It was gathered that even after some were converted to Islam by their abductees, they were slaughtered.
One of the victims, Thomas Ali, who escaped said he was kidnapped by the sect and was forced to take a bath as a sign he had accepted Islam. He claimed his escape was miraculous.
One Emmanuel Ndah, who was also abducted said they were arrested by the sect on their way to visit a widow at her home. He said they were taken to the Mohammed Yusuf Camp. Their names gave them away as Christians right away.
They were thereafter asked if they were ready to denounce their faith. One Pastor George Orji encouraged them to stick to their Christian faith.
“It was his encouragement that kept us till the time we were released. The men outside killed so many of us Christians who were even forced into Islam. I could not say how I survived it but I made it by the Grace of God,” said Ndah. But Pastor Orji never came out alive, he stated.
Also giving his testimony, one Okechukwu Nwankwo said he was abducted with his wife and children and was forced to wash up and accept Islam, which he did under duress.
Luckily, he was asked to leave. He however witnessed the death of Orji who was executed because he refused to cave in.

Thisday

THISDAY learnt that the family is threatening legal action against the police, the Federal Government and any other party linked to the death of the 72-year old man.
The family claims Mohammed voluntarily gave himself up to the Borno State Police Command last Friday when he heard that he was a wanted man.
But he allegedly did not come out alive.
Spokesman for the family and son of the deceased, Baba Kura Alhaji Fugu, told THISDAY in Maiduguri, that his father fled his residence when the sectarian crisis erupted.
According to Fugu, his father sought abode in his sister’s home but turned himself in when he heard the cops were searching for him.
He said news came back to the family that he was killed and his corpse deposited at the morgue of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). He was later buried in a mass grave at an undisclosed location.
Fugu stated that: “the news of his assassination came to the family and we are surprised how he would be assassinated by the police and his corpse deposited at the UMTH mortuary on Friday and he would be buried in a mass grave on Saturday.”
Fugu, the eldest son of Mohammed, revealed that his father was diabetic, hypertensive and had been on prescription drugs for over four years.
He further revealed that his father who had 27 children and 50 grandchildren was a close friend of Yusuf’s father. Mohammed, he claimed, took charge of the leader of Boko Haram because the latter’s father had before his death, appealed that he treat him as his child.
Fugu revealed that his father gave the land on which Mohammed Yusuf built his house and mosque. He also continually warned him against his anti-government, anti-Western education rhetorics.
Furthermore, Fugu stated that he had sent a petition on the activities of his brother-in-law to the Borno State government before the incident last week.
He showed a copy of the petition addressed to the governor through the secretary to the state government to THISDAY and accused the government of laxity.
The petition was titled “Threatening Situation to Peace and Security of the State posed by Mallam Mohammed Yusuf and his Disciples.”
Part of the petition written on July 15, 2009 reads: “It could be recalled that few weeks ago, some members of Mohammed Yusuf’s disciples had a logger-head with Operation Flush II team near the Custom Bridge in Maiduguri in which few of Yusuf’s disciples sustained injuries.
“Against this background, since the occurrence of this incident, the group under the leadership of ill-educated Mallam Mohammed Yusuf is mobilizing both men and resources to retaliate the injuries inflicted on them by the said Operation Flush II team.”
It further reads: “The spate of which most of his disciples both within and far flung of Maiduguri are paying allegiance and solidarity visits to their leader shows they are busy preparing to launch an offensive attack on members of the Operation Flush II stationed at strategic locations in Maiduguri. In addition to this, they are targeting many government agencies and departments such as courts, the state house of assembly, police stations and formations across the state, the university and other tertiary institutions. They are also targeting all the democratic institutions and political office holders.”
In the letter, Fugu advised the government to take action by alerting all security agencies in the North-east region.

Thisday

This comes as a security source confirmed to THISDAY that a similar group opposed to Western education has been traced to Niger State.

There were conflicting reports regarding the circumstances that led to the death of Yusuf. While the police claimed he died in a shoot-out, a BBC photo of the sect leader in handcuffs proved he was taken alive and might have been slain by security agents.
But the president disclosed at the State House yesterday that the National Security Adviser (NSA) had been directed to commence an investigation and submit the report before the end of the week.

Yar’adua spoke at a joint press conference with the visiting Republic of Benin President Boni Yayi. The president stated that his action was in keeping with his administration’s policy of the rule of law.

“This is an incident that will be investigated together with all the events that have happened,” said the president.

“Yesterday, I directed the NSA to carry out a post-mortem with the security agencies as a first step, so that we can have a full report of what happened during the crisis, including how the leader of Boko Haram was killed, the circumstances under which he was killed,” he added.

The president said the report would be examined and appropriate actions taken. Describing the incident as a “serious issue,” he stated that the report would determine if further investigation is needed.

Yar’Adua added: “I have been emphasizing since this administration came into power on our uncompromising stance on the rule of law. And everybody in this country, and all the officials, are aware, clearly and unambiguously of the stance of this administration on the rule of law and indeed my personal commitment and firm belief that it is rule of law that will anchor good governance and progress in this country.”

The president who was in Brazil on official trip while the sectarian conflict was raging, explained that he met with all security agencies upon his return and that a course of action was chosen. He stressed the importance of having the facts rather than acting impulsively.

Meanwhile, the name of the group that has been traced to Niger State cannot be immediately identified. However, a reliable source disclosed that the joint security networks of the security agents are keeping tabs on members of this sect.

Fresh facts have also emerged on how Yusuf raised funds to run the operations of the group. It was gathered that apart from hefty sponsorship from wealthy individuals and sympathizers, among them a Kano-based indigene, Yusuf levied his 540,000 strong membership N1 each per day.

THISDAY gathered that from this levy, the slain sect leader might have raised about N16.2 million monthly and N5.9 billion annually.
Also, Yusuf was said to have acquired an 80-kilometre expanse of land in Maiduguri for farming, as part of the strategy to raise extra funds. But a security report to Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State for the confiscation of the property was ignored.

The security report had among other things raised concerns that the slain sect leader might convert part of the land to other use. THISDAY further gathered that the Kano-based businessman had gone to court to forestall his prosecution after investigations linked some of Boko Haram’s funds to his bank accounts. He won the case.

The same businessman was alleged to have sponsored some youths to train in Mauritania. A security source close to the Boko Haram investigations told THISDAY that when it was imminent that the group would slug it out with security agents, the sect had contemplated two options: go on self-exile to Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or embark on a Jihad.

The source said that when it became apparent to the leaders that the Saudi government would not be favourably disposed to granting them entry and that the immigration arrangements to Afghanistan were not working out, they resorted to a Jihad.
Besides, the South East Muslim Organization (SEMO) has condemned the Boko Haram mayhem.

Rising from its sixth National Executive meeting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, yesterday, SEMO said the crisis was not consistent with the teachings and principles of Islam. The group maintained that Islamic faith abhors violence. Therefore, the sect could not claim to be protecting the Muslim community either in the North or any part of the country, said SEMO.

In a seven-point communiqué issued after their meeting attended by the national coordinator, state coordinators in the five states of the South-east among other representatives of Islamic organizations in the zone, the organization advised the perpetrators to change their position while urging the Nigeria Islamic stakeholders to sensitize the public in order to curtail fundamentalism.

Thisday

Secondly, the concept of ’summary execution’ in a nation that has a judiciary is just ludicrous…

Naija Pundit

Guardian

THE military offensive against members of the extremist Boko Haram Islamic group claimed more casualties yesterday.

A suspected sponsor of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf-led sect, Alhaji Buji Foi, was given summary execution in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital by the police.

His execution took place at the state police command headquarters in Maiduguri.

Foi’s death came 24 hours after Yusuf was killed in action.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Christopher Dega, confirmed the death of Yusuf, during a gun battle with joint military/police team on Thursday.

He said quite a number of policemen were killed during the four-day battle with the Yusufiyya sect members in Maiduguri.

Curiously, Foi was a Commissioner for Religious Affairs during the first term of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. Before then, he had served twice as Chairman of Kaga Local Council, among other top public offices in the state.

Foi, said to be a wealthy man, was arrested yesterday morning in his farm by the operatives of the Operation Flush 11 led by its commander, Col. Ben Ohanatu, where he allegedly camped women suspected to be wives of the sect’s members. The former commissioner allegedly used his connection in the state to provide shelter for the fundamentalists.

Before his execution at about 7a.m. yesterday, Foi was driven on the back of a police patrol van to the Government House by Ohanatu with his hands tied to the back. The troops had planned to show him to the governor but when Ohanatu discovered that Sheriff was not in the office, he headed for the headquarters of the Nigeria Police and handed him over. He was, thereafter, executed.

Sources closed to the outfit said the former commissioner engaged the members of the Operation Flush in a gun battle for a long time, using a double barrel gun, which he allegedly acquired when he was a council chief.

Briefing reporters on the circumstances that led to the death of Yusuf and suspected areas the fanatics were still hiding in the state, Dega said the sect leader died in a “crisis situation.”

According to him, during a confrontation with the troops, Yusuf sustained injuries.

Dega said: “The sect leader did not survive the injuries he sustained at the battle field, after he was picked up. He died Thursday afternoon.”

On the number of policemen that died in the crisis, he said: “There are a lot of casualties, but we are not releasing the figures now, until we are able to compile a comprehensive list of policemen and sect members that died in the four-day battle in Maiduguri.”

Even though the police are on top of the Maiduguri crisis, he said “not all of them (sect members) have fled; there are still pockets of areas where they are living among the people.”

Dega said Yusuf had prepared to launch a war against the state government considering the quantum of arms and ammunition found in his house that the military shelled.

He said: “After the shelling, we recovered guns, locally made bombs, explosives and knives in the arms dump.” He added that the police were still recovering more weapons and ammunitions.

The police boss confirmed that the bodies of sect members killed by the military would be given mass burial.

Also yesterday, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Chief Marshal Paul Dike and the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, visited Maiduguri to assess the situation in the state.

The security chiefs visited the enclave of the slain sect leader.

At the Government House where he was received by Sheriff, Dike wondered why an individual would want to hold the nation to ransom because of his religious beliefs. He said he was in the state to reassure the government and people of Borno State that the security agents would do everything to prevent such incident in the future.

Sheriff thanked President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the heads of security agencies for their support. He said the group’s followers were not true adherents of Islam because the religion abhors violence.

Meanwhile, Indigenes of Bauchi State mostly women and children, who were taken to Borno by the sect, arrived in the state capital yesterday. They were handed over to the state police commissioner at the Force Headquarters in Bauchi.

They were rescued from the group by the joint military and police team. Most of the children, who were taken with their mothers to Maiduguri, were below the age of 10.

Some of the women, who spoke to reporters said_ they were only in Maiduguri for nine days with the consent of their husbands, who were members of the sect, said that before they left Bauchi, they were told that their mission was to have a deep knowledge of Islam, the Holy Qur’an and other books of the religion but that they were later dumped in a house with nobody to cater for them.__

The leader of the women, who simply gave her name as Salamatu said: “We went to Maiduguri for deeper Islamic knowledge, and for the period that we were there, we were taught nothing but pure religious issues which have now made us better Moslems. What we did is not against any law and we will remain committed to the sect.”__

Asked what she wants from the government for herself and colleagues, she said: “All we want is to be re-united with our families so that we can continue with our faith. My children will not go to formal school because it is against our faith.”_

Sixty-year-old Mama Hauwa was taken to Maiduguri against her volition by her son. “I had to go with them because I would have been left alone in the house and starved to death but I did not participate in the teachings as we were only kept in a secluded house in Maiduguri where nobody came to see us for nine days until last Wednesday when the Police came and took us away.”__

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, M.A. Indabawa said the command would continue with its investigations to get the women’s husbands so that their militia activities would be curtailed.

NPF- Nigeria Police Force

MD- Mohammed Yusuf

NPF: Yesterday we went to your house; we saw a lot of animals, students and stuff you guys are putting together. What are you going to do with all these stuff?

MY: It is for self defense.

NPF: Is there no authority to defend you?

MY: I don’t know, why did I get arrested?

NPF: You are a Muslim person.

MY: I don’t know why you are disturbing us.

NPF: You said Boko Haram (Western education is sin) who made the pants you are wearing?

MY: My pants are cotton and cotton is made by God.

NPF: In the Quran’s chapter, God said ‘Ikra’ – or seek knowledge?

MY: Is not same with Islamic knowledge. There certain aspects of western education which are bad.

NPF: We saw Computers and many things in your house are they not as a result of Western Education?

MY: These are technology different from Western education.

NPF: You are eating good food, driving a nice car, and wearing nice clothes.

MY: Is not like that. People have different means and abilities. Some have in their hand while others don’t.

NPF: Why did you leave your compound?

MY: Because you came to attack me.

NPF: You sent others to fight and you left?

MY: All my people have left too.

NPF: What about the people that come to fight?

MY: My people have left.

NPF: Where are your followers now?

MY: Bauchi, Gombe. Adamawa, Taraba and police have already attacked them before Maiduguri.

NPF: How did you hurt your arm?

MY: I fell.

NPF: Where is your headquarters and where are your branch offices.

MY: You have attacked my headquarters; my branches are in Gwange ward, Bulumkutu, etc.

NPF: Who is helping you, do you have soldiers, organizers and if you are not here who is second in command?

MY: Abubakar Shekau.

NPF: Where is your GSM Cell phone?

MY: I don’t know.

NPF: You run away with many people, where are they now?

MY: I don’t know.

NPF: Are you getting any help from Niger Republic?

MY: No, no one is helping us – Insha Allahu Warahamatullah, Insha Allahu Warahamatullah.

NPF: Do you have a farm in Benishiek?

MY: Yes.

NPF: You made your followers give up their lives for a fight, many of whom did not know what they were fighting for, what is your opinion on their death?

MY: It is on the conscience of the killers of my people.

NPF: What about you’re Children that were killed?

MY: My children are killed? Again it is on the conscience of the killers.

NPF: Where are you from?

MY: From Yobe State.

NPF: Where from Yobe?

MY? From Jakusko.

NPF: Where is your mom from?

MY: From Gashua.

NPF: Have you travelled overseas?

MY: Yes. Only to Pilgrimage or Hajj.

NPF: When?

MY: 2000 to 2003.

and here is another one of him a few hours later:

Here’s the video of his interrogation…

Of course now the police claim he died while trying to escape in a shoot out This is one time the Nigeria Police have used force properly. Since there seem to be no wounds to his head, it seems they actually wanted him to suffer before he died, for this they ought to be commended.

Of course the Human Rights groups would say this is barbaric and what not, but truth is, who cares? The man was a menace to society and now that he’s gone, things can only get better…

BBC

Sect leader ‘alive when captured’

The BBC has obtained a photograph which shows that Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria, was alive when captured by the army.

They handed him over to the police. A few hours later, journalists were shown his bullet-ridden body.

The police said he had been fatally wounded while trying to evade capture.

Mr Yusuf’s Islamic sect is blamed for days of violent clashes with security forces across northern Nigeria, which killed hundreds of people.

Human Rights Watch in Nigeria have called for an immediate investigation into the killing of Mr Yusuf, 39, which they called “extrajudicial” and “illegal”.

On Friday, the army commander of the operation against the Boko Haram group, Col Ben Ahanoto, said he had personally captured Mr Yusuf and handed him over to the chief of police in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

He said Mr Yusuf had a wound in his arm – which is clearly shown in the photograph – which had already been treated.

The police, however, insisted he had been fatally wounded in combat.

The police commissioner of Borno state, Christopher Dega, said Mr Yusuf “was in a hideout, and the forces went there and there was an exchange of fire”.

“In the course of that confrontation, he sustained his own injury. He was picked up and he later couldn’t make it.”

Earlier, police sources had offered a different version of events, saying Mr Yusuf was killed while trying to escape from custody.

Meanwhile, another group of women and children, abducted by the Boko Haram sect, has been rescued from a locked house in Maiduguri.

Officials said the latest group of 140 was in a deplorable condition, suffering from pneumonia, fever and rashes.

Last week, the police rescued about 100 young women and children from a house on the edge of the city. Many said they were the wives of sect members, and had been forced to travel to Maiduguri from Bauchi state.

The BBC reporter in Maiduguri says the Boko Haram sect believed that their families should accompany them to the battlefield.

Hundreds of people were killed in Maiduguri alone during violent clashes between police and the Islamic sect.

Col Ben Ahanotu, head of security in Maiduguri, said that mass burials had begun there.

The Boko Haram compound, he said, was being used as one of the burial sites because bodies were decomposing in the heat.

Life in the affected areas is now beginning to return to normal with banks and markets reopening.

Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state but the fighting spread to cities across the north of the country and the total number of dead is unknown.

A military spokesman said two of those killed were soldiers and 13 were police officers.

The number of injured, meanwhile, is still being counted. The Red Cross had earlier said about 3,500 people fled the fighting.

The violence ended on Thursday with the death of Mr Yusuf.

This guy’s band of Islamic fundamentalists declared their desire to overthrow the Nigerian govt and impose a Taliban style govt on the nation, in the process over 200 lives were lost.

This is one instance in which Yar’Adua actually woke up and did something.

Sure, some will argue that we are a nation of laws, not men… To them I say go to blazes…

Naija Pundit

BBC

The leader of an Islamic sect blamed for days of deadly violence in Nigeria has been killed in police custody, police officials say.

The news came just hours after security forces said they had captured Mohammed Yusuf in the city of Maiduguri.

Mr Yusuf led Boko Haram, which wants to overthrow the government and impose a strict version of Islamic law.

Hundreds of people have died in five days of clashes between his followers and security forces.

“He has been killed. You can come and see his body at the state police command headquarters,” Isa Azare, spokesman for the Maiduguri police command, told Reuters news agency.

His bullet-riddled body was shown on state television, AFP news agency said.

Troops had stormed Boko Haram’s stronghold on Wednesday night, killing many of the militants and forcing others to flee.

Mr Yusuf was arrested earlier on Thursday, after reportedly being found hiding in a goat pen at his parents-in-law’s house.

BBC News website Africa editor Joseph Winter says Nigeria’s security forces have a terrible reputation for brutality and human rights groups accuse them of frequent extra-judicial killings.

‘Gun battles’

The violence began on Sunday night in Bauchi state, before spreading to other towns and cities in the northeast of the west African nation.

Crowds of militants tried to storm government buildings and the city’s police headquarters, but dozens of them were shot dead by security forces.

Several days of gun battles between militants and Nigerian security forces ensued, culminating in the assault on the militant’s stronghold.

It is thought more than 300 people have died in the violence – some estimates say 600, although there has been no official confirmation.

The Red Cross said about 3,500 people had fled the fighting and were being housed in their camp.

Witnesses and human rights groups have accused the military of excessive violence in quelling the militants, but the army says it used a minimal amount of force.

Police say Mr Yusuf was a 39-year-old preacher from Yobe state, who had four wives and 12 children.

They described him as a motivational character.

His sect, Boko Haram, is against Western education. It believes Nigeria’s government is being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria.

Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence.

The country’s 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.