Boko Haram
NDLEA: How drug traffickers operate during coronavirus lockdown
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has revealed how traffickers of illicit drugs have been circulating cocaine, heroin, cannabis and other psychotropic substances in Borno amid the COVID-19 lockdown. NDLEA State Commander Mr Joseph Icha told newsmen in Maiduguri on Monday that traffickers of illicit drugs no longer stay at identified dark spots where the operatives of the agency often raid them. ‘We observed that the traffickers of drugs used the opportunity of loopholes during the total lockdown to start a massive movement of drugs across the state,’ he disclosed. He said the illegal business was often conducted with drugs hidden amid food items and sacks of grains moving into different parts of the country. He cited a case of cannabis hidden and covered with maize in dozens...
Gunmen attack Borno villages, kill five
Gunmen, believed to be either Boko Haram or ISWAP, on Saturday, attacked three communities in Borno State, killing five herdsmen and stealing 480 cows, a government official has said. Sources said the insurgents, who were all armed with assault rifles, attacked three villages – Moduri, Kelewa and Ngudori in Magumeri Local Government Area around 6.30 pm on Saturday. Magumeri is one of the local government areas that share conventional boundaries with Gubio and Monguno where ISWAP staged coordinated repeated attacks that claimed the lives of over 120 persons. The local government is listed among the unsafe communities of Borno State by both the state government and the United Nations. A local vigilante operative, Bunu Malam, confirmed the attack, saying “it was yet another sad day for our pe...
Five jihadists, two soldiers killed in Cameroon clash
Five rebels and two soldiers were killed early Tuesday when jihadists crossing from Nigeria attacked a military position in northern Cameroon, sources said. The overnight attack took place at Soueram, a village close to the Nigerian border in Cameroon’s Far North region, an army colonel and a local official told AFP. “Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed” in the assault, while five jihadists died in the counter-attack, the colonel said. He attributed the attack to Islamic State West Africa Province, a splinter group of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, which has led a bloody 11-year campaign against perceived western influence. An army vehicle was destroyed and the jihadists made off with a piece of heavy weaponry, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local leader, who also asked not to be i...
Ayo Adebanjo: President Buhari not sincere about keeping Nigeria together
President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, elder statesman and Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, have described Nigeria’s constitution as illegal. They spoke in a video conference organized by Governance Index titled: “Coronavirus Pandemic: Is it time to reevaluate the political structure of the country?” Opening the session, Nwodo said the constitution was given to Nigerians by a military government which was not elected, adding that in 1999, politicians went into the election without knowing the parameter that will guide the democratic process. He said the military wrote the constitution and abandoned regionalism. At the video conference which was the fifth edition of the weekly conference series: Covid-19: Turning a crisi...
75 Boko Haram insurgents killed in border security operations
Nigerian and allied forces from neighbouring states killed 75 Boko Haram insurgents in security operations earlier this week in the region where the borders of Niger, Nigeria and Chad converge, Niger Defence Ministry said. The Islamist Boko Haram insurgency erupted in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 and continues to grind on, with attacks frequently spilling over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon a little further to the south. The operations on Monday followed a series of Boko Haram attacks on military positions near the southeastern Nigerien border town of Diffa, the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday. It said 25 insurgents were killed in fighting around 75 km (46.6 miles) south of Diffa and a further 50 in air and artillery strikes by joint Nigerien, Nigerian and Chadian forces in the...
SMBLF asks Nigerian government to declare ‘invasion’ of South, Middle-Belt by Almajiris illegal
Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has called on the Federal Government to publicly declare the invasion of the South and Middle-Belt by teenagers, including Almajiris from far North, in spite of the ban on interstate movements imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari as illegal and direct the security agencies to immediately flush them out and ensure that they do not return. SMBLF made these demands on Sunday in a joint statement signed by Chief E K Clark for PANDEF, Chief Ayo Adebanjo on behalf of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief John Nnia Nwodo (Ohaneze) and Dr Bitrus Pogu (Middle- Belt Forum). The group, while making the demands, expressed outrage at what it termed complacency on the part of Nigerian security forces at the invasion of their areas by teena...
