Tuesday 5 February 2013

BOKO HARAM METAMORPHOSES, CODED DOCUMENTS FOUND IN MALI BY NIGERIAN ARMY.


                                           Nigerian troops in action in Maduguri metropolis.


The Nigerian public were not informed that Abubakar Shekau and Abu Qaqa the leaders of the notorious terrorist group in Nigeria and six of their high ranking lieutenants were captured in a desert village in northern Mali. The security details of the operation were perfect before and after the leadership of the terror groups hide-out was known to the Nigerian military contingent just three weeks within their commencement into the war against terrorism in the Sub Sahara Africa. The only individuals that were aware of the operation to strike the hideout of the militant group where the President, Senate President, Speaker of the House, National Security Adviser Chief, Chief of Defense Staff, Chief of Army Staff and the Commandant of the Nigerian troops in Mali. The Nigerian military in conjunction with a few Malian military strike force were able to apprehend the group and in their  possession where coded documents on its plan for Nigeria in years to come and how its striking force are to carry out operations before the year 2020. The capture and the coded documents found, have dealt a blow to the groups plan and it is clear that a gradual draw-down to a complete ceasefire would be expected to end by the year 2020 when the terrorist group will disarm completely and the nation will be safe from the terror acts.

The documents contain serial attack mocks programs and were constructed in drills, I have been able to decode it and here is the best information given to the data. It was found that candidates were arranged in classes and various examination halls without proper security checks due to the time frame set for the exams and the security challenges in the northern part of the country made it possible for the lapses which Boko Haram got, to unleash the highest mayhem and murder Nigeria ever recorded since the advent of the sect. Being the only known terrorist group in the country all attention was paid to it as the source behind the deaths of candidates in about 5 states in the north. Candidates and persons came with cars and motorcycles parked at various positions around various examination venues in most of the volatile states in the Northern part of the country and that was what the terror group capitalized upon to inflict pains on the Nigerian population. It was not in the security details of the matriculation board to protect the candidates but the board worked earnestly to protect and safe guard its questionnaires months before the examination date which took place all around different centers in the country.



                                                        Abubakar Shekau Boko Haram leader

 The exam body left the security of lives to the weak and incapable Nigerian police which was a prey to the deadly terrorist group known as Boko Haram. The examination board depended on the military men mounting various check points in volatile states in the mid north and far north of the country. A military apparatus that have been stretched to the limit and have found it difficult to even know the difference between a Boko Haram member and a Maduguri university student because the militant group survives within the local population and many among the military men deployed are not indigenes.

45 minutes into the examination, at exactly 10: 47am a loud noise broke the serene silence and the assault began in one of the centers North –East of Kaduna. It was a calculated attempt by the sect in various centers to attack simultaneously. The terrorist groups stormed the venue with different sort of weapons ranging from AK47  shooting sporadically into classes and halls while others among them were throwing home made improvised explosive devices (IED’s) in to various halls to achieve results as expected. The security men watching over the candidates in order for them not to commit examination mal-practices were found running for their dear lives. Commotion was the order of the day as the gate man who locked the gate after every student had entered was no where to be found, emergency exit for candidates were not part of the structures erected in the building which made the armed suicide bomber had a field day.

In Kano, the government school was encircled by the Boko Haram militants even though the streets to the school has various military check points and at the entrance gate to the exam venue there was a size-able security presences. That did not deter the terrorist group which had planned meticulously days before the examination and had kept a car filled with 30 kilograms of bombs. As their usually trade mark, they created a detour by throwing IED’s from a fast moving car towards the school fence and some landed within the school premises exploding and damaging the principal’s office and other empty classes but their aim was to draw the attention of the security men guarding the school which they achieved.

As the sound of the explosion was heard in the hall candidates were scared but had no option but to keep
writing as the examination officer said to them that the security agencies and the military were in control of the situation.  Within 57 seconds of the first explosion, the man sitting in the car packed within the school drove at top speed towards the main hall where the candidates were seated, he was just about 15 meters to the wall when a sharp shooter soldier from afar was able to struck in the heard from a distance of about 44 kilometers but due to the speed he was able to ram the car into the wall of the hall with a large explosion heard as far 39 kilometers away.

It was a simultaneous plan to achieve a huge collateral damage in 7 northern states of Kaduna, Kano, Yobe, Brono, Adamawa, Bauchi and Plateau. The militant group’s plan was to wreck havoc and for the government to understand that it had its foot soldiers functioning no matter the amount of the groups members in custody. Its aim was to secure a chain reaction following the line in which the states are aligned above. This was not known to the Nigerian security agencies and military apparatus that such plans was in the offing on that day.

