Insurgents believed to be members of Boko Haram have hoisted their flag in parts of Marte local government in Borno State, according to military sources. The insurgents repeatedly attacked the local government within the week. On Friday, the insurgents attacked neighbouring Dikwa local government. They were repelled by a combined effort of the air component and ground forces of Operation Lafiya Dole in a battle that lasted hours, sources said. Meanwhile, the attack dislodged many residents of Dikwa who fled into bushes to take refuge. The insurgents also laid an ambush for the reinforcements deployed from the theatre command headquarters located in Maiduguri. The attack on Marte came barely two months after the Borno state government resettled 500 households in New Marte. The casualty figure for the attack is still unknown, but some soldiers injured from Marte have since been evacuated to Maiduguri where they are currently being treated. Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff has commended the troops of the Nigerian Army who repelled the attack on Dikwa, saying the soldiers gave a good account of themselves. Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru gave the assurance that more combat equipment will be moved to the theatre in Borno State and others in various parts of the country. The army chief made the remarks while visiting the Borno theatre command for the third time since his appointment. He added there was a need to encourage and keep fighting troops motivated. The General assured that the Nigerian army, under his watch, will continue to work hard to surmount the twin problems of banditry and insurgency in the country.

OUTRAGE, on Friday, greeted Thursday night’s open fraternization between Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, the Niger State government and bandits who abducted students and teachers of Government Science College, Kagara, in Rafi Local Government Area of the state. The bandits also killed a student of the school during the abduction. Sheikh Gumi led a delegation that included high-ranking officials of Niger State to a negotiation meeting with the bandits in Tagina Forest, at the end of which Gumi said the bandits showed positive signs of releasing the students and renouncing banditry. Leaders of the Niger Delta under the aegis of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), their Yoruba counterparts, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) and other similar groups and leaders across the country described the meeting and the negotiation as bizarre and an endorsement of criminality. PANDEF condemned the meeting and described kidnapping as having become an enterprise. PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, said in an interview with Saturday Tribune on Friday that the country had become a ludicrous state. He said that the situation would not be allowed to continue forever as the rest of the country would not sit back and watch. Robinson said: “ It (kidnapping of students) has become an enterprise. The bandits are allowed to move around freely and audaciously go to school, kidnap school children, kidnap citizens and the likes at will and the so-called Sheikh Gumi will lead a team to go and negotiate with taxpayers’ money given to them and then the next day, they will fly go somewhere else to kidnap. It is an enterprise now. “It is shameful that the Minister of Defence is saying that Nigerians should defend themselves because as it is now, the government has been overwhelmed by the bandits and there is a Gumi that goes to the forest with government officials. “That means government officials know where these bandits are in the forest and they are not arrested; nothing happens to them; they are given money to release people and business continues. It is a shame. Nigeria is a funny country. “How funny the country has become is really ironic. It is ridiculous that in the Eastern Region of the country, Easterners, who are peacefully coming together to form a security outfit to protect their lives and livelihood, are being attacked with the full force of the Nigerian military; aircrafts flying over forest to bombard innocent citizens who are working to protect their livelihood. “On the other hand, you have bandits in the forest who kidnap at will, who destroy livelihood at will, who kill at will, being tolerated and accommodated. “Government officials going to the forest to meet with them and negotiate the release of kidnapped kids and air force aircraft are not bombarding the forest. “Nigeria is a ridiculous country. That is the truth. And this situation will not be allowed to continue forever. The rest of the country will not sit back and be watching this very funny drama. “Someday, something will happen in this country. I am sorry but that is the truth. The PANDEF spokesman advised President Muhammadu Buhari to desist from his “nepotistic pastime if the country must remain an entity.” He said: “As a responsible organisation, PANDEF has continued to call on Mr President to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the president of a region. “The nepotism in the country is too much. It is too glaring that people are not treated as the same. Some persons are given preferential treatment and others are treated as criminals. In fact, the victims are criminalised and victimized, while those perpetrating criminality of all sorts are being tolerated. “So, it is for government to rise up to the occasion to become a neutral government that will protect the lives and properties of all Nigerians. These bandits are criminals. They are marauders. They should be so dealt with and smoked out of the country. “ They are threatening the peace and unity of this country and this sentiment and attachment should be done away with and the Nigerian Armed Forces should treat them as criminals.”

