Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Fleeing Boko Haram fighters drown in Lake Chad
Posted by: Yusuf Alli in Featured, News 4 days ago
Scores of Boko Haram terrorists drowned in Lake Chad at the weekend as they sought an escape route following a siege to the fishing town of Baga, Borno State, by Nigerian troops.
The insurgents had seized the town last month, and then proceeded to plunder the military base in the town.
But the troops had the last laugh yesterday after catching the insurgents unawares in a complex operation which the Defence Headquarters said involved clearing over 1,500 land mines laid across the area by the terrorists.
Many other insurgents died during the ground and air strikes, the DHQ said.
Five anti-aircraft guns belonging to the sect were destroyed while 34 motorcycles and five vehicles were recovered from them.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said in a statement that “a large number of terrorists drowned in the Lake Chad as they fled the heavy bombardment by Nigerian Air force heralding the advance of Nigerian troops on mission to flush them out of Baga.
“Not even the strategy of mining over 1500 spots with land mines on the routes leading to the town could save the terrorists from the aggressive move of advancing troops.
“All the land mines were skillfully cleared one after the other. Eventually, the resistance of the terrorists collapsed and the land forces finally stormed the town in the early hours of Friday.
“Many of the terrorists died while an unknown but substantial number of them fled with various degrees of injury, in the series of encounter along the routes of advance as troops headed for Baga.”
He said the troops began clearing the terrorists from Baga on arrival in the town early yesterday.
A comprehensive cordon and search phase of military operation, he said, “has now commenced to enable troops mop up arms and ammunition and also apprehend any terrorist who might be hiding in the vicinity.”
The exercise will also determine details of the casualties inflicted or incurred in the course of the operations.
He said troops are also engaging the insurgents in 12 other locations: Gajigana, Ngaze, Ngenzai, Marte Junction, Mile 90, Yoyo, Kekeno, Kukawa, Cross Kauwa, Kangarwa, Amirari “and other localities where troops have flushed out the terrorists in the operations preceding the entry to Baga.”
“The troops are now dominating and conducting aggressive patrols in the locations. The morale of troops remain high,” Olukolade added.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/fleeing-boko-haram-fighters-drown-in-lake-chad/
Boko Haram Members Who Disguised As Woman Caught In Baga
Marie Sana February 24, 2015 
Boko Haram Members Who Disguised As Woman Caught In Baga
Boko Haram Members Who Disguised As Woman Caught In Baga – The Defence headquarters has disclosed that following the air and ground assault to flush out Boko Haram terrorists from Baga, its cordon and search operation has revealed some terrorists disguising as women.
A statement signed by Major General Chris Olukolade said, “The searches are also yielding more discoveries of arms especially bombs hidden in various locations, especially Baga town.
“Apart from those captured in the course of fighting, many arrests of terrorists hiding in the town are being made and troops are still busy interrogating the suspects.
“Meanwhile, in furtherance of the mission to clear terrorists from all their enclaves by the military, the Nigerian Air Force has stepped up its air bombardment of identified targets in Gwoza, Bama and Sambisa forest, preparatory to other phases of the mission.
“The air strikes have been highly successful as they achieved the aims, hitting vital targets with required precision.
“Terrorists are now in disarray as they scamper to escape from the impact of air bombardment of their locations in the forest.
Having successfully liberated Baga where the terrorists have been marauding, the troops’ attention has now been focused on consolidation of the security of the area to pave way for return of citizens.
http://www.hopefornigeriaonline.com/boko-haram-members-who-disguised-as-woman-caught-in-baga/
Boko Haram Members Who Disguised As Woman Caught In Baga
Boko Haram Members Who Disguised As Woman Caught In Baga – The Defence headquarters has disclosed that following the air and ground assault to flush out Boko Haram terrorists from Baga, its cordon and search operation has revealed some terrorists disguising as women.
A statement signed by Major General Chris Olukolade said, “The searches are also yielding more discoveries of arms especially bombs hidden in various locations, especially Baga town.
“Apart from those captured in the course of fighting, many arrests of terrorists hiding in the town are being made and troops are still busy interrogating the suspects.
“Meanwhile, in furtherance of the mission to clear terrorists from all their enclaves by the military, the Nigerian Air Force has stepped up its air bombardment of identified targets in Gwoza, Bama and Sambisa forest, preparatory to other phases of the mission.
“The air strikes have been highly successful as they achieved the aims, hitting vital targets with required precision.
“Terrorists are now in disarray as they scamper to escape from the impact of air bombardment of their locations in the forest.
Having successfully liberated Baga where the terrorists have been marauding, the troops’ attention has now been focused on consolidation of the security of the area to pave way for return of citizens.
http://www.hopefornigeriaonline.com/boko-haram-members-who-disguised-as-woman-caught-in-baga/
House Applauds Jonathan, Military for Onslaught Against Boko Haram
25 Feb 2015
President Goodluck Jonathan
• APC hails troops, blames president for allowing insurgency to fester • Jonathan condemns bombings in Kano, Potiskum • Nigeria: Israel crucial in fight against sect
Muhammad Bello, Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Jaiyeola Andrews in Abuja, Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano and Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri with agency report
Setting partisan politics aside, the House of Representatives on Tuesday applauded President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian military for the latter’s recent recapture of several towns and communities that had fallen under the control of the terror group, Boko Haram, in the North-east, particularly Borno State.
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) showered the same praise on the troops, but blamed Jonathan for allowing the insurgency to fester and the resultant deaths of 15,000 Nigerians.
But their praise coincided with the condemnation by the president of two suicide bombings yesterday at bus stations in Kano and Potiskum which resulted in the death of 27 persons in both cities.
Prompted by a motion of urgent national importance moved by Hon. Muhammad Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), the House praised the military for its bravery and steadfastness, noting that in previous months, Boko Haram had nearly over-run Borno State, but added that the tide was turning against the insurgents as a result of the gallantry of the soldiers.
According to Monguno, prior to the new offensive against the terror group, Boko Haram had subdued some communities, hoisted their flags in the local government headquarters and subjected the people to despicable acts of torture.