The Nigerian Security Agency in a frantic effort to stem the flow of serial bombings around several states considering the fact that Kaduna and Kano was hit within the span of 2 minutes quickly got in touch with the leadership of the breakaway Boko Haram faction which declared some months ago publicly in Maiduguri that it has stopped terrorist attacks within the Nigerian state after it had declared a seize fire and willing to negotiate with the federal government to know if it was not involved in the fresh attacks. The group denied an involvement in it and said to the NSA it would be willing to help the NSA on its own capacity but the NSA Chief needed more information from the group because it did not trust the group and it contacted its spokesman through the military intelligence wanting to know further if it had any information about the perpetrators of the heinous crimes on young Nigerians but the leadership of the group based in Brono said it had no information linking the bombings.

Just within minutes after the conversation between the leadership of the faction and the NSA, another message reached the NSA desk that Yobe’s capital Damaturu has been hit with 3 different explosions not far from the State police command. The target of the terrorist group in Yobe was the hit a computer based examination hall that was heavily guarded. But the security operatives got a wind of the information 3 minutes through a text message from an anonymous person who was a member of the terrorist group 22 days ago before his younger brother was killed by the organization due to negligence and fear of wanting to quit the group. The person in question was in hiding from both the authorities and his former group and all attempts to trace the number was futile even as one of the telecommunication companies was contacted to track the person. It was later discovered that the telecom mast used to send the message was stationed in a village which was situated not far from Nigeria’s border in Brono state and Cameroon.

As soon as it was known to the Nigerian security agencies that the targets of the terrorist group was to eliminate as many candidates writing the matriculation examination in volatile states in the north, the men from various state security organizations jumped swiftly into action. The military and other security agencies all around the around the country were dispatched to various centers. Various types of police and military helicopters were seen flying over all the skies of state capitals in the north at low levels. Security men in vans and armored vehicles of various designs were racing to various centers while social media addicts on Facebook, Twitter and 2go kept posting images and comments about the terrible situation they are facing in their various places.

In Brono, the plans of the group were not successful due to the operations of the Nigerian army in the state. Though their target was the federal university where students where sitting for examinations at about 10:59am but from the on-set it has been difficult for the terrorist group to have a free flow of their nefarious activities due to the presence of the Nigerian army. As soon as the suicide bomber who was in the first car was approaching the check point mounted by the Nigerian military the other car following behind which had 4 men holding American made automatic rifles which was seen used in Libya during their revolution began to shoot sporadically causing confusion within the traffic jam, as people ran towards different directions there was an immediately exchange of gun battle between the army and the terrorist groups not far from the outskirts on the road linking the university. People ran for their dear lives sustaining various degrees of injuries in the process while about 45 people were shot dead during in the exchange of fire because Nigerian were not taught in the first place what to do or how to stay safe immediately they are faced with such situations. A similar example of what befell panicking individuals when the accidental bomb blast in Lagos made many to stampede and died in a canal far from the scene at Ikeja military cantonment early last decade.

As the fighting power of the army stationed at the check point seems to be handy over the terrorist group when one of the terrorist in the car behind that of the suicide bomber fell as a result of a gun shot to his chest, the suicide bomber and the other group drove out of the grid-lock where many motorist have left their cars for the safety of their lives and headed towards the road to the border town next to Chad in order to escape. There was a hot chase by the Nigerian army and a helicopter hovering above followed suit in the chase while the army on ground and the terrorist were both aiming each other. The driver of the military van was shot in the upper arm tearing into his shoulder because the bullet proof vest was supplied by a contractor who purchased it from an old Soviet military warehouse.

The chase by the army on ground was stopped but the military helicopter helping in the chase was not equipped or either fitted with the guns that would have fired from above killing the terrorist simply because the army hierarchy never consider such cold have happened in the nations fight against terrorist. As the terror group in both cars discovered that they had slowed down the army’s chase they turned their firing power towards the helicopter above and the pilot quickly made a u-turn in the skies of Maiduguri and headed towards the military barrack in order not to be court-martial.

In Adamawa and Bauchi, the sect had a good day in-coordinating their activities as soon their command gave them the go ahead. Due to the inappropriate city planning and building permits the sect was able to wreck havoc. At various examination centers in the states cars and motorcycles which is a common mode of transport were packed opposite the major examination centers and as the rule of Jamb the examination body expects that immediately candidates finish writing their examinations they are expected to move out of the hall. And since it was a norm for Nigerians to wish themselves well and talk about the good, bad and ugly side of the new innovation of computerized examinations conducted by Jamb after the examinations have been concluded. They moved out in droves and they walked into the streets at various enters where cars were parked suddenly there was a large explosion from both ends of the streets in between the cars in Adamawa leaving scores dead and many others injured.

