The bloody clash between the police and members of an Islamic fundamentalist group known as Boko Haram (“education is sin”), which left many dead in the early hours of Sunday in Bauchi, has spread to other states in the North.
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who was in Ilorin, Kwara State, yesterday to inaugurate the multi-billion naira Ganmo power sub-station completed by the Governor Bukola Saraki administration, has directed all the national security outfits to combine forces to immediately contain further spread of the religious crisis.
The President’s directive according to a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, followed a situation briefing by the heads of the security agencies on the violent attacks in parts of Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Yobe States.
The militant group opposed to western education, which has been campaigning for the imposition of Sharia’h (Islamic law) on the 36 states of the federation, allegedly sparked off the crisis when its members launched an attack on a police station in Bauchi, leading to the bloodbath.
Over 150 people were left dead, while indigenes of the area are said to be fleeing their homes.
By yesterday, the attack by the group had spread to Borno, Yobe, Gombe and Kano States.
Adeniyi said: “President Yar’Adua directed that no effort should be spared in identifying, arresting and prosecuting leaders and members of the extremist sects involved in the attacks.
“The President further directed that security be beefed up in all neighbouring states and security personnel placed on full alert to ensure that the attacks by misguided elements do not spread elsewhere.”
He noted that “President Yar’Adua deeply regrets the unnecessary loss of lives occasioned by the wanton and unprovoked attacks on the police and other innocent Nigerians in the affected states.”
But early yesterday, it emerged like a war situation in Maiduguri, Borno State as members of the sect led by one Mohammed Yusuf, who had earlier threatened to attack security installations and government establishments in the state, made good their threat.
They attacked the state police headquarters and some police stations along with some churches and mosques.
Over 100 adherents of the sect and few military personnel and police officers were said to have been killed in the clash.
It was gathered that the assault started around noon on Sunday when the fundamentalists in military camouflage stormed the police headquarters and other structures within the area in Maiduguri with petrol bomb, bows, arrows and other weapons with the aim of levelling the entire place.
The fundamentalists also gained access into the Police Mobile College, Maiduguri, beside the Police headquarters, after killing the Sergeant on guard.
They immediately moved into the quarters, burning down nine houses and slaughtering some policemen in the process before they were forced out of the area by riot policemen who shot sporadically at them.
They also attacked other parts of the town during which two police stations, Lamisula and Gamboru, were razed even as some churches and mosques were burnt with scores of civilian casualties recorded.
The new prison within Maiduguri metropolis was attacked where the fundamentalists freed inmates and killed some prison officers even as the spill-over of the attack is said to have reached Gamboru Ngala, about 70 kilometres from the state capital and other parts of the state.
Though the police casualties and those of the military could not be ascertained as at press time when THISDAY visited the police headquarters, but 52 corpses of the fundamentalists were on display.
It was gathered that five police officers on training at the Mobile Police College were killed at the college’s dormitory, while the Second-in-Command of the riot police in the state, simply called Superintendent Farouk, was also killed in the fundamentalists’ attack.
It was learnt that a journalist with the Daily Trust, Ahmed Salkida, was abducted for some hours by the fundamentalists for allegedly leaking information to the police authorities before he was later released after a series of appeals.
It was also discovered that all mobile networks except that of Starcomms were down for the major part of yesterday.
This was said to be for the strategic reason of preventing the militants from communicating with each other which could aid their mobilisation.
The main entry and exit points into the town have also been cordoned off and the few people moving about the town are being thoroughly searched by the police.
Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of the state, who was not in any mood to speak with the press on the development, was seen at the state police headquarters in company with his deputy, Alhaji Yuguda Dibal, and Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ambassador Baba Ahmad Jida, at about 3.30 pm trying to put their heads together on the next line of action.
In the meantime, the governor has placed an indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew on the state capital, Maiduguri, and neighbouring Jere as a result of the attack.
A press statement by the governor’s Director of Press, Alhaji Usman Ciroma, said the curfew, from 7 pm to 6 am, would be in place until the situation improves.
In Damaturu, Yobe State capital, the fundamentalists also attacked some police stations in the early hours of Monday which made the government to slam a curfew on the state.
The state government said the curfew would be from 10 pm to 6 am in order to curtail the crisis from escalating and to halt the spill-over to other neighbouring states.
THISDAY learnt the decision was taken yesterday after a security meeting at the Government House, Damaturu.
In Kano State, the fundamentalists attacked Wudil Police Station and injured the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Sagir Idris, and one riot policeman in a gun duel.
However, the police in Kano killed three of the fundamentalists and arrested 33 others, which include some Chadians who can neither speak English nor Hausa, as they only speak Arabic.
During their surveillance on the main entrance to Kano from Bauchi and Maiduguri, the police also arrested over 100 people in two trucks, loaded with people alleged to be members of the Islamic group.
Addressing reporters at the Police Command, the state Police Commissioner Ibrahim Mamman Chafe said the suspected fundamentalists, who unleashed terror on the divisional police station and ran away with two AK 47 guns belonging to the police, left after exchanging fire with the police.
The commissioner, who spoke through the Public Relations Officer of the command, SP Baba Mohammed, explained that the operation team led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police Lawal Tanko successfully arrested 33 members of the group, while the town of Wudil is now calm and peaceful.
According to him, the divisional police officer of Wudil, CSP Sagir Idris, who sustained injuries in the clash, had been admitted at the Dala Orthopaedic Hospital for treatment, while a riot policeman was also admitted at Nassarawa Hospital for treatment.
Speaking with THISDAY after being paraded at the police headquarters, one of the arrested fundamentalists, who gave his name as Mallam Abdulmuminu Ibrahim Muhammad, said he had no regret for being a member of the group.
“It is Jihad; Western education is a bad practice,” he said.
The Kaduna State Police Command has confirmed the arrest and arraignment of 21 members of the sect in Malali area of the metropolis.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Isaac Ike, told newsmen that the fundamentalists were arrested and charged to court when it was discovered that they constituted security threat in the state.
“We brought them here, had interaction with them; and when we saw that perhaps they are going to be security risk, they were arrested and prosecuted – charged to court last week,” he stated.
Also, the Taraba State Police Command has strengthened security in the state while in Adamawa, 17 persons suspected to be fundamentalists involved in the latest sectarian crisis in Bauchi and other parts of the North were arrested in Yola at the weekend.
The suspects were arrested at a checkpoint mounted by the police as all roads leading to and from the state have been cordoned-off by a combined team of military, police and other security outfits.
Speaking to newsmen at the command headquarters in Jalingo, Police Public Relations Officer Babaina Sani said the command had received signals on the attack in the neighbouring states and had placed Taraba on “red alert” as all the police divisions and outposts in the state had been informed to be attentive on the happening in their area.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have condemned the outbreak of the religious crisis in some parts of the North.
ACF’s National Publicity Secretary Anthony Sani said the rationale behind the attack by the Islamic sect could not have been in accordance with the Islamic injunction the world over.
He said: “The recent skirmishes and attacks on the Police in Maiduguri and Bauchi caused by some religious militants who claim Western education is a taboo are regrettable and, thus, condemnable by Arewa Consultative Forum and peace-loving Nigerians.”
In the same vein, the Publicity Secretary of CAN in 19 Northern states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Rev. John Josept Hayab, said the attacks by the sect were premeditated, even as he blamed the security agencies for not averting them.
Briefing newsmen in Kaduna, the CAN spokesman, said the militants were the true enemies of the government; hence they should be fished out and be prosecuted along with their sponsors.
Jul282009