“Almost all the local governments taken over by Boko Haram have now been liberated, so the armed forces require some encouragement from us in the parliament,” Monguno stated.
Arguing in the same vein, Hon. Abubakar Momoh (SDP, Edo) also commended the effort of the military in chasing out the insurgents. “We were aware that a few months ago, Boko Haram unleashed a reign of terror on many parts of the North-east. But today, this has been curtailed,” Momoh said.
“We need to commend the military and the Commander-in-Chief, President Jonathan, who made it possible for the soldiers to operate effectively,” he added.
Similarly, the Deputy House Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta), observed that the development in Borno and other places “is a sign that the military is working”.
“It is therefore important to appreciate what they are doing. We also need to commend other nations – Chad, Cameroun and Niger – for assisting us in fighting this battle.
“We need, also, to commend the Commander-in-Chief for his bold steps in ensuring that there is security in the beleaguered areas within six weeks (before the elections),” Ogor said.
Also, the House shifted the consideration of a motion sponsored by the Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), seeking to nullify, on constitutional grounds, the use of soldiers to provide security during elections, till today.
If Gbajabiamila’s request sails through, the House may resolve to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the role played by military personnel, and any other person(s) who featured in the said audio tape saga in the run up to Ekiti State governorship election.
It may also call on the federal government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the military authorities and other stakeholders to obey the ruling of the Federal High Court, Sokoto, which declared that deployment of soldiers during elections is unconstitutional.
In this regard, the House may urge the federal government not to deploy military personnel during the elections in compliance with the decision of the court.
But as the House commended Jonathan and the military for the routing of Boko Haram in some sections of the North-east, the opposition APC elected yesterday to limit its praise to the troops.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the president bears a huge moral responsibility that would haunt him for a long time to come for deliberately allowing the Boko Haram insurgency to fester, leading to the deaths of over 15,000 Nigerians and the displacement of over three million others in the past six years.
The party further alleged that Jonathan deliberately allowed the
Boko Haram crisis to fester because he and his team saw it as their trump card for winning re-election in 2015.
On the military, APC said the string of victories recorded by the troops over the insurgents had confirmed its stand that the Nigerian military can hold its own anywhere and anytime, if provided with the necessary equipment and if the morale of the troops is not undermined.
It said by his own admission that he and his team “underrated the capacity of Boko Haram”, the president has finally owned up to his globally-acknowledged incompetence, a development which, in truly democratic societies, should be part of a statement of resignation by a leader whose terrible error of judgment has caused so many deaths and inflicted so much pain and sorrow on his compatriots.
APC said: “The truth is that Jonathan deliberately allowed the Boko Haram crisis to fester because he and his team saw it as their trump card for winning re-election in 2015 by currying local and global sectarian sympathy with a Muslim-group-killing-Christians narrative that totally distorts the fact that Boko Haram is a band of marauders who have no consideration for ethnicity, regionalism, religion or any other thing beyond their mad disposition to terror.”
It recalled that the APC had raised the alarm on many occasions, including during an appearance at the British Parliament in 2014 when the party’s spokesman had warned that the PDP and the president were using the Boko Haram crisis as a trump card to retain power in 2015.
“Is it not curious that the same president who has stood by while Boko Haram decimates a whole section of the country over the past six years has suddenly realised there is something he could do to crush the sect in six weeks?
“Is it not curious that a military that has been globally acknowledged for its successes in peacekeeping at regional and international levels has suddenly found itself unable to tackle a band of criminals?
“Is it not curious that the necessary fighting equipment that have not been made available to the military, despite the injection of over $32 billion into the defence and security sector since 2008, have suddenly become available?
“There are more questions to be asked: At what point did President Jonathan begin to have a clear idea that Boko Haram is a major threat to the very survival of our country? Was it after about 300 innocent girls were abducted from their school in Chibok or before?
“Was it after hundreds of boys were slaughtered in a secondary school in Buni Yadi or before? Or was it before or after the Nyanya bomb blast that led to the deaths of hundreds of people? Just when did our president wake up to his primary responsibility?
“The truth is that after their Boko Haram-as-a-trump-card strategy blew up in their face and their electoral fortunes plummeted, the PDP-led Jonathan administration came to the realisation that a stepped-up campaign against the insurgents is needed to revive their electoral fortunes, hence they then decided to pep up the military and rally regional troops - the same suggestions from the opposition that the administration has pointedly ignored over the years - to combat the terrorists.
“President Jonathan, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces, must take responsibility for the monumental cost, whether of his incompetence or his political strategy-gone-awry or both, apologise to the nation and immediately back down from seeking re-election.
“The president must not be allowed to profit from an error of judgement that has cost 15,000 lives, forced over 3 million out of their homes and cost the taxpayers $32.88 billion.”
The party also expressed concern at the efforts of the Jonathan administration to make Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau look invincible, with the president's statement that Shekau would be caught before the elections.
APC said while Nigerians would undoubtedly be happy and relieved to see the end of Boko Haram, they must be wondering what would have happened if the plummeting electoral fortunes of the president had not forced his administration to push for the six-week postponement of the
general election.
“They must also be wondering what would have happened if the elections had been scheduled for 2016, instead of 2015,” it stated.
The party commended the long-suffering, gallant Nigerian soldiers and called on all Nigerians to continue to support them and the battle against insurgency.
Meanwhile, the president on Tuesday condemned the reversion by the terrorist group to the callous bombing of soft targets in parts of Nigeria in the wake of the ongoing rapid recovery by Nigerian troops and their multinational allies of areas formerly controlled by the sect.
In a statement by his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, Jonathan commiserated with all the families who lost loved ones in the bombings in Kano and Potiskum.
“The president shares the grief of all the bereaved families and is deeply saddened by the continued loss of many innocent lives at the hands of misguided and desperate fanatics who are now feeling the heat of the intense counter-insurgency operation by the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“The president assures all Nigerians and the people of the North-eastern states in particular that the days of mourning victims of incessant terrorist attacks in the country will soon be over as the tide has now definitely turned against Boko Haram.
