By ADE ALADE
The search for a lasting solution to the perennial campaign of violence by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has taken President Goodluck Jonathan and his National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (retd) to Bamako, the capital of Mali, for a secret meeting with the civilian and military authorities in the troubled West African country, following a strong intelligence report which shows that Mali’s northern region is being used as the operational base of the dreaded sect.
The presidency had, in a statement by presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, announced on Wednesday, October 17 a two-day working visit by President Jonathan to Niger Republic and Mali. While the president was scheduled to attend a meeting of the High Authority of the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission, in Niamey, with President Issoufou Mohammadou of Niger Republic to revitalise and reposition the 41-year-old commission, as a primary platform towards addressing emerging cross-border challenges, the statement added that on his way back on Friday,
October 19, he would make a stopover in Bamako, the Malian capital, for further consultations on efforts by ECOWAS and the UN Security Council, to restore normalcy to that country. Saturday Sun, however, gathered from diplomatic and presidency sources that the meeting in Niamey was a mere decoy for President Jonathan to “seek collaboration and cooperation of both the military and civilian authorities in Mali on how best the operational base of Nigeria’s Boko Haram in the north of Mali, which is under the firm control of Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels, who took control of the region following a coup in March.” A reliable diplomatic source revealed that rather than making just a stopover in Bamako, as announced by Abati in his statement,
“the Nigerian president actually left Niamey, Niger Republic on Thursday, October 18 and went straight for the main goal of his trip, which is to hold talks with the Malian authorities, as part of efforts to dismantle the main structure of Boko Haram in the North of the country (Mali).” It was gathered that a recent intelligence support for Nigeria had confirmed that Boko Haram militants were being trained and armed in northern Mali, where the leader of the sect, Sheik Mohammed Shekau, is also believed to be hiding and coordinating attacks on Nigerian targets.
Based on this, the diplomatic source revealed that Nigeria became more interested in the politics and political stability of Mali. The military junta in Mali, headed by Captain Amadou Sanogo, had seized power on March 22, accusing the democratic government of President Amadou Toumani Toure of failing to deal effectively with a Tuareg rebellion that had started in January. Islamist groups then took advantage of the chaos and seized all the region’s major towns, including the historic city of Timbuktu.
Former parliament speaker, Diouncounda Traore later emerged as interim president, following international pressures on the military junta to relinquish power. It was further gathered that President Jonathan’s last week visit was to consolidate on recent visits and discussions by the NSA and some top officials of the defence and foreign affairs ministries to Mali.
Part of the discussions, at the meeting, between President Jonathan and Mali’s interim president Traore, was “to stabilise the civilian regime of Traore, mobilise African and ECOWAS forces to Mali, with a view to flushing out all islamist groups and rebels, including Boko Haram leaders that had taken control of North of Mali.” In a separate discussion with Captain Sanogo, President Jonathan was said to have offered him a political asylum in Nigeria to pave the way for Traore’s full control of Mali’s armed forces, which are still loyal to Sanogo. “If the Nigerian government can get Traore relocated to Nigeria, the stability Nigeria needs in Mali to fight its own enemy hiding and operating from our territory would have been achieved half-way,” a diplomatic source privy to the development told Saturday Sun. It was, however, not yet clear at press time whether Traore has accepted the offer of asylum from President Jonathan.
“What is certain is the success of the war against Boko Haram depends largely on the stability in Mali and the ability of the African and the entire international community to dislodge all rebels and Islamist groups operating in northern Mali because if you observe closely, they share the same religious ideology and modus operandi with Boko Haram militants. If you follow developments there, you will notice that the Islamists have imposed a harsh interpretation of Sharia in the areas they control in the north of Mali and there are reports of people being stoned to death and having their limbs amputated,” the source added.
they should go un and carry the attack on them i surport the idaer.
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Why did it take them a long time to figure out that those fools are being trained and equipped in Mali? There is something fundamentally wrong with our presidency and armed forces. DULL BRAINS.
This idiot,Sheik Mohammed Shekau will surely face the wrath of God for the loss of innocent lives.
Is beta d sect b aware of worldy vanity an give up so as to make our world beta., but if war is wat dey want den, dat dey shal meet indiscriminately.
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May God help us as we look 4 a solution dat will put an end to dis dreadlock…Amen.
Posterity must surely judge this xtremists who claim to be fighting a holy war.holy war indeed.why is saudi arabia that is the capital of the muslim world not doing all dis rubbish.
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Goodluck should press harder on the assylum of the military leader in mali to bring some sanity of boko haram to nigeria
NIGERIAN MUSLIM HATE PREACHERS FORM THE BASE OF BOKO HARAM. WITHOUT THEM SHEKAU IS NOTHING.
Captain Sanogo please accept asylum in calabar Nigeria; we Nigerians loves you; our millitary will come dawn and assist Mali to crush those satanic element calling them selves islamic sect; Mali is a modern and peaciful nation that needed to be assisted at all couse
ofcourse he is hiding there with his cabinet in crime,i hope he is killed we dont want him to face trial,he should be captured then shot dead like a dog he is.
wheather Boko Haram operates from Mali, Niger or Nigeria, the fact is that Islam is a religion from the pit of hell. A religion that takes away the life of humans on the ground of desecreting [koran], a paper printed by the same humans. I have not seen a religion that fights for their god except islam. fighting for your god is a sign that your god is powerless. the true GOD preaches forgiveness and love and not wickedness and unforgiveness. It is time we seperate this country for this wicked animals to be on their own. check all over the world and you will notice how this religion have made the world unpleasant.
i agree with you. If their god is powerful they will not be fighting for him. Rather he will fight for them.
I think u r mistaken christianity wit lslam.
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Let dem repent or Judgment…
The arab protested over an American Video claiming that islam likes killing.I think the video is the simple truth
Once the cause of a problem is known, that problem is half-solved. The days of the boko-idiots are numbered. Mr President please, conclude the negotiation soon. God is with Nigeria!
Why fight for the god? pls ppls of islam allow yr god 2 fight for him self.If yr god cant fight him self then is dead god,start now look a living God.God of salvation & forgiveness & love. Ur religion/doctrine is so wicked. 2 take live u will not make. Wickedness
Whatever that has a beginning must have an end, therefore the end of Boko haram gas come!
THE SUN NEWS, POINT OF CORRECTION PLEASE,TRAORE IS THE INTERIM PRESIDENT IN MALI, CAPTAIN SANAGO IS THE HEAD OF THE MILITARY JUNTA TO BE OFFERED ASSYLUM IN NIGERIA AND NOT TRAORE.
The same reason why captain Sanogo took over power has now become a hydra-headed monster right under his nose. See how power drunk some people can be? Why could he not control them? He just wanted power. If he is wise let him take hold of this opportunity that GEJ is offering so as to enjoy his life.
Also, why does our press expose moves like this? All BH needs to do to know all government’s move to trash it is to read the papers. Security moves like these should be kept secret. Your opponent remains in confusion when he knows nothing about your plans and you know all his plans. We should not want to make huge sales at the expense of national security.
Handsome Jimoh you are right on point, sensitive issues like this is better kept under wraps, but some of our journalist do throw caution to the winds and rubbish the efforts of government.may God help Nigeria!
Jonathan should not take any option off the table when it comes to the security of Nigeria.If they fail to listen to him,then he should mobilise other African countries in sending a peace keeping force to Mali who while maitaining peace should equally battle members of boko-haram which has their base located at the northern part of Mali.
Must Sun Newspaper publish a sensitive security report. Even with freedom of the press and freedom of speech there must be classified information that the press for security reason should not publish.No wonder all around the president are Boko Haram sympathisers who would not even think of the grave security implications before making anonimous speech to the press.Such people are Boko Haram members who are only interested in seeing the defeat of the Federal Government of Nigeria by the sect.,These acts of glaring sabotage are not only despicable they are treasonable.
I know the end of BH is at hand but how and when God will do it, I dont know. but the end of this sect in Nig will be very sad bc they have inflicted so much pain on the nation. God will visit them with the judgement of pharaoh.
I PRAY GOD TO GRANT THEM TRUE SALVATION SO THAT THEY WILL KNOW THE DIFFERENT BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS BECAUSE YOU WILL ONLY THINK DARKNESS IS THE BEST PLACE TILL YOU SEE THE TRUE LIGHT WHICH IS JESUS, BECAUSE KNOWN OF THEM WILL ESCAPE THE DIVNE JUDGEMENT OF GOD IF THEY DONT REPENT FROM THEIR SINS.S. S. S. S. ————-S
Now that all plans have been revealled to both the traitors and all,what is the way forward?We should’t let these bunch of cowards know our plans,anyway there’s always plan B.GEJ ride on man.
Well done Mr President and his humble crews. Pls , the youth of Northen Nigeria are waiting to see the ” Boko Haram crisis stops ” . The Leader should be dealt with if caught in North of Mali. All those involve should face the LAW. UN forces should swing into action before their escapee. GOD Bless President Goodluck E . Jonathan – Na so d HOLY SPIRIT go dey guide u for a better Nigeria , Amen.
is not finding their hiding place that is d prblm. The prblm is hw prepared are d security agent. Corruption wil nt let us do d right thing in this situation
We will fight boko haram from Nigeria to Mali and not the other way. First, tell us who are sponsoring them in Nigeria. US first drove Bin Laden out of US and then followed him up to anywhere in the world. A competent force/Army will be able to incinerate them anywhere in Africa before looking for outside help. Give our armed forces what they need to teach them that leason and no group will contemplate keeping such animals again. For the first time, let us say enough is enough.