That of Bauchi terror attacks were narrowed in between cars from opposite sides of the road not more than a distance of 26 meters from the venue while some IED’s were attached to motorcycles packed within cars at the same positions where motorcycles were parked. It was difficult to figure out if the cars were bobby trapped or to ascertain if it was the motorcycles that exploded first. The fact was that the candidates walked into the suicide bombers or remotely controlled bombs that exploded killing many and wounding hundreds. Within minutes the hospitals morgues in both states were filled with dead bodies of young Nigerians and the wounded were taking to various hospitals fro treatment.

The militant group decided not to use IED’s in Plateau because it operations were stiffened in the state and lack a breeding ground unlike Yobe and Brono because its populations both Christians and Muslims dominating Jos north local government mainly had just ended a long time feud which had taken many lives. Both were tired of the situation they have brought the state economic and political into tatters and were seeking peace at all levels. It was difficult to grant or lease out a house to the Kanuri people without proper background checks in the capital city of Jos. This was because many among the members of Boko Haram sect were of Kanuris origin from North East Nigeria and not Hausa-Fulani speaking people who had issues with the indigenes of Plateau state. So, innocent Kanuris were victims of segregation even in the neighboring states.

But that did not deter the militant group which was bent on making a statement to the Federal government of Nigeria in a single day. The team rented an thatched roof apartment in the outskirts of the capital close to a village along the state capital 4 months before the operation from a farmer who needed money to buy fertilizer for his crops. The farmer at that moment needed no background check of his tenants nor was he interested at what was happening in his 3 room apartment even when he discovered that his tenants usually spend 2 days in a week with some couple of strange people at home and would always come home in the middle of the night quietly.

AK47 was their weapon of choice, it was hidden under and within a large drainage system along the street where beggars were seated close to a dump. The militants sneaked into town on motorcycles as early as 7am on that day they were within the vicinity of the beggars waiting for the candidates to finish their examinations. As soon as the state security agents received information from the NSA to guard and protect all examination centers, police men attached to politicians were asked to be withdrawn and to replace the men in different police units that would be drafted to various centers but the politician called on the governor as the chief security officer of the nation to stop the move. That created a problem in swiftly drafting the Nigerian police to one of the centers that the militant plundered.

It was about 11:58am, candidates have started leaving the venue but the militants were waiting for when they would be crowded but as soon as they heard the sirens they pulled out their guns and began to shot sporadically targeting anyone on sight running away into different neighborhoods. The police cordoned off the entire area quickly while ambulances came to pick the dead and wounded. Initially, as information filtered to the police command that the gun men had ran into unknown building, a security expert with the police headquarters in Jos suggested that since the militants ran into houses fearing and not wanting to die, he concluded that they were not suicide bombers. And the command thought it to be a case that would end up in a hostage taking but the truth was that the Nigerian police had no good training in such situations. The Nigerian police command in their colleges have never staged or rather mocked a case of hostage taking nor can one find them doing such drills in various communities thereby educating the public on what to do when a lone gun man is on rampage seeking to take upon a hostage.

As the police began to search for the gun men in various homes residents were panicking running away towards the direction of the police. Hoodlums gathered and began to chant various communal and war songs which they have decided not to sing anymore after the presidential peace meeting between Hausa-Fulani and the indigenous Plateau citizens even while their brothers and sisters in the neighborhood were yet not safe in siege. If not for the intervention of the inter-religious committee board that came to the scene immediately to calm the situation another round of crisis would have just started in the state. As the police went searching for the militants they were face with residents that won’t stop running out of homes suddenly colliding with armed police men. Fearful police officers on duty had accidental discharged of bullets hitting 7 residents at lower abdomen. Luckily, 3 out of the 4 militants were apprehended by the combine effort of the Nigerian army and police in three different locations in the neighborhood. 2 were found in an uncompleted building beneath a stock of roofing sheets after several hours, 1 was caught in a room hiding under the bed while the last one was still missing till date. He was able to escape dressed as a woman disappearing into the crowd.

The Nigerian public and especially the media needed information, wanting to know what the 3 militants apprehended have told the state security services but the information received was that they were still investigating the and men apprehended were still talking and cooperating with the interrogators. Media organizations began to quote unknown sources giving diverse contradictory information from both the government side and the perceived perpetrators. All attention was paid on the dreaded faction of Boko Haram which hid not disarm while some media houses said from their “reliable sources” that the split faction of Boko Haram which renounced terror and disarmed publicly some months ago had returned because the government was not willing to enter into serious negotiation.