“President Jonathan further assures the people of Nigeria that the gallant, courageous and patriotic officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, supported with new platforms, equipment and logistics provided by the federal government will carry the ongoing operations against the terrorists through to a successful conclusion in the shortest possible time,” the statement said.
The president affirmed that his administration would continue to take all necessary action to guarantee the success of ongoing military operations against the terrorist group and drastically reduce its ability to take and hold territory or recruit, groom and brainwash young persons to undertake suicide bombing attacks on soft targets.
The president’s reaction came on the heels of two suicide bombings in bus parks in Kano and Potiskum yesterday, leading to the death of 27 in both cities.
In Potiskum, Yobe State, 15 persons were reported to have been killed in yet another suicide bomb attack on the town, which is fast becoming the most targeted town by the terror group in the country.
The latest attack, which occurred at a bus park in the town, according to a source at the General Hospital in Potiskum, also left 53 persons with severe injuries.
A nurse at the General Hospital, who did not want to be named,
informed THISDAY that 15 corpses were brought to the hospital morgue from the scene of the bomb attack.
She equally disclosed that 53 wounded persons were brought to the hospital's Accident and Emergency Unit, expressing fears that based on the severity of the injuries, the death toll from the attack might rise.
There was however no clearcut description of the sex of the person who might have been responsible for the suicide attack.
A source in the town, who said the explosion happened at about 11.45 am, claimed that a female suicide bomber entered a vehicle at a mini bus park along Kano Road under the pretext that she was travelling.
The driver of the vehicle, a Toyota bus with Kano registration number XA 592 GBT, was waiting for the bus to be filled with passengers when the bomb went off inside the vehicle.
Another source, however, said that the suicide bomber was a female, who moments after alighting from a tricycle opposite the park, dashed into the bus and succeeded in killing 15 people including herself.
In the Kano incident, the bomb blast was said to have occurred at the famous Kano Line bus station located along Zaria Road in the bustling city. Two male suicide bombers who disguised themselves as passengers willing to travel were blamed for the attack.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, told reporters at the scene of the blast that 12 persons including the two suicide bombers were killed by the blast.
“Two male suicide bombers disguised as passengers and one of them was able to board a Sharon bus then blew himself and the passengers in the bus,” he said.
Idris said: “The investigation is still at a preliminary stage, that is why we cannot give a comprehensive account of the injured ones. But we learned that some people sustained various degrees of injuries. They have since been conveyed to a hospital for immediate medical attention.”
He added that the blast occurred around 3 pm and involved two Sharon buses and one Golf VW car that were burnt by the blast.
Idris however dismissed the notion that the two suicide bombers were set ablaze by angry youths at the scene of the blast.
The suicide bombers were said to be teenagers between the ages of 17 and 18.
Eyewitnesses also gave conflicting accounts on how the tragedy occurred, claiming that the suicide bombers were three in number and had found their way to the station by jumping the fence at the back of the bus park, with one of them reported to have escaped unscathed.
Another eyewitness also faulted the official casualty figures given by the police, stating that the corpses he counted were higher than the ones reported to have been killed.
In a related incident, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, has praised Israel for being a “crucial and loyal ally” in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram.
“Israel has been a crucial and loyal ally in our fight against Boko Haram,” Omeri, who is also the chief coordinating spokesman of the National Information Centre, told the Jerusalem Post.
“It is a sad reality that Israel has a great deal of experience confronting terrorism. Our Israeli partners have used that experience, and the unique expertise gained over the years of fighting terror within its own borders, to assist us,” he said.
Nigeria has forged closer ties with Israel in recent years under Jonathan. In 2013, Jonathan visited Israel and signed an aviation deal to allow more Nigerian Christian pilgrims to visit the Jewish state.
Israel, meanwhile, has provided assistance to Nigeria in the search for about 300 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram last year.
Nigerian-Israeli relations have also borne fruit on the diplomatic front.
Nigeria recently voted to abstain on a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for Israeli withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017 and the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian state.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/house-applauds-jonathan-military-for-onslaught-against-boko-haram/202682/
President Goodluck Jonathan
• APC hails troops, blames president for allowing insurgency to fester • Jonathan condemns bombings in Kano, Potiskum • Nigeria: Israel crucial in fight against sect
Muhammad Bello, Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Jaiyeola Andrews in Abuja, Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano and Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri with agency report
Setting partisan politics aside, the House of Representatives on Tuesday applauded President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian military for the latter’s recent recapture of several towns and communities that had fallen under the control of the terror group, Boko Haram, in the North-east, particularly Borno State.
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) showered the same praise on the troops, but blamed Jonathan for allowing the insurgency to fester and the resultant deaths of 15,000 Nigerians.
But their praise coincided with the condemnation by the president of two suicide bombings yesterday at bus stations in Kano and Potiskum which resulted in the death of 27 persons in both cities.
Prompted by a motion of urgent national importance moved by Hon. Muhammad Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), the House praised the military for its bravery and steadfastness, noting that in previous months, Boko Haram had nearly over-run Borno State, but added that the tide was turning against the insurgents as a result of the gallantry of the soldiers.
According to Monguno, prior to the new offensive against the terror group, Boko Haram had subdued some communities, hoisted their flags in the local government headquarters and subjected the people to despicable acts of torture.
“Almost all the local governments taken over by Boko Haram have now been liberated, so the armed forces require some encouragement from us in the parliament,” Monguno stated.
Arguing in the same vein, Hon. Abubakar Momoh (SDP, Edo) also commended the effort of the military in chasing out the insurgents. “We were aware that a few months ago, Boko Haram unleashed a reign of terror on many parts of the North-east. But today, this has been curtailed,” Momoh said.
“We need to commend the military and the Commander-in-Chief, President Jonathan, who made it possible for the soldiers to operate effectively,” he added.
Similarly, the Deputy House Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta), observed that the development in Borno and other places “is a sign that the military is working”.
“It is therefore important to appreciate what they are doing. We also need to commend other nations – Chad, Cameroun and Niger – for assisting us in fighting this battle.
“We need, also, to commend the Commander-in-Chief for his bold steps in ensuring that there is security in the beleaguered areas within six weeks (before the elections),” Ogor said.
