Sheriff’s Boko Haram ‘link’

LEWIS OBI  08173446632 sms only, [email protected]
It’s sometimes forgotten that in 2009 Boko Haram was literally destroyed by the combined force of the Police and the Army and left for dead. But what happened between 30th July 2009, the day Mohammed Yusuf, its founder and leader was killed, and 30th May 2011 when Boko Haram seemed to be resurrected, revived and caffeinated remains one huge story no one has yet attempted. No one has attempted to tell it because after seven years it is still shrouded in mystery.
That Boko Haram has been able to keep things hidden speaks volumes about its compe­tence and resilience as a terrorist organization. By frustrating the best efforts of both the De­partment of State Services (DSS) and the Direc­torate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the jihad­ists proved why the news of their demise often appears either premature or exaggerated, and why its leader Abubakar Shekau seems to reap­pear after each of his many Army-announced deaths.
In 2009, Boko Haram opened its jihadist on­slaught on Sunday 28th July when it attacked the DutsenTanshi Police Station in Bauchi State. It escalated its offensive the next day with simultaneous co-ordinated attacks in three other states – Borno, Kano and Gombe. Seeing that the Police were unable to contain the attacks, Governor Modu Sheriff appealed for Federal help which the late President Umaru Yar’Adua promptly approved. Poorly armed but propelled by great religious zeal, Boko Haram fighters held out for as long as five days.
The Police were helped by what looked like a battalion-strength force of the Nigerian Army which eventually annihilated the sect. The Army counted 750 Boko Haram bodies in Maiduguri when the smoke cleared. So, Boko Haram would not forgive Modu Sher­iff. In Bauchi, more than 100 jihadists were killed; five police officers were also lost.
Mohammed Yusuf, founder and his deputy, Buji Fai, who was then the known principal financier of the sect, met their ends separately but tragically. Both were executed summarily and dramatically by the Police. Reports were unanimous that both men were not in a posi­tion to escape, nor were they resisting arrest. Indeed, they were both in chains. The Army officer who captured Yusuf, Col. Ben Aha­notu, sounded disappointed if not outraged that the man he had handed over to the Police had been killed in such cavalier manner. And Boko Haram never forgave Sheriff for the 2009 decapitation of the sect.
Rumors had spread that Gov. Sheriff per­sonally ordered the security outfit, Opera­tion Flush, to kill him (Buji Fai) after he had been arrested and brought to the Borno Gov­ernment House. That, Sheriff vehemently stressed, was farther from the truth and in an interview with the DailyIndependent News­paper on 12th August 2009, in Maiduguri, he stated that “one newspaper said Buji Fai was brought to me personally and I was the one who told the officers to go and shoot him.
“The last time I saw Buji with my own eyes was two years, seven months ago.
“That was the day he walked into my office and said, ‘I have an advice for you if you will not be offended.’ I said, Buji, what is this advice and why must I be offended? I appointed you my Commissioner so that you can advise me.”
“And he said, ‘I have made up my mind to quit my job because taking salary from the govern­ment is haram (a sin) and I have decided not to do it again. So I am advising you to do the same because anything Western is haram. I want you to resign as Governor so that you can go to Para­dise, otherwise if you die like this, you will go to hell fire.’”
Sheriff recalled that Fai left his office after the advice and never came back.
“Immediately he left my office, I asked my aides whether the man has gone mad, and be­cause I didn’t want him to mislead the young people, I sacked him.
“We had just been re-elected and I decided to dissolve the cabinet because I didn’t want him to go out there and address a press conference to say he resigned, thereby giving credibility to his false beliefs and misleading the unwary.
“I dissolved the cabinet and asked him to go. Ever since then, I never saw him because he never came back even to say hello.”
Sheriff also denied knowing Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed on July 30 “I never met him in my life. Never.”
He said the allegation that he was the finan­cier of the sect is ridiculous because he was its primary target.
“I saw this crisis coming the very moment I got an audio tape of Yusuf’s sermon where he dared me, and the Nigerian State, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of this country (President Umaru Yar’Adua).
“He was daring every leader. What made me feel bad was that he was boasting that he had been arrested before and released and that even if he was arrested again, nothing would happen. At that stage, I got really worried.
“He threatened that they knew where we slept, our route to the office and therefore they would deal with us. He specifically mentioned my name and said I was the biggest kaffir, unbeliever, who must be dealt with.”
Sheriff noted that Boko Haram was more dangerous than Maitatsine, and that the recent mayhem was scarier than the one precipitated by Maitatsine in the 1980s.
“It was scarier because nobody knew the kind of ammunition they had. Nobody knew that they had the capacity to do what they did. The police could not contain them.
“It was scary because we never believed that these people are as dangerous as they exhibited during the riot.”
Shefiff thanked Yar’Adua for his quick inter­vention. “I requested (Him) to intervene and Borno State is grateful to him, because if not for his quick intervention, what happened would have been beyond comprehension.
‘”As far as I am concerned (Yusuf) was a devil and God made it possible for (Yar’Adua) to in­tervene at the right time to stop the madness once and for all.”
It was obvious that Governor Sheriff had thought that Boko Haram was finished. He was not alone. The Northern governors who held a summit meeting over the issue felt the same way: “We believe in the values of Islam and we will defend the values of Islam. But we would not tolerate people who exploit the ignorance of our people and try to cause mayhem. We would do whatever is necessary to protect the lives and property of our people. We would do whatever is necessary to get rid of such a group.”
Boko Haram did not forgive Sheriff and it was no surprise, therefore, that when Stephen Davis who had tried to negotiate the freedom of the Chibok Girls, asked the jihadist command­ers who their sponsors were, they replied: Gov. Modu Sheriff and Major-Gen. Ihejirika, former Army chief who was also a Boko Haram nem­esis. The shock was that ordinarily reasonable people fell for it.