Nigerian Police Force, NPF,  has explained  that leaders of Cameroon’s Separatist Movement who were arrested within Nigeria’s territory flouted the nation’s laws by operating training camps in Nigeria. IGP-Idris Vanguard’s investigation revealed that members of the Cameroon’s Christian Secessionist group, who were agitating an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” independent movement were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states. The two states have boundaries with the Southern parts of Cameroon hence there is easy access to Nigeria.

According to a Police source, “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be habouring separatists from a neighbouring Country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.

“Moreover, it is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country.”

A security source confirmed to Vanguard that the arrested leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with the Cameroonian authorities. It was gathered that the separatist leaders would be moved to Force headquarters, Abuja, since the issue of training camps across borders have become an international and diplomatic issue. There was also indications that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria were already holding discussions over the arrest.

Source: Vanguard

Nigerian government forces have opened fire on demonstrators demanding the release of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.   

On Tuesday, during the third day of consecutive protests, one person was severely injured during clashes with Nigerian forces and another 50 people were detained in Abuja.

Nigerian sources told Press TV on Monday that at least two young students were killed by the security forces during the ongoing protests in Kaduna which broke out on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Human Rights Commission has called on Nigerian authorities to immediately release Shiekh Zakzaky over his deteriorating health condition.

“In view of his deteriorating health, it is now more urgent than ever to allow Sheikh Zakzaky to be allowed access to immediate medical attention in order to assess the extent of his injuries caused by the stroke and access the necessary medical treatment,” read the statement.

Zakzaky lost his left eye sight in a raid, which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria back in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

The clergyman is said to have been charged with “criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbances.”

Culled from Presstv

Nigerian government forces have attacked protesters calling for the release of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, killing at least one person.

The protester was killed on Sunday in the northwestern state of Kaduna amid widespread demonstrations which were held in over 50 separate locations.

The demonstrators were calling on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to release the Shia cleric.

Earlier in the day, the IMN called on Buhari to release Zakzaky (seen below) so he could seek medical attention for a stroke that he had recently suffered.

“From a rare visit to our leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, it has been confirmed to us that his health has suffered a severe knock in the past two days, such that he is critically ill and in urgent need of the best medical attention possible,” said a statement released by the IMN. “It seems those holding our leader captive, are just waiting for time to kill him.”

Zakzaky lost his left eye sight in the raid, which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria back in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

The clergyman is said to have been charged with “criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbances.”

“The Islamic Movement do hereby unequivocally call on the federal government to listen to the voice of reason and release our leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky to go and look after his failing health. It is foolhardy for the government while being contemptuous of a court order releasing him; he is denied access to a better health care,” added the IMN statement.

Source: Presstv

A leader of the militant group Boko Haram has released a video claiming it carried out a series of attacks in north-east Nigeria over the Christmas period.

Abubakar Shekau, the head of one of Boko Haram’s three factions, declared the group active and operational a day after the Nigerian president said the militants had been defeated.

“We are in good health and nothing has happened to us,” he said in the video released on Tuesday. “Nigerian troops, police and those creating mischief against us can’t do anything against us, and you will gain nothing.

“We carried out the attacks in Maiduguri, in Gamboru, in Damboa. We carried out all these attacks.”

There has been a surge in violence in recent months, with dozens of people killed in suicide bombings and attacks on military bases in the region. Authorities have put this down to desperate insurgents trying to find food, weapons and ammunition.

Three people were reportedly burned to death on Christmas Day in Molai, a village near Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. On Saturday 25 loggers were killed 13 miles from the state capital.

It is unclear to which Gamboru attack Shekau was referring, but he may have meant an ambush of an aid convoy on the Gamboru road in which four people were killed.

His declaration that the self-styled Islamists are alive and well contradicted the Nigerian president’s new year message which was broadcast the day before.

“We have since beaten Boko Haram,” said Muhammadu Buhari. “Isolated attacks still occur, but even the best-policed countries cannot prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror.”

In mid-December the government announced it was releasing $1bn from its excess oil account to pay for military equipment and training to fight the insurgency. Later it said not all the money would be spent on fighting Boko Haram alone.

Nigeria has recently announced a plan to combat Boko Haram by making villagers living in insecure areas move to garrison towns – although this was in effect how the military operated for most of 2017.

It is unclear how villagers who have always made their living farming, herding and fishing will be expected to survive when they are living on lands not their own and are not permitted to leave.

It is impossible to build up a clear picture of what exactly is happening in north-east Nigeria and across its borders in Cameroon and Chad.

According to a security tracker set up by the Council on Foreign Relations to monitor deaths reported in the media, more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict since May 2011. There are thought to have been large numbers of unreported deaths in inaccessible regions.

For the past two years, the Nigerian government has insisted it is winning or has won the war. According to the Nigerian army’s latest pronouncement, 700 Boko Haram captives recently escaped to Monguno, one of the local government areas of Borno state, after military operations in the region.

Pouring scorn on declarations of his death or capture, Shekau periodically releases video messages aimed at the government, the Nigerian people or a global audience. In the most notorious of these, he paraded the Chibok girls, a group of 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by his men, and vowed he would “sell them in the market”.

Culled from The Guardian

At least 17 people have been killed after a group of armed assailants stormed a church in southern Nigeria and went on a shooting spree, local officials say.

The deadly incident occurred in the town of Omoku, some 90 kilometers from the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt in Rivers State late on Monday, when dozens of churchgoers were returning from a New Year’s Eve service, said a local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Tuesday.

He added that at least 12 other people sustained injuries during the shooting and were rushed to a nearby hospital.

According to Osi Olisa, the chairman of a local community group, the gunmen also shot people on the road before escaping from the scene.

Meanwhile, Rivers State police public relations officer Nnamdi Omoni said the death toll could not be confirmed at the moment. “The commissioner of police, Ahmed Zaki, has also launched a manhunt for the bandits to ensure they are arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in the oil-rich state. Gun violence is common in parts of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region, composed of nine states, including Rivers, where an array of militant groups take up guns against multinational companies to demand a share of the oil proceeds.

Blighted by poverty despite a wealth of oil, Rivers State, in particular, is home to a number of powerful armed outfits, known as cults in Nigeria, who often enter in violent turf wars and rule the streets of the impoverished region.

Nigeria has also been suffering from deadly attacks claimed by the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group in northeast regions since 2009. At least 20,000 people have so far lost their lives in the attacks and more than 2.7 million others have been displaced.

The United Nations has already warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Presstv

Gunmen have killed 10 people in attacks on two Christian-dominated villages in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna, a hotbed of ethnic and religious strife, officials said Tuesday.

On Christmas Eve, six people were killed when gunmen suspected to be ethnic Fulani community stormed Ungwan Mailafiya, they said.

The killings followed an attack in nearby Nindem late Friday where gunmen opened fire on a congregation, killing four and injuring 10, said a local lawmaker.

“While we were mourning the deaths at Nindem … the security personnel received distress calls of another attack at Ungwan Mailafiya”, parliamentarian Shehu Nicholas Garba said in a statement.

“By daybreak on Christmas, six persons had been confirmed killed, including a child of about six years old, and many others injured,” he said.

A spokesman from the state government said troops had been deployed to prevent further violence.

Southern Kaduna has for three decades been locked in tit-for-tat killings between indigenous Christian farming communities and Hausa and Fulani settlers.

The dispute was originally over land and grazing rights but has lately degenerated into ethnic and religious conflicts, leaving hundreds dead.

(Source: AFP)

At least four people have been killed and several others injured in an explosion at a camp for people displaced by militancy in northeastern Nigeria.

The blast took place at about 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Monday in the border town of Pulka, the Gwoza area of Borno state. The troubled town is located about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast by road from the state capital Maiduguri.

A Spanish team from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym as the MSF, which is providing healthcare in the region, said the blast killed three people and injured seven, one of whom subsequently died after being admitted for treatment.

“All our staff are safe. The team is monitoring the security situation to assess any further steps,” Ivan Munoz, an MSF spokesman, said.

A Nigerian military source confirmed the deadly incident and put the death toll at five.

It was initially thought that the blast was caused by a bomber. But a military source in the town said later that the examination of the blast scene indicated it may have been caused by a mortar shell.

“We are still examining the fragments (of the mortar shell) to determine where it came from and who is responsible,” he said, adding, “It is not clear if it was a stray projectile or deliberate attack.”

The Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group has carried out attacks before against internally displaced people (IDP) across the region.

In September last year, at least seven people were killed when Boko Haram terrorists fired an RPG at a camp at Ngala in Borno state near the border with Cameroon.

More than 20,000 have been killed and over 2.5 million have been displaced in almost eight years of insurgency by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The Nigerian authorities claim the group has “technically” been defeated as a result of a massive operation that began in early 2015. However, civilians and security forces in northern Nigeria are still targeted in sporadic attacks.

Two attacks allegedly by the recruits of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group have left 13 people dead in northeastern Nigeria.

Police spokesman for Borno state, where the attacks took place on Saturday, said the bombings in the town of Biu also injured over 50 people.

It was not clear how many people were killed in the first attack, which came when a woman waiting in an aid distribution line detonated her explosives, and how many in the second one, which came nearby and caused little or almost no fatalities.

Those killed in the first attack were people affected by the eight years of Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed 20,000 people and left millions displaced in northeastern Nigeria and the neighboring countries.

Mohammed Maliya, a member of the aid team in Biu, said the woman who carried out the attack appeared relaxed and was eating a banana while waiting in line with others. She and the other woman were killed in the attacks.

Boko Haram normally uses women and girls to carry out attacks in northern Nigeria, especially now that the group has been pushed out of its old bastions in and around the provincial capital of Maiduguri. Biu, where the Saturday attacks happened, is about 185 kilometers (115 miles) from Maiduguri.

The Nigerian government claims that its massive counterinsurgency offensive in 2015 has rendered Boko Haram a spent force but it has faced criticism as the militant group still carries out assaults on civilians in crowded places in Borno and other places.

The skepticism about Nigeria’s success in rooting out Boko Haram has been exacerbated by a recent government declaration that it plans to gather civilians inside fortified garrison towns in the future and leave the militant group operating in the countryside.

Source: Presstv

The Nigerian Navy has taken delivery of 20 patrol boats that will be deployed on maritime security and counter-terrorism operations in Delta State south of the country. The consignment included 16 locally refurbished Epenal boats and four Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RIBS) of undefined make that were imported from South Africa.

The boats were commissioned into service in Delta State on 11 November by General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff. The boats will be used to boost the naval patrols in waterways around Warri in the south of the country. General Olonisakin said the security services remained committed to the provision of adequate security along the country’s waterways to protect the economy.

Naval Information Acting Director Captain Suleiman Dahun said the induction of the boats was part of the key priorities set in the Strategic Directives of 2017. “The newly acquired patrol boats will be deployed to boost the Nigerian Navy’s ongoing operations in tackling the major maritime crimes that include crude oil theft, illegal refining of crude oil, maritime terrorism as well as people and arms trafficking,” he said.

To complement the navy, the government recently approved a budget for the acquisition of maritime security assets that include a command and control centre, special mission aircraft, special mission patrol vessels and special mission helicopters for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

In August the Nigerian Navy took delivery of 30 8.2 metre long boats built by Epenal in Port Harcourt. Another 30 had been delivered to the Navy in February this year. Navy Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas said “These boats, no doubt, have boosted navy maritime operations.” The Navy also received nine vessels from Sri Lanka. Of the 39 boats received in August, Ibas said they “would be greatly helpful for patrol of territorial waters and the contiguous zone.”

Referring to the Epenal boats, Ibas said “The cost of production of a unit of the boat is less than half the cost of producing similar boats from overseas. These boats retained all positive features of the previous set including being fitted with appropriate weapons for credible firepower.”

Source: Defenseweb

Militants of the Takfiri terrorist group Boko Haram captured a town in northern Nigeria for several hours before being repelled by a massive army deployment.

A Nigerian military source said Sunday that Boko Haram militants had launched a “huge invasion” on the town of Magumeri, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Saturday evening before being pushed out by reinforcements that were deployed to the region.

“Reinforcements were later deployed and they engaged the terrorists, pushing them out of the town, which is now under the full control of the Nigerian military,” said the source on condition of anonymity.

He said the attack was allegedly a work of a faction of Boko Haram which is based in the Lake Chad region and led by Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi, a figure supported by Daesh Takfiri group.

A vigilante force in Magumeri said residents who had fled the town to nearby bushes returned to their homes after troops took control.

“This is a classic Boko Haram attack: to loot supplies and assert their presence,” said the vigilante fighter from Nigeria’s Civilian Joint Task Force, adding, “Even if troops hadn’t deployed they would have withdrawn after looting and destruction.”

3 soldiers killed, six wounded

The military said in a Sunday statement that three soldiers were killed and another six others were wounded in the clashes in Magumeri.

Colonel Timothy Antigha, a spokesman for 8 Task Force Division Nigerian Army, said the casualties came during an initial confrontation between soldiers and militants in a forward operating base in Magumeri.

“The troops fought gallantly. Unfortunately, three soldiers lost their lives while six others sustained injuries,” Antigha said.

Boko Haram has yet to claim the attack, the latest in a string of smash-and-grab raids by the group which experts say are meant to obtain food and supplies.

More than 20,000 have been killed and over 2.5 million have been displaced in almost eight years of insurgency by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Nigerian authorities claim the group has “technically” been defeated as a result of a massive operation that began in early 2015. However, civilians and security forces in northern Nigeria are still targeted in sporadic attacks. At least 50 people were killed this week in the town of Mubi in Adamawa state when a teenage recruit of Boko Haram detonated his explosives inside a mosque crowded by the Muslims.

Source: Presstv