Also, the House shifted the consideration of a motion sponsored by the Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), seeking to nullify, on constitutional grounds, the use of soldiers to provide security during elections, till today.
If Gbajabiamila’s request sails through, the House may resolve to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the role played by military personnel, and any other person(s) who featured in the said audio tape saga in the run up to Ekiti State governorship election.
It may also call on the federal government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the military authorities and other stakeholders to obey the ruling of the Federal High Court, Sokoto, which declared that deployment of soldiers during elections is unconstitutional.
In this regard, the House may urge the federal government not to deploy military personnel during the elections in compliance with the decision of the court.
But as the House commended Jonathan and the military for the routing of Boko Haram in some sections of the North-east, the opposition APC elected yesterday to limit its praise to the troops.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the president bears a huge moral responsibility that would haunt him for a long time to come for deliberately allowing the Boko Haram insurgency to fester, leading to the deaths of over 15,000 Nigerians and the displacement of over three million others in the past six years.
The party further alleged that Jonathan deliberately allowed the
Boko Haram crisis to fester because he and his team saw it as their trump card for winning re-election in 2015.
On the military, APC said the string of victories recorded by the troops over the insurgents had confirmed its stand that the Nigerian military can hold its own anywhere and anytime, if provided with the necessary equipment and if the morale of the troops is not undermined.
It said by his own admission that he and his team “underrated the capacity of Boko Haram”, the president has finally owned up to his globally-acknowledged incompetence, a development which, in truly democratic societies, should be part of a statement of resignation by a leader whose terrible error of judgment has caused so many deaths and inflicted so much pain and sorrow on his compatriots.
APC said: “The truth is that Jonathan deliberately allowed the Boko Haram crisis to fester because he and his team saw it as their trump card for winning re-election in 2015 by currying local and global sectarian sympathy with a Muslim-group-killing-Christians narrative that totally distorts the fact that Boko Haram is a band of marauders who have no consideration for ethnicity, regionalism, religion or any other thing beyond their mad disposition to terror.”
It recalled that the APC had raised the alarm on many occasions, including during an appearance at the British Parliament in 2014 when the party’s spokesman had warned that the PDP and the president were using the Boko Haram crisis as a trump card to retain power in 2015.
“Is it not curious that the same president who has stood by while Boko Haram decimates a whole section of the country over the past six years has suddenly realised there is something he could do to crush the sect in six weeks?
“Is it not curious that a military that has been globally acknowledged for its successes in peacekeeping at regional and international levels has suddenly found itself unable to tackle a band of criminals?
“Is it not curious that the necessary fighting equipment that have not been made available to the military, despite the injection of over $32 billion into the defence and security sector since 2008, have suddenly become available?
“There are more questions to be asked: At what point did President Jonathan begin to have a clear idea that Boko Haram is a major threat to the very survival of our country? Was it after about 300 innocent girls were abducted from their school in Chibok or before?
“Was it after hundreds of boys were slaughtered in a secondary school in Buni Yadi or before? Or was it before or after the Nyanya bomb blast that led to the deaths of hundreds of people? Just when did our president wake up to his primary responsibility?
“The truth is that after their Boko Haram-as-a-trump-card strategy blew up in their face and their electoral fortunes plummeted, the PDP-led Jonathan administration came to the realisation that a stepped-up campaign against the insurgents is needed to revive their electoral fortunes, hence they then decided to pep up the military and rally regional troops - the same suggestions from the opposition that the administration has pointedly ignored over the years - to combat the terrorists.
“President Jonathan, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces, must take responsibility for the monumental cost, whether of his incompetence or his political strategy-gone-awry or both, apologise to the nation and immediately back down from seeking re-election.
“The president must not be allowed to profit from an error of judgement that has cost 15,000 lives, forced over 3 million out of their homes and cost the taxpayers $32.88 billion.”
The party also expressed concern at the efforts of the Jonathan administration to make Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau look invincible, with the president's statement that Shekau would be caught before the elections.
APC said while Nigerians would undoubtedly be happy and relieved to see the end of Boko Haram, they must be wondering what would have happened if the plummeting electoral fortunes of the president had not forced his administration to push for the six-week postponement of the
general election.
“They must also be wondering what would have happened if the elections had been scheduled for 2016, instead of 2015,” it stated.
The party commended the long-suffering, gallant Nigerian soldiers and called on all Nigerians to continue to support them and the battle against insurgency.
Meanwhile, the president on Tuesday condemned the reversion by the terrorist group to the callous bombing of soft targets in parts of Nigeria in the wake of the ongoing rapid recovery by Nigerian troops and their multinational allies of areas formerly controlled by the sect.
In a statement by his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, Jonathan commiserated with all the families who lost loved ones in the bombings in Kano and Potiskum.
“The president shares the grief of all the bereaved families and is deeply saddened by the continued loss of many innocent lives at the hands of misguided and desperate fanatics who are now feeling the heat of the intense counter-insurgency operation by the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“The president assures all Nigerians and the people of the North-eastern states in particular that the days of mourning victims of incessant terrorist attacks in the country will soon be over as the tide has now definitely turned against Boko Haram.
“President Jonathan further assures the people of Nigeria that the gallant, courageous and patriotic officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, supported with new platforms, equipment and logistics provided by the federal government will carry the ongoing operations against the terrorists through to a successful conclusion in the shortest possible time,” the statement said.
The president affirmed that his administration would continue to take all necessary action to guarantee the success of ongoing military operations against the terrorist group and drastically reduce its ability to take and hold territory or recruit, groom and brainwash young persons to undertake suicide bombing attacks on soft targets.
The president’s reaction came on the heels of two suicide bombings in bus parks in Kano and Potiskum yesterday, leading to the death of 27 in both cities.
In Potiskum, Yobe State, 15 persons were reported to have been killed in yet another suicide bomb attack on the town, which is fast becoming the most targeted town by the terror group in the country.
The latest attack, which occurred at a bus park in the town, according to a source at the General Hospital in Potiskum, also left 53 persons with severe injuries.
A nurse at the General Hospital, who did not want to be named,
informed THISDAY that 15 corpses were brought to the hospital morgue from the scene of the bomb attack.
