Boko Haram claims responsibility for Abuja blast
The Punch on 20 April, 2014
The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility for a bombing in Abuja that killed at least 75 people in Abuja. Agence France-Presse last Sunday reports that Shekau made the claim in a video message it obtained on Saturday.
“We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja,” Shekau said in the 28-minute video, referring to the deadly attack in Nigeria’s capital which targeted a bus station packed with morning commuters.
Seated with a Kalashnikov resting on his left shoulder and dressed in military uniform, the insurgent commander spoke in both Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.
AFP states it got the Boko Haram video message in a manner consistent with previous videos it received from sect.
The bombing at the Nyanya bus terminal on the outskirts of Abuja was the first major attack in the capital in two years.
Most of the insurgents’ violence in recent months had been concentrated in the group’s remote north-eastern stronghold, where the military is waging an 11-month-old offensive.
Shekau indicated that Boko Haram had fighters based in the capital.
“We are in your city,” he said, addressing Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan.
Shekau has been declared a global terrorist by the US, which has put a $7m bounty on his head.
Hours after the Abuja bombing, gunmen stormed a girls’ school in Borno and kidnapped 129 students, an attack also blamed on Boko Haram that has sparked global outrage.
Twenty-four of the girls have escaped so far, according to officials, and the military has said it has launched a major search and rescue operation.
Kidnapped schoolgirls: Nigeria extends search to Cameroon, Chad borders
The Punch on 20 April, 2014
The Nigerian military has begun a deployment of soldiers along the country’s northern borders as part of efforts to rescue schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect on Monday night, SUNDAY PUNCH authoritatively reports
No fewer than 129 girls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary school, Chibok, Borno State.
A day after the attack, 14 of the girls escaped when one of the lorries in which they were being conveyed broke down. On Friday, another 14 escaped from their abductors, close to a Cameroon border, leaving 85 in the custody of the sect.
The principal of the school, Mrs. Asabe Kwambura, reportedly said members of the sect were dressed in military uniforms.
The Defence Headquarters had on Wednesday said the military had rescued 107 girls of the abducted pupils.
But on Thursday, Kwambura faulted the claim of the Defence Headquarters that 107 girls had been rescued.
Kwambura, had, in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, said apart from the 14 pupils that escaped from the sect, she was not aware of any that had been released.
She had described the statement of the military as “a blatant lie.”
The Defence Headquarters later on Wednesday night retracted its statement on the release of the 107 schoolgirls.
In a statement by the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, the military authorities said, “In the light of the denial by the principal of the school, the Defence Headquarters wishes to defer to the school principal and the governor’s statement on the number of students still missing.”
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt on Friday that the troops were deployed in the borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, with the largest concentration along the Cameroonian area.
A top military source who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that the military was concentrating on the borders because members of the sect might want to sneak the schoolgirls out of Nigeria.
The source said, “There has been a large movement of troops along Nigerian borders. Soldiers are being conveyed in buses as part of efforts to rescue the girls.
“The information we have is that the kidnappers are still within Nigeria, especially within the Sambisa terrain, hence the deployment of more troops at borders to prevent their escape to neighbouring countries.”
When our correspondent contacted Olukolade, he confirmed the deployment, adding that soldiers were still in pursuit of those holding the schoolgirls.
‘The deployment is part of the entire operation; it is part of the general operation there. Soldiers are still in pursuit of those who are holding them,” he said
He declined to make further comments.
Our correspondent further learnt that when the girls were abducted, the sect ambushed security forces that were chasing them, killing a soldier in the process.
Another top security source told SUNDAY PUNCH that the sect might have divided the girls into different groups and separated them to make it impossible to get all the girls in one place.
He said, “The soldiers that were going to intervene were ambushed on the way. One soldier died in the ambush; soldiers fought through the ambush and continued their movement but they were delayed. The planners were meticulous; they planned for intervention.
“We have an intelligence report that it might be difficult to retrieve all the girls in one group; they (the sect) have divided the girls into small groups, which will make it difficult to get them all in one spot.”
One of the girls who escaped was said to have disclosed that the sect members did not harass them sexually.
The security source, who confided in our correspondent, quoted the girl to have said, “They didn’t mess us up, but they (the sect members) told us to cook food for them. We also have a report that they have not reached their destination.”
The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, declined commenting on the Federal Government’s rescue mission for the kidnapped girls. He said it was a matter for security agencies to comment on.
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