for the first calumny.
To begin with, at no time whatsoever has Baba Kadiri been "defending" Miyetti Allah and our Brethren the Fulani Herdsmen in the normal sense that you would like us to believe. Baba Kadiri has consistently challenged your defective allegations whenever Miyetti Allah and Fulani Herdsmen have been falsely accused by your monomaniacal self and the monomaniacal likes of you on your part have been unable or reluctant to present any incontrovertible, incriminating evidence to support or justify your spurious accusations.
Secondly, as you can see, currently, Baba Kadiri is obviously not "the only person left of defenders of Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen terrorism on this group" - Cornelius Hamelberg feels honoured to appear valiantly by Baba Kadiri's side, asking the same sort of questions. As the Quran, the Holy Book of the Miyetti Allah and the Fulani Herdsmen Brethren who you accuse, puts it:
"Produce your proof if ye are truthful!"
So, dear Adepoju the onus - burden of proof is on you.
Jesus puts it even more pertinently to the liars who lie without batting an eyelid:
"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
Whereas, you and other Islamophbes want to make ISLAM, "Miyetti Allah and Fulani herdsmen" your convenient scapegoat for every bloody crime committed in the country,
the fact is that there's a plurality of bad actors stirring up the mess – it's not only some Boko Haram, and alleged "Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen" doing all the evil which you accuse them of doing without any basis/ evidence whatsoever. As you well know, the fact is, there are both identified (other than "Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen" and unidentified bandits throughout the federation, kidnapping people and requesting fabulous sums as ransom. Here's one of the latest of such cases : Nigerian bishop kidnapped, Catholics pray for his safety
(I just cautioned Okey Ndibe to go easy, about this: "Dear Okey, Brave soul, it's great to know that you are home in the thick of things, undaunted. As you know, you would fetch a handsome ransom. So, at all costs you have to stay safe, away from the looters and kidnappers who are in the same category as the Covid mutations."
A few years back Samuel Zalanga put brakes to my plans for visiting Kaduna when he reported to this forum that some people approached him up there are said that for, 1, 000 Naira, they could eliminate for him, anybody that he didn't like…
Please pay attention to what Oga Falola himself has pointed out here .
It reminds me of what Ojukwu said in that interview by Stella in the now defunct West Africa - Ojukwu was asked "Why does the military take over?" He replied: "For Profit."
When Baba Kadiri complains that the funds budgeted and allocated for the purchase of weapons etc to fight e.g., Boko Haram have been diverted to private pockets, Ojukwu's answer "For profit" also makes a lot of sense.
On Wednesday, 30 December 2020 at 10:27:46 UTC+1 toyin....@gmail.com wrote:A simple Google search will bring up news reports quoting Buhari stating that the war on Boko Haram is war agst the North.No need to invoke second hand statements.I have posted various news reports from when Buhari made this comment and will not do so again unless the person challenging the report shows they have done their own research and failed to find such reports.Miyetti Allah is quoted as stating, in the context of the Kankara abduction, that a good part of the current security crisis in the North is caused by their own constituency.On the ground observers have also stated they see the abduction as the work of Fulani herdsmen, not Boko Haram, as has also been stated in a news report, a report I am yet to read Miyetti Allah challenging.Miyetti Allah is the terrorist arm of Buhari's govt.Since he came to power in 2015, they openly declare that their troops massacre Nigerians, justify these atrocities and are left undisturbed.They openly threatened Benue, committed another massacre there, for which Buhari's govt blamed the Benue govt.The same govt awarded Miyetti Allah/MACBAN billions of Nigeria's money to supposedly rehabilitate their members.It is safe to conclude these people are using Nigeria's resources to develop an internal colonisation.I cried out about this while some others saw me as alarmist.Well after I began crying out, OBJ referenced a Fulanisation agenda and T Y Danjuma identified the army as colluding with the terrorists.The only person left of defenders of Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen terrorism on this group is Salimonu Kadiri.His streategy is that of obfuscation.When Miyetti Allah members own up and justify massacres, he would struggle to dissociate them from Miyetti Allah.At other times, he would act as if such declarations were not made.At other times, he would struggle to whitewash them.He has also tried to obfuscate the identity of Boko Haram, trying to erase the groups combination of communalistic Islam and terrorism.Salimonu is a terrorist ideologue.One must respect everyone's freedom of speech but must also accurately describe what people do with their freedom of speech.ThanksToyinOn Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 05:20 Femi Segun <solor...