She equally disclosed that 53 wounded persons were brought to the hospital's Accident and Emergency Unit, expressing fears that based on the severity of the injuries, the death toll from the attack might rise.
There was however no clearcut description of the sex of the person who might have been responsible for the suicide attack.
A source in the town, who said the explosion happened at about 11.45 am, claimed that a female suicide bomber entered a vehicle at a mini bus park along Kano Road under the pretext that she was travelling.
The driver of the vehicle, a Toyota bus with Kano registration number XA 592 GBT, was waiting for the bus to be filled with passengers when the bomb went off inside the vehicle.
Another source, however, said that the suicide bomber was a female, who moments after alighting from a tricycle opposite the park, dashed into the bus and succeeded in killing 15 people including herself.
In the Kano incident, the bomb blast was said to have occurred at the famous Kano Line bus station located along Zaria Road in the bustling city. Two male suicide bombers who disguised themselves as passengers willing to travel were blamed for the attack.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, told reporters at the scene of the blast that 12 persons including the two suicide bombers were killed by the blast.
“Two male suicide bombers disguised as passengers and one of them was able to board a Sharon bus then blew himself and the passengers in the bus,” he said.
Idris said: “The investigation is still at a preliminary stage, that is why we cannot give a comprehensive account of the injured ones. But we learned that some people sustained various degrees of injuries. They have since been conveyed to a hospital for immediate medical attention.”
He added that the blast occurred around 3 pm and involved two Sharon buses and one Golf VW car that were burnt by the blast.
Idris however dismissed the notion that the two suicide bombers were set ablaze by angry youths at the scene of the blast.
The suicide bombers were said to be teenagers between the ages of 17 and 18.
Eyewitnesses also gave conflicting accounts on how the tragedy occurred, claiming that the suicide bombers were three in number and had found their way to the station by jumping the fence at the back of the bus park, with one of them reported to have escaped unscathed.
Another eyewitness also faulted the official casualty figures given by the police, stating that the corpses he counted were higher than the ones reported to have been killed.
In a related incident, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, has praised Israel for being a “crucial and loyal ally” in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram.
“Israel has been a crucial and loyal ally in our fight against Boko Haram,” Omeri, who is also the chief coordinating spokesman of the National Information Centre, told the Jerusalem Post.
“It is a sad reality that Israel has a great deal of experience confronting terrorism. Our Israeli partners have used that experience, and the unique expertise gained over the years of fighting terror within its own borders, to assist us,” he said.
Nigeria has forged closer ties with Israel in recent years under Jonathan. In 2013, Jonathan visited Israel and signed an aviation deal to allow more Nigerian Christian pilgrims to visit the Jewish state.
Israel, meanwhile, has provided assistance to Nigeria in the search for about 300 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram last year.
Nigerian-Israeli relations have also borne fruit on the diplomatic front.
Nigeria recently voted to abstain on a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for Israeli withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017 and the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian state.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/house-applauds-jonathan-military-for-onslaught-against-boko-haram/202682/
Ebonyi Assembly Gutted by Fire as Two Members’ Seats are Declared Vacant
25 Feb 2015
Governor Martin Elechi
Lawmakers accuse Elechi, others of complicity
State may slip into constitutional crisis, Onu warns
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Benjamin Nworie in Abkaliki

The Ebonyi State House of Assembly was in the early hours of Tuesday gutted by fire with signs of inflammable substances spilling on the floor.
This development, THISDAY gathered, increased the suspicion that the arson was carried out to forestall the planned summon of some individuals accused for financial fraud in the state
THISDAY gathered that the fire which started around 1.47am, destroyed sensitive documents and properties worth millions of naira but would have caused more havoc save for the swift intervention of the operatives of the state Federal Fire Service.
The lawmakers in an emergency plenary, shortly after supervising the incident, accused the state Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, and his commissioners for allegedly masterminding the incident with the help of suspected thugs deployed from nearby states to cause mayhem in the state.
The lawmakers accused Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Celestine Nwali; Supervising Commissioner for Information, Ifeanyi Ikeh; Eni Uduma Chima, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Ben Igwenyi and others for masterminding the incident.
During the plenary, the assembly further declared the seats of Hon. Oliver Nwachuwku representing Abakaliki North state constituency and embattled Deputy Speaker, representing Afikpo South East, Hon. Blaise Orji vacant, making it a total of six seats that had been declared vacant by the assembly.
Moving his motion, Obasi Odefa called on all security agencies to arrest and prosecute the culprits, and also ensure that the lives of the legislators are protected.
The acting Leader, Ogbonna Nwifuru, alleged that: “They want to kill all members. Our lives are under threat. They are importing thugs and the governor does not want to call them to order. He cannot deny that he does not know what happened.”
The lawmakers alleged that their lives were no longer safe in the state and therefore called on the Inspector General of Police (IG), Suleman Abba, and the state Commissioner of Police, Maigari Dikko, and other security outfits to provide security for members and their families.
The Minority Leader, Enyi. C. Enyi, threatened that if adequate security is not provided for members, they would resort to self-help, stressing that no amount of intimidation would deter them from carrying out their constitutional duties even if it entails “sitting in the bush.”
The Speaker of the assembly, Chukwuma Nwazuknu, ordered that the alleged perpetrators already fingered should be arrested and prosecuted.
THISDAY learnt that Elechi has ordered full investigation into the cause of the fire and further advised that no exhibit seen within the vicinity should be tempered with till the investigation is completed.
The rift between Elechi, and the state legislators had snow-balled into an impeachment saga with Speaker, Nwazunku, constituting special committee to investigate an alleged gross financial misconduct against the governor.
The lawmakers had adopted five petitions against the governor and other key actors in the state during plenary for the alleged financial misappropriation and embezzlement.
However, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has cautioned against plunging the state into constitutional crisis following the face-off between the state governor, and state assembly.
Onu who spoke with THISDAY in an interview in Abuja yesterday said the state House of Assembly as presently constituted is incapable of carrying out legitimate impeaching proceeding against the governor.
