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****** Nigeria: Boko Haram - Death Toll Now 700, Says Security Commander ******
2 August 2009
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Lagos — A commander of the state adhoc security group, codenamed, 'Operation
Flush' deployed to tackle members of the Boko Haram fundamentalist sect which
last week inficted violence on Bauchi and Borno states, Colonel Ben Ahanotu
yesterday said about 700 bodies have so far been recovered in Maiduguri alone
after the clash between police and the radical Islamist sect subsided. The toll
was previously thought to be around 300.
The disclosure of the casualty figure in the Borno State capital came as the
top echelon of the nation's security services met in Kano for most part of the
weekend to formulate appropriate strategy for averting similar occurrence in
the future.
Ahanotu told the Associated Press (AP) that mass burials have begun because
bodies were decomposing in the heat. The Islamist compound destroyed this week
by government troops is one of the burial sites, he said.
"They've got almost 700 bodies," Ahanotu, who is in charge of security in
Maiduguri, said of officials gathering bodies.
"Right there, they had to do a mass burial there because there are a lot of
bodies inside," he said, pointing to what used to be the Boko Haram sect
leader's compound. It is now smoldering rubble with digging equipment around
it.
Maiduguri city was largely quiet yesterday. Its streets had been cleared of
bodies and the blood spilled during five days of fierce fighting. Banks and
markets have reopened.But sporadic violence continued.
At the Umaru Shehu Hospital, an official, who asked not to be named because he
feared more violence, said five other people had been killed Saturday, their
bodies left in the parking lot. He said 172 bodies had been brought to the
hospital since Tuesday.
He said people were coming to the hospital Saturday to remove sick relatives so
they wouldn't get caught up in the violence.
Destruction was evident only in some areas of the city: The police building was
in ruins and smoke rose from the destroyed compound of the sect's leader,
Mohammed Yusuf, where bodies were now buried. The compound was guarded by
soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
A bloodied man, alleged to be a member of the sect, lay beneath a tree, his
hands tied behind his back, guarded by the soldiers.
Borno Police Commissioner Christopher Dega said the members of the Boko Haram
sect are likely in hiding and may be using the current calm to regroup.
"I am warning all of you to report immediately if such members are fighting,"
Dega told reporters late Friday.
Associated Press reporters saw two men heavily sweating as they were questioned
by soldiers outside the compound. They were later released.
One of them, 35-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed, told the AP that he and his family
cowered in their house for days, terrorised by knife and sword-wielding sect
members - then later by soldiers, who, he said, would shoot anything that
moved.
"It was terrible," Mohammed said as he drew an imaginary knife across his
throat. "At first if you run, (the sect) will knife you, and then after you
run, (soldiers) will shoot you."
He said he hid 17 neighbors, including a pregnant woman, in his house during
the fighting.
In a wave of violence that began last Sunday, in Bauchi and quickly spread to
three other northern states, including Borno, the sect, Boko Haram - the name
means "Western education is sacrilege" - attacked police stations, churches and
government buildings. The group is seeking the imposition of strict Islamic
Shariah law in Nigeria, a country of several religions.
On Wednesday, troops retaliated, killing about 100 people, half of them inside
the sect's mosque. The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of
Maiduguri on Thursday morning as security forces hunted militants.
An Associated Press reporter saw dead bodies piled into at least six trucks in
the hospital's parking lot on Wednesday.
Mohammed Yusuf, head of the Boko Haram sect, was killed Thursday after he was
found hiding in a goat pen at his in-laws' home. The details of his death
remain murky.
Nigeria's Civil Rights Congress, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
called for investigations into Yusuf's death and other killings during the
upheaval.
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), lawyers, politicians, clerics and members of
the international human rights community yesterday condemned the handling of
the disturbance by the police which led to the high death toll.
However, no evidence has been provided about the circumstances in which the
sect leaders, Yusuf and Alhaji Buji Foi, believed to be the sponsor of the
group, were killed. Police maintained they died during exchange of gunfire
between the fundamentalists and security officials. The claim by human rights
group and other commentators that there were extra-judicial killings however
remain unsubstantiated.
NBA president, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), in a statement advised the
police to adhere to the principle of rule of law being proclaimed by the
Yar'adua administration by ensuring that anyone suspected of committing an
offence must be given adequate opportunities to defend himself.
On the violence in parts of the north, the NBA condemned what it called the
mindless massacre of innocent citizens and the destruction of properties as
witnessed in parts of the North .
"The perpetrators of this heinous act, predicated the latest round of pervasive
disruption of public peace, on their campaign against western education. The
purveyors of this strange philosophy were able to mobilise the ever ready army
of the unemployed and the disgruntled youths to visit violence on the public.
"The NBA joins other well-meaning Nigerians and organisations in condemning
this brazen expression of bestiality unleashed on the citizenry. We also note
the effort of the security operatives for rising to the occasion and nipping
the horrific incident in the bud. We must all rise to challenge fanaticism and
reactionary religious bigotry," it said.
It therefore tasked the authorities to "strive to unmask the real sponsors of
these deviants and punish them appropriately."
Also speaking, the Chief Imam of Farfaru Juma'at Mosque, Sokoto, Sheikh
Abubakar Jibril condemned the way the crises was handled by the government. He
said there was no justification whatsoever for government to have handled the
crisis the way it did which resulted in the killing of some innocent Nigerians.
Jibril also condemned the action of the fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, by
attacking security operatives which he said was uncalled for. However, heads of
security agencies met at the weekend in Kano to assess situation reports on the
crisis and formulate measures to ensure that the crisis does not repeat itself.
The security assessment team was headed by Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief
Marshall Paul Dike and it comprised the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr.
Ogbonnaya Onovo, representative of the Defence Head Quarters, State Security
Service (SSS) and other security agencies.
The security chiefs may hold another meeting early in the week with President
Umaru Yar'Adua who just returned last night from a state visit to Brazil.
Meanwhile, Police, at the weekend, said they have so far rescued not less than
230 hostages seized by Islamist fighters during the recent unrest in the
northern part of the country. Fifty-two hostages were freed from a house in
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and at the scene of the deadliest clashes
between police and members of the Boko Haram group.
"We have so far rescued more than 230 women and children abducted from many
parts of the North, particularly Bauchi, Plateau and Katsina States, kidnapped
by members of the Boko Haram sect," Isa Azare, a police spokesman, told the AFP
news agency.
A total of 120 rescued women and children were returned on Thursday to Bauchi,
from where they had been kidnapped before being brought to Maiduguri, he said.
One of the women told the AFP news agency that Boko Haram members had ushered a
group of civilians into waiting buses three days earlier and threatened to kill
them if they refused.
The woman, a theology student, said: "We asked questions about our mission but
we did not get any answers. We were only told that we would continue our
studies in Maiduguri and be brought back later."
By Collins Edomaruse, Olawale Olaleye in Lagos and Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto
with agency reports
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global
Media (allAfrica.com).
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