@gmail.com> wrote:Alagba Salimonu Kadiri,Thanks for your intervention. I agree that it was Dr. Doyin Okupe who made the allegation against Buhari. I also listened to the interview that Okinbaloye had with Buhairi where he complained about Jonathan not doing enough to crush Boko Haram. This was all politics. Granted that the two claims are irreconcilable. But what do you say to Buhari;s visit to late Alhaji Lam Adesina on October 13, 2000, when he came with his fellows from the North to threaten the Governor for killing his people. Please see this link: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/day-lam-adesina-clashed-with-buhari-marwa-others/. As a former Head of State who aspired to rule Nigeria, that was the least one would expect Buhari to do. I agree with Moses Ochonu and several others on this list that we were all scammed by the propaganda that Buhari has been reformed. He is an irredeemable nepotist who believe his Fulani kinsmen are superior to the rest of us. As I said earlier on, those who continue to support him in the South can simply pass as the offspring of Afonja who betrayed his own people for personal benefit. History will be hash on such people. Apart from the corruption among the security agents, which you rightly identified, ethno-religious solidarity and the body language of the President will make the war against Boko Haram difficult to win. Can you hear the President saying it is only God who can deliver us from terrorists barely two weeks after his Chief of Army Staff said it will take more than twenty years to defeat Boko Haram? What does this tell us?I rest my case.I rest my case.On Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 4:13 PM Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:"The release of the #KankaraBoys - I don't care at what cost - is one of the few bright spots of the Buhari regime," I wrote. It shows at least that the regime has learned from GEJ's lethargy and callousness when the Chibok kidnap happened. Instead of rescuing the girls, Jonathan and his officials quibbled over whether the kidnap actually took place - and helped to fertilize unhealthy and unhelpful conspiracy theories. Some of the girls are still missing" - Farooq Kperogi.
Instead of the six queries, the only query that should be posed is, how could the kidnap of students of the Government Science Secondary School (GSSS), Kankara, Katsina State, ever take place? It was such an intelligent and a logical question (premised on circumstances and availability of military resources) that made President Jonathan to doubt in 2014 if the Chibok's abductions ever took place. Let's recall some events leading to the kidnap of Chibok girls in April 2014.
At the height of Boko Haram attacks on 8 September 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan removed the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Dambazau, and replaced him with Major General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika. Nevertheless, Boko Haram escalated their attacks in the North East culminating in the attack on Nigeria's 79 Composite Group Air Force Base, Maiduguri International Airport and some Army locations in Borno State, on 2 December 2013. Consequently, President Jonathan was forced to remove and reshuffle his Service Chiefs with effect from 16 January 2014, whereby Major General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah became the Chief of Army Staff. Remarkably, President Jonathan's led Federal Government had on 26 May 2013, declared Emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States where dusk to dawn curfew was to be enforced by the Nigerian Armed Forces. Despite the change of Service Chiefs, 200 Boko Haram fighters in 12 Hilux pickup trucks filed into Maiduguri on 14 March 2014, in a broad daylight and demolished Giwa Barracks. Although Giwa Barracks was jammed packed with luxurious cars, it contained only a malfunctioned army tank. The 200 Boko Haram fighters completed their mission in Maiduguri and returned to their base unchallenged by the Nigerian Armed Forces in the Emergency ruled Borno State. A month later, 14 April 2014, Boko Haram struck at Chibok to kidnap almost 300 secondary school girls and transported them in a convoy to Sambisa forest, situated 60 kilometres to Chibok. Where were the Nigerian Army and Airforce when Boko Haram came to abduct Chibok's school girls in the middle of the night where dusk to dawn curfew was in force? Knowing that the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Staff had received huge amounts to buy weapons, recruit soldiers and pilots, in addition to the state of emergency rule, Jonathan was right, as any sensible person would do, to disbelieve the kidnap of the Chibok girls. It was after Buhari came to power that the EFCC could reveal that under President Jonathan, top ranked officers of the Armed Forces were diverting funds set aside for war against Boko Haram into their private pockets. They shared among themselves money appropriated to buy weapons and recruit soldiers to fight insurgents. Ghost soldiers deployed by Nigeria's Service Chiefs gave free passage and movements to Boko Haram. What happened to the military officers whose treasonable acts of stealing security funds led to deaths of thousands of Nigerians and displacement of over 2 million people? Instead of being Court-martialled the EFCC was forced to agree in civil courts with the military traitors on plea bargaining whereby a fraction of stolen security funds was forfeited by each culprit to the government. As we all know where there is no punishment, there can be no deterrence. Therefore, current Service Chiefs cannot be different from their predecessors in office when it comes to recruiting ghost soldiers and fighting insurgents with spiritual weapons while they are openly transferring security funds into their own personal private bank accounts.
The Sultan of Sokoto has described the kidnapping of Kankara students in Katsina State as a slap on the face of President Buhari whose state of origin is Katsina. But Daura is the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari in Katsina State and it is on record that on Wednesday, 1 May 2019, the District Head of Daura, Alhaji Musa Umar Uba, was kidnapped right in front of his own house shortly after returning from the Mosque for evening prayers. In this wise, Buhari would seem used to being slapped in the face. Should the kidnapping of the Kankara students have occurred at all? This question is called for in view of security arrangements already on ground in Katsina State. After the rescue of the District Head of Daura in Kano in July 2019, and towards the end of 2019, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, deployed a special task force tagged "Operation Puff Adder" in Katsina State which were located in nine front-line local government areas of the State. In May 2020, the Nigerian Army commenced Operation Sahel Sanity and Operation Sharan Daji with troops based in Faskari, Katsina State, in addition to operation Harbin Kunama, all designed to flush out bandits, cattle rustlers and kidnappers in Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto. With the kidnap of the Kankara secondary school students, one must ask where all the special task forces in Katsina were when the bandits arrived? According to online Vanguard Nigeria of Saturday, 12 December 2020, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO)) in Katsina, SP Gambo Isah told newsmen : Yesterday, at about 9:40 p.m., bandits in their numbers, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles, attacked Government Science Secondary School Kankara, Kankara Local Government Area. The policemen on duty also responded to the attack and engaged them in a gun duel which gave the students opportunity to scale the fence of the school and ran for safety. The DPO (District Police Officer) Kankara, reinforced the policemen on duty with Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) which forced the hoodlums to retreat into the forest. The following day, under the caption, Confusion over 884 students as gunmen attack Katsina school, the online Nigerian Vanguard rendering an eyewitness account reported : The bandits stormed Kankara town around 10:06p.m., shooting sporadically. They came to the town and even close to the residence of the District Head. DPO alerted Operation Sharan Daji and Operation Sahel Sanity who repelled the attack. On their way out (of Kankara town), they attacked the GSSS, situated on the outskirts on the way to Yan Tsabau, SHOT THE SECURITY GUARD AND ENTERED THE SCHOOL. On the same day, 13 December 2020, the Minister of Defence, Bashir Salihi-Magashi, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai paid on the spot assessment visit to the Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Massari. Reporting the visit, the online Nigerian Premium Times wrote that the governor told his guests that Kankara's GSSS contained 839 students out of which 333 were abducted. Premium Times reported, "Residents said the gunmen had earlier attacked Kankara town, injuring many residents but were later repelled by security forces. The gunmen in large numbers, on motorbikes, invaded the school's premises around 11:00 p.m., Friday night shooting to scare and kill. They, thereafter, went away with many students. According to the online Nigerian Premium times of 16 December 2020, the Gateman at the GSSS said that he ran into hiding when the bandits, on arrival, started shooting. He said the bandits operated from 10:00 p.m., to 2:40 a.m. What conclusion can one draw from the bandits attack on the Kankara GSSS and their ability to abduct 344 students and ferry them to Tsafe in Zamfara State, a distance of 82.5 km by road from Kankara town in Katsina State?