“Actually the problem in the state has become a constitutional crisis in the sense that the assembly by taken certain actions has removed from itself the legitimacy it has because article 91 of the constitution says that any assembly must have a minimum of 24 members and a maximum of 40.
On whether the move to oust the governor is legitimate, Onu who is a former governor of the old Abia State from which Ebonyi was created, said any impeachment exercise that fails to follow due process of law and is not guided along the lines of the constitution would amount to illegitimacy.
“So if you expel four of your members and ask Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections, then your number has been reduced to 20 and definitely it violates the constitution by article 91. So there is already a constitutional crisis and they have to make sure that everybody must ensure that the constitution of the nation is upheld.
“Definitely, if the constitution says that you need 24 members to make up a House of Assembly, if the number is less, then they have violated the constitution and the first thing is to make sure that we keep to our constitution,” he said.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ebonyi-assembly-gutted-by-fire-as-two-members-seats-are-declared-vacant/202672/
Governor Martin Elechi
Lawmakers accuse Elechi, others of complicity
State may slip into constitutional crisis, Onu warns
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Benjamin Nworie in Abkaliki

The Ebonyi State House of Assembly was in the early hours of Tuesday gutted by fire with signs of inflammable substances spilling on the floor.
This development, THISDAY gathered, increased the suspicion that the arson was carried out to forestall the planned summon of some individuals accused for financial fraud in the state
THISDAY gathered that the fire which started around 1.47am, destroyed sensitive documents and properties worth millions of naira but would have caused more havoc save for the swift intervention of the operatives of the state Federal Fire Service.
The lawmakers in an emergency plenary, shortly after supervising the incident, accused the state Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, and his commissioners for allegedly masterminding the incident with the help of suspected thugs deployed from nearby states to cause mayhem in the state.
The lawmakers accused Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Celestine Nwali; Supervising Commissioner for Information, Ifeanyi Ikeh; Eni Uduma Chima, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Ben Igwenyi and others for masterminding the incident.
During the plenary, the assembly further declared the seats of Hon. Oliver Nwachuwku representing Abakaliki North state constituency and embattled Deputy Speaker, representing Afikpo South East, Hon. Blaise Orji vacant, making it a total of six seats that had been declared vacant by the assembly.
Moving his motion, Obasi Odefa called on all security agencies to arrest and prosecute the culprits, and also ensure that the lives of the legislators are protected.
The acting Leader, Ogbonna Nwifuru, alleged that: “They want to kill all members. Our lives are under threat. They are importing thugs and the governor does not want to call them to order. He cannot deny that he does not know what happened.”
The lawmakers alleged that their lives were no longer safe in the state and therefore called on the Inspector General of Police (IG), Suleman Abba, and the state Commissioner of Police, Maigari Dikko, and other security outfits to provide security for members and their families.
The Minority Leader, Enyi. C. Enyi, threatened that if adequate security is not provided for members, they would resort to self-help, stressing that no amount of intimidation would deter them from carrying out their constitutional duties even if it entails “sitting in the bush.”
The Speaker of the assembly, Chukwuma Nwazuknu, ordered that the alleged perpetrators already fingered should be arrested and prosecuted.
THISDAY learnt that Elechi has ordered full investigation into the cause of the fire and further advised that no exhibit seen within the vicinity should be tempered with till the investigation is completed.
The rift between Elechi, and the state legislators had snow-balled into an impeachment saga with Speaker, Nwazunku, constituting special committee to investigate an alleged gross financial misconduct against the governor.
The lawmakers had adopted five petitions against the governor and other key actors in the state during plenary for the alleged financial misappropriation and embezzlement.
However, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has cautioned against plunging the state into constitutional crisis following the face-off between the state governor, and state assembly.
Onu who spoke with THISDAY in an interview in Abuja yesterday said the state House of Assembly as presently constituted is incapable of carrying out legitimate impeaching proceeding against the governor.
“Actually the problem in the state has become a constitutional crisis in the sense that the assembly by taken certain actions has removed from itself the legitimacy it has because article 91 of the constitution says that any assembly must have a minimum of 24 members and a maximum of 40.
On whether the move to oust the governor is legitimate, Onu who is a former governor of the old Abia State from which Ebonyi was created, said any impeachment exercise that fails to follow due process of law and is not guided along the lines of the constitution would amount to illegitimacy.
“So if you expel four of your members and ask Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections, then your number has been reduced to 20 and definitely it violates the constitution by article 91. So there is already a constitutional crisis and they have to make sure that everybody must ensure that the constitution of the nation is upheld.
“Definitely, if the constitution says that you need 24 members to make up a House of Assembly, if the number is less, then they have violated the constitution and the first thing is to make sure that we keep to our constitution,” he said.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ebonyi-assembly-gutted-by-fire-as-two-members-seats-are-declared-vacant/202672/
Soludo: Jonathan Missed the Point on Missing N30tn
25 Feb 2015
Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwumah Soludo
Ejiofor Alike with agency report

A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwumah Soludo, has faulted the response of President Goodluck Jonathan to his claim that N30 trillion was missing from the Nigerian economy.
Soludo said in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the article entitled: “Jonathan Replies Soludo over missing N30 trillion,” which was extracted from the president’s interview with THISDAY Newspaper did not capture the points he raised, probably because the president was too busy with election campaigns that he did not read his article.
THISDAY had quoted President Jonathan as saying that “Soludo said under Ngozi’s watch they stole N30 trillion” but that since the sum of the federal budget over the last four years was less than N30 trillion, such an amount could not have been “stolen.”
Also referring to Soludo’s allegation, the President said “it is all political.”
Soludo noted that he had earlier stated that he would not make further comments on the issues until probably after the elections but that since the president has decided to join the fray, he was constrained to make a further brief clarification.
“For me, President Jonathan is a gentleman and a friend but I have a fundamental disagreement on his management of the economy. On the issues at stake, I believe that the pressures of office and the hectic electioneering have not allowed him time to read my articles or that his staff have not explained the contents to him hence he totally missed the point in his comments,” Soludo said.
The former CBN boss further stated that in his article entitled “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Missing Trillions,” he had presented some rough calculations covering oil theft, money that ought to accrue to stock of foreign reserves, unbudgeted oil subsidy payments, customs duty waivers, leakages through the self-financing government parastatals, unremitted sums by the NNPC, among others.
According to him, he concluded section of the article by noting that: “I have a long list but let me wait for now.
“I do not want to talk about other ‘black pots’ that impinge on national security. My estimate, Madam, is that probably more than N30 trillion has either been stolen or lost or unaccounted for or simply mismanaged under your watchful eyes in the past four years,” he added.
Soludo said it was evident that the monies he referred to are “off-budget” are monies that did not make it to the budget.
“I find it funny that the government deliberately avoided the issues raised above but instead has sought to divert attention by focusing on the “federal budget”. Let me state for the record that I believe that the amount of resources that are either stolen from the economy or out-rightly mismanaged by government far exceeds the federal budget per annum.
“Ours is about a N100 trillion economy, and I will be shocked if the government pretends that it does not know that currently about 10 per cent of the GDP falls into a ‘black hole’ on annual basis,” he said.
“We have not added figures based on counterfactual analysis such as the cost to the aggregate economy of bad or misguided economic policy. For example, in today’s THISDAY Newspaper, a headline news reports that “Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man, Loses $7.8 Billion as Naira, Stocks Plunge” while reporting that “In dollar terms, the devaluation has knocked more than $40 billion off the value of Nigeria’s economy. Of course, most people predicted that OIL PRICES would soon fall but we were caught unprepared, and today, the parallel market exchange rate is N225 to the dollar,” Soludo explained.
Soludo noted that “thus, the kind of analysis in today’s THISDAY is just one little example of the kind of collateral damages–‘costs’ or ‘losses’– that mismanagement foists on the system.
“To repeat, my article did not focus on the federal budget: the mismanagement of the consumption budget and its unprecedented debt accumulation (with low value-for-money expenditures) are entirely different matters. What I found particularly disconcerting as a Nigerian from the comments I read is the fixation to validation from the World Bank.”
Soludo said he had read several editorial comments of Nigerian media, adding that they do not agree with the ‘impression’ of the World Bank official.
According to him, he had also read a similar comment by a high government official stating that World Bank officials and CNN had told them that government was doing well and therefore who else could question them.
“But neither the World Bank nor CNN conducts comprehensive independent surveys on the economy— they comment based on the data they are given— and their subjective “opinions” cannot substitute for hard facts. The World Bank is not a statistical agency. I can provide a long list of countries that World Bank reports praised as ‘star performers’ and they slumped into deep crisis almost immediately after. Check out the World Bank and IMF reports on the US and other countries’ economies shortly before the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis in fifty years (the Great Recession of 2008/09).
“Actually for many countries once they start getting such ‘praises’, then perceptive officials begin to worry. Nigeria is probably the only country where its government officials quote the World Bank while ignoring data from its own statistical agency,” Soludo explained.
“A serious concern is that while government relies on external validation (opinion) as ‘proof’ of its performance, it is selective in the process—accepting the positive ones and disparaging the negative ones. Our recent exchanges illustrate the point. In my first article (26th January): “Buhari Vs Jonathan: Beyond the Elections”, I argued that “the economy seems to be on auto pilot, with confusion as to who is in charge, and government largely as a constraint.
There are no big ideas, and it is difficult to see where economic policy is headed to. My thesis is that the Nigerian economy, if properly managed, should have been growing at an annual rate of about 12 per cent given the oil boom, and poverty and unemployment should have fallen dramatically over the last five years”. No one has credibly challenged the above, except what the Financial Times of London described as a “furious response by the Minister”. But, the influential Economist Magazine of London and New York Times agreed with us,” he said.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/soludo-jonathan-missed-the-point-on-missing-n30tn/202676/
Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwumah Soludo
Ejiofor Alike with agency report

A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwumah Soludo, has faulted the response of President Goodluck Jonathan to his claim that N30 trillion was missing from the Nigerian economy.
Soludo said in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the article entitled: “Jonathan Replies Soludo over missing N30 trillion,” which was extracted from the president’s interview with THISDAY Newspaper did not capture the points he raised, probably because the president was too busy with election campaigns that he did not read his article.
THISDAY had quoted President Jonathan as saying that “Soludo said under Ngozi’s watch they stole N30 trillion” but that since the sum of the federal budget over the last four years was less than N30 trillion, such an amount could not have been “stolen.”
Also referring to Soludo’s allegation, the President said “it is all political.”
Soludo noted that he had earlier stated that he would not make further comments on the issues until probably after the elections but that since the president has decided to join the fray, he was constrained to make a further brief clarification.
“For me, President Jonathan is a gentleman and a friend but I have a fundamental disagreement on his management of the economy. On the issues at stake, I believe that the pressures of office and the hectic electioneering have not allowed him time to read my articles or that his staff have not explained the contents to him hence he totally missed the point in his comments,” Soludo said.
The former CBN boss further stated that in his article entitled “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Missing Trillions,” he had presented some rough calculations covering oil theft, money that ought to accrue to stock of foreign reserves, unbudgeted oil subsidy payments, customs duty waivers, leakages through the self-financing government parastatals, unremitted sums by the NNPC, among others.
According to him, he concluded section of the article by noting that: “I have a long list but let me wait for now.
“I do not want to talk about other ‘black pots’ that impinge on national security. My estimate, Madam, is that probably more than N30 trillion has either been stolen or lost or unaccounted for or simply mismanaged under your watchful eyes in the past four years,” he added.
Soludo said it was evident that the monies he referred to are “off-budget” are monies that did not make it to the budget.
“I find it funny that the government deliberately avoided the issues raised above but instead has sought to divert attention by focusing on the “federal budget”. Let me state for the record that I believe that the amount of resources that are either stolen from the economy or out-rightly mismanaged by government far exceeds the federal budget per annum.
“Ours is about a N100 trillion economy, and I will be shocked if the government pretends that it does not know that currently about 10 per cent of the GDP falls into a ‘black hole’ on annual basis,” he said.
“We have not added figures based on counterfactual analysis such as the cost to the aggregate economy of bad or misguided economic policy. For example, in today’s THISDAY Newspaper, a headline news reports that “Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man, Loses $7.8 Billion as Naira, Stocks Plunge” while reporting that “In dollar terms, the devaluation has knocked more than $40 billion off the value of Nigeria’s economy. Of course, most people predicted that OIL PRICES would soon fall but we were caught unprepared, and today, the parallel market exchange rate is N225 to the dollar,” Soludo explained.
Soludo noted that “thus, the kind of analysis in today’s THISDAY is just one little example of the kind of collateral damages–‘costs’ or ‘losses’– that mismanagement foists on the system.
“To repeat, my article did not focus on the federal budget: the mismanagement of the consumption budget and its unprecedented debt accumulation (with low value-for-money expenditures) are entirely different matters. What I found particularly disconcerting as a Nigerian from the comments I read is the fixation to validation from the World Bank.”
Soludo said he had read several editorial comments of Nigerian media, adding that they do not agree with the ‘impression’ of the World Bank official.
According to him, he had also read a similar comment by a high government official stating that World Bank officials and CNN had told them that government was doing well and therefore who else could question them.
“But neither the World Bank nor CNN conducts comprehensive independent surveys on the economy— they comment based on the data they are given— and their subjective “opinions” cannot substitute for hard facts. The World Bank is not a statistical agency. I can provide a long list of countries that World Bank reports praised as ‘star performers’ and they slumped into deep crisis almost immediately after. Check out the World Bank and IMF reports on the US and other countries’ economies shortly before the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis in fifty years (the Great Recession of 2008/09).
“Actually for many countries once they start getting such ‘praises’, then perceptive officials begin to worry. Nigeria is probably the only country where its government officials quote the World Bank while ignoring data from its own statistical agency,” Soludo explained.
“A serious concern is that while government relies on external validation (opinion) as ‘proof’ of its performance, it is selective in the process—accepting the positive ones and disparaging the negative ones. Our recent exchanges illustrate the point. In my first article (26th January): “Buhari Vs Jonathan: Beyond the Elections”, I argued that “the economy seems to be on auto pilot, with confusion as to who is in charge, and government largely as a constraint.
There are no big ideas, and it is difficult to see where economic policy is headed to. My thesis is that the Nigerian economy, if properly managed, should have been growing at an annual rate of about 12 per cent given the oil boom, and poverty and unemployment should have fallen dramatically over the last five years”. No one has credibly challenged the above, except what the Financial Times of London described as a “furious response by the Minister”. But, the influential Economist Magazine of London and New York Times agreed with us,” he said.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/soludo-jonathan-missed-the-point-on-missing-n30tn/202676/
INEC, Military Meet Ahead of Elections
25 Feb 2015
INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), met with the nation’s security agencies Monday ahead of the rescheduled elections in March and April, an online news medium, Premium Times has reported.
The meeting, under the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security, held at the electoral body’s office in Abuja.
The committee is a multi-agency platform for INEC and Nigerian security agencies, established to review and manage security issues concerning the electoral process in the country.
It consists of INEC, the police force, armed forces, State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Prisons, Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Immigration Service.
The Nigerian military drew public attention over the 2015 election early February, after it compelled INEC to shift the polls from their initial dates.
The military said it could not guarantee security for the polls on February 14 and 28 as it would be kicking off new operations against the insurgent group, Boko Haram.
There are concerns the elections may still be rescheduled at the expiration of the six-week extension.
President Goodluck Jonathan has, however, repeatedly promised that elections would hold as scheduled by INEC.
Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, who confirmed the meeting, however, said the issue of further postponement of elections was not discussed, stating it does not fall within the purview of the committee, ICCES.
“ICCES meeting is a technical issue and a routine operational one. The issue of postponement of elections is on the policy level,” he said.
He said the meeting was “ a routine operational one to review security threat and for risk assessment by different agencies as far as elections are concerned”.
He said INEC was prepared to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/inec-military-meet-ahead-of-elections/202663/
Chadian Soldiers Kill 207 Boko Haram Fighters in Borno
25 Feb 2015
Boko Haram militants
Soldiers from Chad on Tuesday killed 207 Boko Haram militants in fighting near a Nigerian town close to the border with Cameroun, Chad’s army announced in a statement.
One Chadian soldier was killed and another nine were wounded in the clashes near Gamborou-Ngala, Borno State, the scene of regular attacks by the Nigerian Islamist group in recent months reported Reuters.
There was no immediate independent verification of the Chadian army’s announcement.
Chad’s military also claimed to have seized large quantities of small arms and ammunition and two pick-up trucks.
Niger, Cameroun and Chad have launched a regional military campaign to help Nigeria defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to carve an Islamic emirate out of northeastern Nigeria.
Chad deployed troops last month in support of Camerounian efforts to stop repeated cross-border raids by the Islamists, whose operations increasingly threaten Nigeria’s neighbours.
The African Union last month authorised the creation of the regional force, which will also include Benin, and is pushing for a U.N. Security Council mandate for the operation.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/chadian-soldiers-kill-207-boko-haram-fighters-in-borno/202664/
Boko Haram militants
Soldiers from Chad on Tuesday killed 207 Boko Haram militants in fighting near a Nigerian town close to the border with Cameroun, Chad’s army announced in a statement.
One Chadian soldier was killed and another nine were wounded in the clashes near Gamborou-Ngala, Borno State, the scene of regular attacks by the Nigerian Islamist group in recent months reported Reuters.
There was no immediate independent verification of the Chadian army’s announcement.
Chad’s military also claimed to have seized large quantities of small arms and ammunition and two pick-up trucks.
Niger, Cameroun and Chad have launched a regional military campaign to help Nigeria defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to carve an Islamic emirate out of northeastern Nigeria.
Chad deployed troops last month in support of Camerounian efforts to stop repeated cross-border raids by the Islamists, whose operations increasingly threaten Nigeria’s neighbours.
The African Union last month authorised the creation of the regional force, which will also include Benin, and is pushing for a U.N. Security Council mandate for the operation.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/chadian-soldiers-kill-207-boko-haram-fighters-in-borno/202664/
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