Six children have been killed in an attack on a community in Anambra State. The children, all under 10 years old, were killed during an attack on a Fulani community in Oba, Idemili Local Government Area. Residents said the attack was carried out by suspected members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), amid escalating ethnic tensions in Nigeria. Members of the community told PREMIUM TIMES they would not retaliate as they are trusting the security authorities to deliver justice to them, with the host community and state assuring of solidarity and assistance. The attack happened on Tuesday evening but the facts were slow to emerge and PREMIUM TIMES just confirmed on Thursday evening. Horrific photographs obtained by PREMIUM TIMES show the deceased children savagely macheted and one said to be just one-year-old, burnt. Also, the background of the photographs shows razed homes. The impact of the attack suggests children were targeted or that they were only killed because elderly members of the community were absent at the time attack was carried out. PREMIUM TIMES also obtained a short video showing the remains of the children wrapped in white cloths ready after they were washed and before internment according to Islamic tradition. Following the attack, the community is now displaced. Surviving victims are now taking refuge inside the army barrack in Onitsha, the patriarch of the community, Dogo Isa, army sources, and Mahmud Imam, who has seen the displaced persons, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday. All the six children were buried inside the barrack, Mr Isa said, a claim corroborated by other sources. Mr Isa said the oldest of the slain children was six-year-old. The police spokesperson for the state, Haruna Mohammed, said he was not aware of the attack. An IPOB lawyer and spokesperson, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, said, “I am not aware of this one” when contacted on Thursday. Names of the slain children as disclosed by Mr Isa are: Nasiru Laminu, two years old; Sirajo Ali, two years old; Zainabu Mutmeru, four years old; Aminu, two years old; . Mairo, six years old; and Maryam, one year old. Mr Isa said nothing happened to their cattle because it was in the evening when the animals had been herded to the stream. He said he has been in Anambra State for 43 years but, on Monday, he was called by a person, who asked him and his extended family to leave the community. “The person told me I should take my family to the north because the Fulani are no longer wanted in Igboland,” Mr Isa said. “They said they gave me one day to leave. But around 5 p.m., on Tuesday, I was called that I should come home. Then, I met six of our children dead and my house razed. All of us had to leave to stay in the barrack here. “I have begged the soldiers to help me get the man that called me to take him to the police.” IPOB Led by a fugitive, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB is agitating for the secession of the Igbo from Nigeria, decades after late Odumegwu Ojukwu first mobilised the nationalist aspirations of the ethnic group to break away, resulting in a 30-month civil war (1967-1970) that led to the death of millions. With years of bad governance and the government’s failure to address the challenge of national integration, secessionist agitations were reawakened by IPOB, leveraging people’s anger against the state. In 2017, Nigeria proscribed IPOB and declared it a terrorist organisation amid a major standoff with the army in Abia, the home state of Mr Kanu. The group has rejected being labelled a terrorist organisation saying its actions and demand for secession are peaceful. But it recently established a formation called Eastern Security Network, which it said would protect the Igboland “against Fulani herders.” Criminal herders have been involved for a long time in deadly conflicts with farmers across the country – and recently in cases of abductions for ransom. But communities in southern Nigeria have recently declared readiness to resort to self-help against the Fulani herders, bringing even the innocent among them at risk of indiscriminate violence. The IPOB-linked Eastern Security Network is currently the target of a “not-so full military operation” in Orlu axis of Imo State. In Oba area, fear of a Fulani reprisal has risen, a local police source said. Mr Isa said the host community leaders had been calling to sympathise with him and assure him of solidarity. He said he should let security authorities handle the matter instead of resorting to self-help. PREMIUM TIMES could not speak with any of the local leaders but a soldier corroborated Mr Isa’s account. “They said they heard that some Fulani were coming to attack but I have told them that it is not true and no Fulani will attack them in retaliation but they should help us find the person that called me and those that attacked us,” Mr Isa said.