At the time Katsina Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Gambo Isah, issued a press release on Saturday, 12 December 2020 that the policemen on duty at Kankara GSSS engaged the attacking bandits in gun duels which gave the students opportunity to scale the fence of the school and ran into safety he was not aware that some of the students were abducted. Although there should always be policemen on duty at Kankara GSSS, in view of *Operation Puff Adder* that commenced in all the nine local government areas in Katsina state since 5 April 2019 and still ongoing, there were no policemen on duty at the school on that day except a gateman (MAIGARDI) by name Garba Hassan who told Premium Times that the bandits operated in the school from 10:00 p.m., to 2:40 a.m., a duration of four hours and forty minutes. The lie of Superintendent of Police (SP), Gambo Isah, in stating that 'the DPO in Kankara, reinforced the policemen on duty with Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) which forced the hoodlums to retreat into the forest' would have been difficult to discover, had it been that no student was abducted or the abducted students were kept in nearby forest to Kankara GSSS. Did the hoodlums retreat into the forest with their motorcycles and why were they not pursued? Besides the Nigerian Police Force *Operation Puff Adder* created purposely to combat banditry, kidnappings, armed robberies and cattle rustlings in Katsina, the Nigerian Army also commenced *Operation Sahel Sanity* in May 2020, for similar purposes with troops based in Faskari, Katsina State. As late as Saturday, 12 September 2020, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai announced at a public conference, at the Army Super Camp 4, Faskari, Katsina, that Operation Sahel Sanity had been extended to December 2020. For Operations Puff Adder, Sahel Sanity and Sharan Daji the Federal Government has provided funds to the Police and Army Chiefs to buy weapons, recruit and maintain personnel. However, when the bandits came to the GSSS in Kankara all the Police and Army Operations that were created and financed to combat them proved to exist only on papers but not in reality. That was why the bandits got free passage to ferry abducted 344 students from Kankara in Katsina State to Tsafe in Zamfara State on motorcycles without being apprehended neither by the Nigerian Police nor by the Nigerian Army!! Of course, if two-thirds of personnel on police and army payrolls are ghost policemen and soldiers respectively, while the bank accounts of the top police and army officers swell with security funds, then the proliferation of crimes whether by insurgents, bandits and kidnappers should not be a surprise to anyone. What happened with the Kankara GSSS students is reminiscent of what Professor Jibrin Ibrahim wrote in his column in the Daily Trust of Friday, 12 June 2020, when he asserted and wondered thus, "For over one decade now, attackers would move in large numbers and kill and there will be no response from the State (Security Agencies) while it is happening. ...//... No one understands how people can steal cattle and drive them on foot for days, going through villages and they are never caught." Buhari, according to the Cable online, had said that he was extremely worried that the security agencies are not doing enough (despite large amount of funds the security agencies have received). Professor Falola envisages re-occurrence of Kankara kidnappings in the future and I agree with him as long as top Police and Army officers are free to siphon funds meant for purchase of weapons, recruitment and maintenance of personnel.
Farooq Kperogi in question 5 of his article on the kidnap of Kankara GSSS students wondered hypothetically that if Miyetti Allah had been involved in the GSSS students' kidnap as being bandied, why has the group not been treated as a security threat by the security agencies. Elsewhere on this thread, Femi Segun pretended as if it had been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that Miyetti Allah group are terrorists and he tried to offer reasons why they could not be declared terrorists. Blaming lack of treatment of Miyetti Allah as a terrorist organisation, Femi Segun averred, "Buhari was quoted on Liberty Radio in July 2014 that an attack against Boko Haram was an attack against the North." In order to prove that Mohammadu Buhari actually uttered those words, Mr. Femi Segun directed readers to a link. Before talking about the link, it must be stated that it has never been proved anywhere that Miyetti Allah was involved in the kidnapping of the 344 Kankara students. When the Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Massari, claimed that his government was negotiating with the bandits that abducted 344 students in his state through Miyetti Allah, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah, Alhassan Saleh, dissociated the group with the bandits. He told Sahara Reporters on 17 December 2020, "I have spoken to the (Katsina) State chairman (of Miyetti Allah), and he said he wasn't aware of any discussion or negotiation with the schoolboys' abductors." On the same day, almost all the media in Nigeria reported Governor Massari as having said that the local Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), is a civil servant with the Katsina State Government. He clarified that, "while the military in the theatre of operation are now talking directly to the bandits, the government (of Katsina State) is talking to them through Miyetti Allah. The evidence before the whole world is that on Friday, 18 December 2020, at 9 : 26 a.m., the Commander of 17 Brigade, Brigadier-General W. B. Idris handed over 344 students of GSSS, Kankara to Governor Aminu Bello Massari. According to the online Nigerian Punch of that day, the Nigerian Air Force claimed that the abductors were denied freedom of action through intensive air surveillance. Up till now, Miyetti Allah, local or national, is yet to publicly claim any role in rescuing the abducted GSSS students.
Going back to the link submitted by Femi Segun to substantiate his claim that Muhammadu Buhari on liberty Radio in July 2014 said that an attack against Boko HARAM WAS AN ATTACK AGAINST THE NORTH, anyone hoping to find Buhari uttered those words would be disappointed as one would discover that it was one Doyin Okupe who was alleging in the link, dated 15 December 2014, that Buhari had uttered those words. In fact, Buhari had appeared on Channel's TV, on 7 December 2014, where he said that 'FG's effort in fighting Boko Haram is unsatisfactory' and Doyin Okupe's appearance on Channel's TV was aimed at responding to Buhari's criticism of the Federal Government, a week earlier, for fighting Boko Haram unsatisfactorily. Whatever Buhari might have been alleged to have said in July 2014 about fighting Boko Haram was invalidated by his call for more efficient way of combating the sect. Of course, there was no evidence that Buhari actually uttered those words and one is compelled to examine the credibility of Doyin Okupe who was crediting Buhari with pro- Boko Haram statement. Doyin Okupe is a trained physician that has never practised his profession as medical doctor in Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as a Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs but he was sacked when EFCC investigation showed that he obtained a contract from the government of Benue State and received a mobilization sum of N200 million without executing the project. However, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him in the same capacity, as Obasanjo did, after winning 2011 presidential election. The same Doyin Okupe who was alleging, on December 2014 that Buhari was a Boko Haram supporter had on 16 October 2014, corroborated the announcement of Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh, that a ceasefire agreement had been concluded between the Federal Government and the Ahli Sunna Li Daawa Wal Jihad (otherwise called Boko Haram) in which he directed the Service Chiefs to ensure immediate compliance with the development in the field. Online ThisDay of the same date quoted Doyin Okupe as saying, "The implementation of this ceasefire was signed today and further agreement on this deal, including the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls, are part of the agreement." As it turned out to be, the ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram, on 16 October 2014, was false and it exposed federal government as not being serious in its fight against Boko Haram. During Doyin Okupe's sojourn as Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Jonathan, he also doubled as Managing Director of his private companies - Value Trust Investment and Abraham Telecoms. The EFCC is currently prosecuting Doyin Okupe for money laundering and criminal diversion of funds to the tune of N702 million through his Value Trust Investment and Abraham Telecoms companies during the four years he served under Jonathan. As usual he was granted bail in the sum of N100 million while the case is snail-speeding into oblivion. Every stratum of governance in Nigeria is permeated with stealing of public funds with impunity and as long as senior public officials, whether armed forces or civil servants, continue to steal funds meant for socio-economic security of Nigerians, incident like Kankara abductions will never stop. As the Yoruba saying goes, ÒRÒ T'ÓBÁ KOJÁ EKÚN, ÈRÍN L'ARÍN, meaning, when a matter transcends the bounds of grief, it is time to smile at disaster. Bandits on motorcycles abducted 344 Students in Kankara, Katsina state and ferried them unhindered to Tsafe, a distance of 82.5 km, in Zamfara State. Kankara kidnappings should never have occurred and thanking the security agencies for rescuing the abducted students is just like thanking them for giving back to us what they have wrongly taken away from us.S. Kadiri
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Sent: 19 December 2020 16:23
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Six Queries on the Kidnap and Release of the Kankara SchoolboysI'm shocked.
Fulani bandits?
Do they exist?
Does Miyetti Allah make such comments as are being quoted?
Salimonu, please help...something strange is going on..
On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 16:12 Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, Oga Falola. That is the two-sided tragedy in the matter. Either way, the abductors have won. The additional tragedy is that now you have 344 schoolboys who are probably too traumatized to return to secular schooling, and who may, as a result, be eventually recruited by the same Fulani bandits/terrorists that abducted and traumatized them. A sad, tragic irony.
On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 5:18 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Farooq:
We have not seen the end of this. Whether they are bandits or Boko Haram or MA, they will strike again:
- If they were paid, they see a profitable economy.
- If they were not paid, they see an efficient negotiation trick in attention and visibility.
- If they were paid and communicated with, they see themselves as efficient operators
Expect more.
TF
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2020 at 5:11 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Six Queries on the Kidnap and Release of the Kankara SchoolboysSaturday, December 19, 2020
Six Queries on the Kidnap and Release of the Kankara Schoolboys
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
When it emerged on Thursday that the hundreds of schoolboys that were abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, were released, I was so relieved that I gave the Buhari regime an unusual pat in the back in my social media updates.
"The release of the #KankaraBoys—I don't care at what cost—is one of the few bright spots of the Buhari regime," I wrote. "It shows at least that the regime has learned from GEJ's lethargy and callousness when the Chibok kidnap happened. Instead of rescuing the girls, Jonathan and his officials quibbled over whether the kidnap actually took place—and helped fertilize unhealthy and unhelpful conspiracy theories. Some of the girls are still missing."
But after my euphoria, I've been grappling with several troubling questions. I will highlight just six here:
1. Who really kidnapped the boys? Was it Boko Haram or so-called Fulani bandits? The initial suspicion was that they were kidnapped by the ever-present, nihilistic, and mercenary "bandits" who have been tormenting the northwest in the last few years—and who don't seem to be animated by any overt religious ideology.
But Boko Haram, whose operations had been mostly limited to the northeast in the last five years, claimed responsibility for the kidnap. As Boko Haram experts have pointed out, it is rare for the group to claim responsibility for acts it didn't commit. In fact, Boko Haram actually takes umbrage at being falsely associated with acts it didn't commit.
The fact that the schoolkids appeared in a video pleading with the government to not deploy the military to find them and to discourage western education redounded to the evidence that they were in Boko Haram's captivity, although some of the boys later told newsmen that "bandits" had told them to lie on camera that they were in Boko Haram's captivity in order to aggrandize the abduction.
Or have "Fulani bandits" and "Kanuri Boko Haramists" merged? If so, that would be at once frighteningly ominous and socio-historically curious. It's ominous because it would mean that the northwest and the northeast—and perhaps even parts of the northcentral—would be overwhelmed by unexampled terrorism in the coming months and years.
It would be socio-historically curious because the Kanuri and the Fulani are not only completely different people, they are—or used to be— "historical enemies." Kanuris resisted Usman Dan Fodio's 19th-century Jihad because they said there was nothing about their Islam, which they'd embraced since at least the 9th century before even the Fulani, that needed Dan Fodio's "reform."
The tensile stress that the Kanem-Borno Empire's repudiation of Dan Fodio's jihad actuated has been somewhat resolved through a ritualized joking relationship between the Kanuri and the Fulani who now call each other "slaves" in lighthearted jest.
But although Muslim northern Nigeria is emerging as an ethnogenesis, i.e., a new ethnic identity forged from a mishmash of multiple identities, Kanuri people still take pride in having a political identity that is independent of the Fulani-inflected caliphate. A fusion of "bandits" and Boko Haram would unleash a game-changing terroristic blitz on Nigeria.
2. How many students were kidnapped? News stories about the release of the boys quoted Governor Bello Masari as saying that 344 boys had been released. But earlier reports had said the abducted students numbered a little over 500. One of the students who escaped from his captors also said more than 500 of them had been captured. He even said some of them had been murdered by their captors. So what's the truth?
3. Who rescued the boys? The Katsina State government said their rescue was facilitated by Miyetti Allah. But the Nigerian military on Friday contradicted the Katsina State government and insisted that the Defence Headquarters' "Operation Hadarin Daji" was singularly responsible for the release of the boys. Since both claims can't be simultaneously true, one is a lie.
But note that Miyetti Allah appears have officially accepted that its members are responsible for the progressive deterioration of security in the country, according to the Vanguard of December 15, which quoted the group's president, Muhammadu Kirowa, as saying, "We cannot continue to wallow in denial when it is a fact that majority of criminals arrested across the country are from within us, our kith and kin [who] have gone into this circle because of our sheer negligence."
If the abductors are "Fulani bandits," it would make sense that Miyetti Allah would be more helpful in facilitating the release of the boys than the military, which is notorious for being harder on peaceful protesters than on terrorists.
4. Was ransom paid before the boys were released? The Katsina State government said no ransom was paid. It said it used moral suasion to persuade the kidnappers to release the boys. But in a rare moment of clarity on NTA on December 18, Muhammadu Buhari talked of the "settlement of the abductors."
We all know that "settlement" means under-the-table payment in Nigerian English. I have read online rumor mills that said the abductors were "settled" with up to $4 million. While the figure may not be accurate, the government has a history of giving enormous financial war chests to terrorists.
On May 6, 2017, for instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Buhari regime delivered "a black duffel bag containing €2 million in plastic-wrapped cash" to Boko Haram for the release of 82 of the Chibok girls that were abducted in 2014.
Since ransom payment is a counterproductive and unsustainable security strategy, what is the government doing to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
5. If the government can identify, negotiate with, and pay abductors, why can't it apprehend them? If Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a "group of interest" by security forces?
Why are #EndSARS protesters, supporters, organizers, and financiers the victims of murder, bank account freezes, and continual harassment by the government while terrorists, abductors, and a self-identified association that facilitates the work of abductors featherbedded?
6. Finally, in the Kankara abduction saga, agents of government emerged as the most vicious purveyors of transparently fake news. Garba Shehu, Buhari's spokesman, said on December 15 that "contrary to all the fake rumors [so even rumors can be "fake"?] flying around, only 10 students were kidnapped from the school in Kankara."
Abike Dabiri also prematurely said on her verified Twitter handle that the kidnapped boys had been released. When she was called out, she lied that her Twitter and Instagram handles had been hacked, implying that it was a hacker who posted the false update.
But anyone who is malicious enough to hack anyone's social media account won't post from the same device and location as the original account owner and would post something more vicious than sterile government propaganda.
Since the regime, particularly its chief lying officer Lai Mohammed, is obsessed with stamping out "fake news," what is the punishment for its agents that shared literal fake news, although Garba Shehu has apologized for his?
The absence of unambiguous answers to these queries is the biggest driver of conspiracy theories about the abduction. People who disagreed with my initial social media update claimed that the abduction was contrived to lend unearned veneer of competence to the Buhari regime.
This is, of course, silly conspiratorial reasoning. Had the regime been unable to rescue the boys, Buhari would have been justifiably excoriated for incompetence and insensitivity, which are his trademarks. In fact, he was accused precisely of that in the six days that the boys were in captivity. But having rescued them, the regime is now being accused of staging the kidnap.
Praiseworthy as the saving of the boys from captivity is—from the perspective of a parent—the fact that questions and mutually contradictory claims from the same government linger on after their rescue is more evidence of incompetence than a conspiracy.
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
School of Communication & Media
Social Science Building
Room 5092 MD 2207
402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogi
Nigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
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