As the public discovered that the government was not willing to say much about the bombing within the first 7 hours attention shifted to the examination body and there was a huge outcry, parents that have sent their wards to far distances in order for their children to write the paper examination instead of the computer based examinations besieged various Jamb offices around the country. The exam body was not willing to disclose to the public the number of persons dead and their identity but the danger the exam body wanted to avoid was thrown into the air. Hiding such information was to the advantage of the social media addicts which was giving out information through different walls owned by individuals who either were eye witnesses in the hall or have not seen an update of the person within 3 hours but they were pretty sure such a person was in the city even though if such individual was not the examination hall that was targeted.

The international media was not left out in the scooping and re-arrangement of speculations as they too kept hammering on the surgically well-coordinated attacks giving the reasons why Nigeria must be seriously involved for decades in tackling terrorism both in Mali and other Sub-Sahara nations and why the Nigerian security apparatus must invest in all sorts of new military hardware including drones produced by western companies. While the Nigerian media waited for press statements from both sides of the divide, none was coming forth. Sahara Reporter, Premium Times and other well known Nigerian media outlets were busy chasing and questioning the spokesperson to the Boko Haram faction that renounced terrorism. But the spokesperson was able to ask each media outlet to pay different sums if they were interested in sourcing information from him. He was able to charge each media outlet that wanted information from him 1,000,000 Naira and the media houses were narrowed to 4 media outlets that were willing to sell little information to others that night. While others that could not afford it decided to enter into quick contracts agreements among themselves just to get the information for the next days headline.

Security and political analyst of diverse natures and degrees where seen on AIT, Channels Television and other Lagos based television stations on that day dissecting and analyzing the security issues while other were explaining or technically blaming Jamb and the Nigerian security system as being inept  and corrupt ridden. An analyst in one of the interviews said a police officer will rather not check a vehicle but waiting to receive his share of the “egunje” because the man at the wheels was driving the latest Honda making reference to the car used by the terrorist group to achieve results in the Kano bombing same day. The examination body was particularly blamed for not taking cognizance of the security in various northern states when it was about to conduct the examination and what should have been achieved day before the examinations were conducted. Postulations, drills and re-creation of the future scenarios were offered similar to what this article was giving to various security agencies and other examination body. But the fact was that all their analysis, counter blaming, and advice was similar to a woman thinking of abortion after giving birth to the baby.

The minister of interior never helped matters with his last statement as he was shown on the NTA news which many parents glued to know what has happened to their children 9 hours after the last attack in Jos. After 9 hours the Nigerian public where yet to know or be informed by the Jamb office in Abuja or the Nigerian security authorities about the number of the dead and their names. There were speculations that the government was planning a mass burial because no word was coming out from any quarters. It was not clear if both have conspired not issued any statement and probably considering sending private letters to the families of the dead because rumors had it that the examination body was setting aside the sum of 1 Billion Naria for compensation. The press statement at 9 pm that night was conducted with pressmen asking pertinent questions. Within press circle, when he was questioned by a well known aggressive naughty journalist about the capability of the police and the administration in handling terrorism stating that the administration was allowing terrorist to rule the northern part of the country and sending Nigerian into a failed state. Stating that parents are waiting to hear the number of the dead and those injured.

 The minister of interior did not want to dignify the man’s question with an answer and he said the government of the day can not be held responsible and that it is not that the Nigerian police was capable of protecting the lives and limbs of the candidates considering the fact the government in the next year budget has decided to directly fund and repair all the dilapidated Lagos police college and others around the nation to be able to handle the situation once it occurs again. And finally, in order to appease the parents of the dead and the public that are glued are waiting to know the number of causalities he concluded the statement by saying the Nigerian people can be sure that the security agencies are working around the clock to apprehend the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

24 hours later, a newly formed terrorist group with its initials known as JAMB claimed responsibility on its web-site and issued a press statement as follows. “Our action to strike and bomb various JAMB examination centers around the country was necessitated after due consideration among the junior leaders stationed in Nigeria after it was clear to us that the Leaders of our group have been captured in Mali. The Nigeria military invasion of Mali has made us to consider it fit to attack the Nigerian people. This invasion is an indication that its was never ready for peace talks and it is viewed as an attack on our group both at home and abroad. We JAMB believed the government is being directed and controlled by foreign forces. We are JAMB the new organization fighting against injustice done to the people in the north of Nigeria and we decided to start by attacking JAMB”. It was discovered that most of its members came from Mali, Libya, Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Somalia while watching the YouTube video they posted on the internet.


This article is a fiction.
The writer has a faint knowledge of international terrorism and what he is trying to do in this article is to create a drill of events as a fiction in this article. 

No comments: