EXCLUSIVE:
Secret Intelligence Report links ex-Governor Sheriff, Chad President to Boko
Haram sponsorship
Ex-Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and
President Jonathan at a meeting with the President of Chad, Idris Deby
New facts showing stronger links
between former governor of Borno state, Ali Modu Sheriff, and the Boko Haram
sect have emerged, further fuelling suggestions the ex-governor is a major
financier of the terrorist sect.
Intelligence insights obtained by
PREMIUM TIMES in Maiduguri, Damaturu, and Abuja show dated communications
between field officers and the velvet ranks of Nigeria’s military chronicling
Mr. Sheriff’s involvement in promoting the growth of the sect.
The communications painted a picture
of what appears to be a powerful regional support structure involving the
Chadian president, Nigerian officials and Niger Republic, and spearheaded by
Mr. Sheriff whom the intelligence presents as a powerful figure within this
circle.
Strong evidence indicates that the
Nigerian government received actionable intelligence about Mr. Sheriff’s links
to Boko Haram as far back as 2011 but has, curiously, ignored all warnings and
nudges to act to stop the Boko Haram call him in for interrogation.
Mr. Sheriff has long been suspected
of masterminding the Boko Haram sect, but the documents sighted by this
newspaper offers deeper understanding into how Mr. Sheriff allegedly finances
the deadly sect and his probable motivations.
When Sheriff visits Abeche
Nourished by deep and impeccable
sources from members of the Chadian Army, Nigerian intelligence experts had
arrived at fairly certain conclusions that Mr. Sheriff was actively involved in
the recruitment, training and deployment of Boko Haram members.
“…members of Boko Haram sect are
sometimes kept in Abeche region in Chad and trained before being dispersed.
This happens usually when Mr. Sheriff visits Abeche,” a 2011 intelligence memo
from field officers in N’djamena,the capital of Chad, read.
When Mr. Sheriff visits Abeche for
these activities, he lodges in Chadian Presidential Guest House in Abeche, and
is provided security by the Chadian government, the intelligence communications
claim.
Mr. Sheriff is a close friend of the
Chadian president, Idris Deby.
In 2011, during the Chadian
presidential elections, Mr. Sheriff reportedly supported the Chadian president
with 35 vehicles, for security, and is believed to have significantly
bankrolled Mr. Deby’s re-election.
Nigerian defence and intelligence
community members typically describe Mr. Sheriff as a gun runner in their many
communications, and they often speak in conviction that his weapons find their
way into Nigeria through Niger Republic into Yobe state. Yobe is Boko Haram’s
stronghold and has suffered heavy casualties in magnitudes only second to
Borno.
Money, Politics and Power
Back in August 2011, intelligence
officials were characterising Mr. Sheriff’s motivations for sponsoring Boko
Haram as similar to a certain “3rd generation South South governor,” with the
aim of covering up financial irregularities he might have committed as governor
of Borno state, as well as propagate a stay-put in office strategy by
suppressing the opposition.
The officials suggest that Mr.
Sheriff did not create the sect but was actively using the “monster” and could
be sponsoring the sect as a way of protecting himself from the sect members who
were “calling for his head” at the time.
“One way of reclaiming the lost
loyalty of the sect therefore, was sponsorship of their cause,” intelligence
officials were telling their principals.
Mr. Sheriff was not reachable for
his comments. A former commissioner under his administration as governor of
Borno state who also speaks for him, Inuwa Bwala, told PREMIUM TIMES Mr.
Sheriff was outside the country and could not respond to enquiries.
Both the Nigerian defence
headquarters and the Nigerian government also declined to comment on this
intelligence.
Phone calls were not answered, and
text messages were not replied to.
This is not the first time that Mr.
Sheriff will be accused of links to the terrorist group, Boko Haram. He
denies any links.
An April 2, 2012 report by a
Cameroonian daily, L’Oriel du Sahel, said the former governor, now a
member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was arrested in 2012 upon
entering Cameroon from Chad on his way to meeting the governor of that
country’s northern region.
The report said Cameroonian police
authorities questioned Mr. Sheriff for hours and only released him later
following pressure from senior government officials in that country.
An Ambassador Usman Galtimari Panel,
set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to investigate the genesis of the
insurgency in the North East, had also blamed Mr. Sheriff for the
growth of Boko Haram in a report.
Chadian President Connection
An Australian negotiator, Stephen
Davis, recently named Mr. Sheriff, alongside former Nigerian Army Chief,
Azubuike Ihejirika, as sponsors of the Boko Haram sect, quoting the sect’s
leadership.
Nigeria’s intelligence authorities
have been equivocal on the role of Mr. Ihejirika in promoting the deadly
sect whose bloody campaign have killed up to 5000 Nigerians and left many
homeless, broken and internally displaced, but they have lately spoken
of the Chadian president, Mr. Deby, as a new dimension to the Boko Haram
sponsorship dynamics.
In 2011, a strong Boko Haram army
was also beneficial to the Chadian president, as it provided a “ready army and
possible refuge” for a president that was facing growing distrust from his
legitimate army, Nigerian intelligence officials claimed.
The Chadian president’s support
for the sect was made majorly through his friendship with Mr. Sheriff and
at the expense of his country’s relationship with Nigeria, the report said.
Transformed sect
Violence by the Boko Haram sect,
which had only religious interest in the past, is traceable to the five days of
clashes in July 2009, between the group and members of the security forces in
Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, and Kano states that left more than 800 people dead, including
at least 30 police officers.
The police summarily executed the
captured Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, along with several dozen of his
followers in front of the police headquarters in Maiduguri. Dozens of its
members were also arrested.
Boko Haram frequently said its
attacks on the government, especially the police, are in revenge for these
killings and an attempt to set free members incarcerated by the police.
Recently, the ideology behind Boko
Haram attacks got more confusing with increasing attacks on schools, media
houses and almost any soft target with wide media reach. The group has gotten
bolder by the day and has shown interest in capturing and occupying cities it
calls its Caliphates.
The sect has overrun towns and
villages, including Mubi, Michika, Bazza, Gulak, Gwoza, Bama, Gamboru and Ngala
in Adamawa and Borno states. Ngala is the home place Mr. Sheriff.
- See more at:
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