Many local governments areas in northern Borno and other parts of the state are gradually coming under the control of members of the Jama'atu Ahlis Sunnah Lid Da'awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, Weekly Trust heard yesterday.
The northern part of Borno shares international borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad republics and comprises Marte, Magumeri, Mobbar, Gubio, Guzamala, Abadam, Kukawa, Kaga, Nganzai and Monguno Local Government Areas.
Weekly Trust reports that very few attacks take place in Damboa, Chibok, Biu and Gwoza Local Government Areas in the southern part of the state while Hawul, Bayo, Kwaya Kusar, Askira/Uba and Shani have remained relatively peaceful.
Most government officials and civil servants had fled most of these areas except Damasak. Bama and some parts of Konduga Local Government Area, both in the central part of the state, are also coming under the control of the sect members who had chased away government officials and civil servants, it was learnt.
The source alleged that the JTF, which has received over 200 new patrol hilux vans, in addition to the fuelling of its vehicles and allowances for its soldiers, have largely remained more active in central parts of the state. When contacted last night, officials of the Borno State Government referred our reporter to the Joint Military task Force (JTF). However, several attempts to speak with the spokesman of the JTF Lt Col Sagir Musa were not successful as calls placed to his mobile phone failed to go through.
Weekly Trust also learnt that in Marte Local Government, the sect members control most villages and openly organize public preaching in village market in Krenuwa, the hometown of the current Secretary to the State Government Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, who is a member of the Presidential Amnesty Committee.
It was also learnt that the sect members are acquiring so many vehicles, in military colours and mounting guns on them. Three brand new hilux vans belonging to the Chad Basin were also reportedly snatched by gunmen.
Weekly Trust gathered that members of the Agricultural Transformation team set up by the Borno State Governor has been chased out of Marte by insurgents, abandoning harvest of wheat in 5,000 hectares of irrigation land, revived and funded by the state through collaboration between the Borno State Government and the Federal Government-owned Chad Basin Development Authority. The farm has over 60,000 hectares of unused irrigation land in Marte.
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@Ookarofor, agreed the government and the public are largely ambivalent to the menace of Boko Haram. Everyone seems to think it is somebody else's problem, when in fact it is everyone's problem.
This is not a new phenomena, the outbreaks of violence and infectious diseases, even the kidnap of innocent foreigners, are all met with a nonchalant attitude from the government and public in general. This selfishness, is not a basis on which to build a stable and safe society in which people want to live.
Why people there are so willing to divide along the lines of religion and ethnicity, is partly due to the culture that has taken root for the last 30 years, and people's willingness to distance themselves from one another, and dwell on the perceived negative aspects of others.
This amongst other things are examples of the government and the people at large failing to face their responsibilities, as such these problems will not go away anytime soon.
I don't think the West are too concerned about any potential oil deposits in the Chad Basin. If oil is present to be commercially viable to be exploited. The last thing anyone needs is for Boko Haram to upscale their operations. It is that threat will cause the West to pay attention, they have seen Afghanistan, Somalia and now Mali, they don't want Northern Nigeria to go the same way. The West didn't freak out when oil was discovered in the Niger Republic or Southern Chad. It isn't the relatively modest amounts of oil in the Chad Basin, it's the threat of terror and religious extremism spreading and threatening their interests in the region and throughout Africa.
Hmm
The insurgency in the north is obviously perpendicular to the same axis in ruling administration,political cells fraction manifested into uncontrollable terrorism,it advancements into dreadful religion warfare attracted disguise and un patriotic sympathy from majority northern political sphere ,bankrolled by same sect of opposition or competitors internally.Addressing the situation is of a lost investment on white paper as viewed and calculated by sponsors arming these cellulose .Efforts by sincere mediator in the north has yielded failure,therefore applying repellant measure to contain the situation had mixed reaction among northern actors.In finding last solution it's a game of "wait and see",my intake on wait and see could simply mean rotational presidency that favors northern political nucleus,the objective of the insurgency from inception was to destabilize the administration headed by Christian south-South.This experience I believe will strengthen the unification of Nigeria and wake up call for the government to invest in social security across the country.
The balkanisation of Nigeria has apparently started with this report. The borders have been wide open for many years and this has allowed jihadists, many of whom are foreigners, to come in and take advantage of the destabilisation in the Northeast. The fact that Nigerians can be so easily divided over some of the most superficial things such as religion and ethnicity in my view has allowed this to happen or at least one of the major reasons. Whether this is a real attempt to establish an extreme form of Sharia or this is being done to eventually bring the West in later to get the oil that may be in the Lake Chad basin in the name of fighting Islamic extremists, the public's selective indifference to all of this will allow something like this to happen. Those parts of Borno state will go into authoritarianism under the cloak of religion and this is what will be in store for the rest of the country. (This is not necessarily Sharia but authoritarianism in general)