Unabating Bloodshed

As negotiations for an amnesty deal for its members intensify, Boko Haram is showing no let up in its killing campaign

For once, President Goodluck Jonathan, last week got public commendation from former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, his rival in the last general election and fierce critic of the federal government. The applause followed Jonathan’s proposed extension of amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, who, for over four years now have unleashed hell on parts of northern Nigeria. The proposal has ignited debate bordering on its propriety or otherwise.

Indeed, the decision to grant amnesty to the Islamists is meant to shift the focus from the war and peace subsisting in the country to that of total peace and harmony. But the would-be beneficiaries of the programme are apparently uninterested. In the last one month, when the calls for amnesty for it became stringent, the insurgents have stepped up their attacks, wasting lives by modifying its killing strategies.

On 14 March, shortly after President Jonathan’s visit to Yobe and Borno states, Boko Haram responded swiftly by  killing Ibrahim Gula and Hajia Gambo, two officials of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Borno State who took part in planning the president’s visit. Days later, it staged a sequel in Kano using tricycles because of the ban on motorcycles in the city. The mindless killers shot sporadically at everything above grass level. After the attacks in Sharada area of Kano where they wounded two brothers who later died in hospital, they moved to Hausa Quarters, also in Kumbotso Local Government, where it attacked a primary school, wounding four in the process.

In pursuing its deadly agenda, the group switches tactics intermittently, thus getting off snares set by security agencies. On 18 March in Kano Boko Haram’s , foot soldiers working for Boko Haram infiltrated the New Road Luxury Park, Sabon Gari in Kano and attacked buses waiting to transport passengers and goods out of the city.  As the smoke of the bombs settled, human bodies littered everywhere with carcasses of buses dotting the motor park as relics of the attack.

Adamawa State has had its fair share of Boko Haram attacks in recent weeks. On 6 April for instance, the group invaded Midlu village, Madagali Local Government Area, home of Bala Ngalari, deputy governor of the state. The attackers  killed 11 people, including two private guards at the deputy governor’s country home. Some of those killed were reportedly called by name by their assailants to face the death squad. The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Muhammed Ibrahim confirmed the attack: “The information available to me is that 11 people lost their lives in the village, including the two private security guards at the deputy governor’s house,” he said.

Earlier before the visit to Midlu, Boko Haram vented its spleen on Ganye, headquarters of Ganye Local Government Area, also in Adamawa State. Apart from wasting 12 people, the group attacked and looted a bank of its treasure vault, emptied a police station of armoury before heading to the town’s prison to free inmates suspected to be members of the sect or its future recruits.

These incidents don’t occur because of lack of effort to rein-in Boko Haram. Its meticulous tactical switches and avid knowledge of insurgence operational dynamics keeps many of its members from law enforcement agencies. At times it operates by coordinated use of explosives to hit targets like churches, schools or mere show of might as it did in Maiduguri the day President Jonathan left the beleaguered city after his first visit to the city since assuming office.

Security officials are not insulated from Boko Haram bullets. When they can, the jihadist gleefully kill law enforcement agents. On 18th January for example, Esther Tarimo, a divisional police officer in the Daurawa District of Kano was felled by Boko Haram pellets. Earlier, Dahiru Ibrahim Majia, a superintendent of Police and Commanding Officer of MOPOL 9 Hotoro, Kano was killed by men suspected to be Boko Haram men. The Joint task Force, JTF, the military outfit maintaining peace in trouble spots has suffered casualties resulting from Boko Haram attacks. Most of the cases of military men killed in service while combating the insurgents have been recorded in Maiduguri.  When it is not murdering security men, Boko Haram simply turns the heat on its easier prey, the defenceless citizens. This was the case on 9 April when it killed four officials of the Borno State government. Among the victims were Tijjani Mafe, chairman of the state’s school feeding committee in charge of public schools, an accountant, a driver and an unidentified official, were waylaid on the outskirts of Bama Town.

Earlier in April, men suspected to be Boko Haram operatives executed 13 Christian factory workers in Kumbotso area of Kano for refusing to join in a Muslim prayer. A much more earthshaking operation was planned for the Christian feast of Easter. In the attack which was foiled by the JTF, Boko Haram had returned to its fundamental operational tactics of using improvised explosive devices, IEDs, wired into vehicles and detonated at strategic locations. An early morning raid to foil the ominous operation however yielded many deaths. A woman, a child and 14 Boko Haram operatives were killed by men of the JTF.

Boko Haram may be contemptuous of government’s amnesty offer because of its ideology. A personnel attached to the JTF voiced his frustration with the persistence of the insurgents, attributing their success to the sects ideology: “I have been to Dafur and Liberia, but never experienced these kinds of fighters. Rebels want power but these ones want death, they are just resilient warriors. You will see a small boy fearless and exchanging gun fire with us and even killing and injuring our colleagues,” the soldier who craved anonymity reportedly told an online publication.

Earlier when security agencies intensified using general packet radio services, GPRS to trace its men, Boko Haram devised other means. Rather than cell phones, television remotes replaced phones as tools for detonating explosives. With surveillance heightened and the international police on its trail, Boko Haram’s weapon handlers returned to using locally sourced material to fashion bombs and other explosive materials. This also manifested in the change of transportation arrangements- it moved from motorcycles to tricycles to attack its enemies when some states like Kano banned commercial motorcycles. For easy get-away, they looked towards the tricycles.

Apart from staging blitzkriegs, the Islamic group uses propaganda to the hilt. It responded with fury, for instance to President Jonathan referring to its members as ‘ghosts,’ while he was in Maduguri and Damaturu on a working visit. The group promised to carry out more attacks, a promise it is faithfully fulfilling. Last week, when the federal government raised a committee to  streamline the amnesty deal, the insurgents went to town in Maiduguri warning teachers and school children to keep-off classrooms or risk the wrath of its bombs. It followed it up with a faction turning down the amnesty offer. A statement by Abu Shekau, the vocal leader of the belligerent movement mocked government’s offer of amnesty.

—Nkrumah Bankong-Obi