By the middle of this year, the federal government and its security forces will have control over the security challenges posed by Boko Haram, President Goodluck Jonathan stated yesterday.
In an interview with the Yonhap, the official news agency of South Korea, in Seoul, Jonathan said that, at present, his government has reasonable control over the activities of the religious group, as their attacks are only being perpetrated in some parts of the country.
"In terms of security challenges, in some parts of country we have terrorist attacks. But it doesn't affect the whole country. We are in reasonable control. We have belief that, by the middle of this year, in terms of security of individuals, we will have control. (The danger) is limited to some parts of the country. It doesn't extend to other parts of country," he said.
Jonathan, who arrived in Seoul on Sunday to attend the two-day summit together with representatives from 52 other nations and four international organisations discussed how to prevent terrorists from getting hold of nuclear weapons and ensuring atomic safety. The Nigerian leader also asked South Korean businesses to expand their investments in building Nigeria's infrastructure for the energy and telecommunication sectors in particular.
Asked how he has been able to address issues of political stability which is important for foreign investors, the Nigerian president blamed investor-related problem on past military governments.
He said: "There is one key area that I want to emphasise. Nigeria is a very, very green area for investors. Before this time, during the military rule, you didn't know who was the next president. When the new government comes, there is a new policy and those policies are not attractive to investors. Basically from 1999 to date, we have established democratic government.
"I am the president. Before I took over, I was vice-president. The president was very ill and people thought there would be military intervention. Today, we have conducted election. Politically, we are stable. For investors, Nigeria has strong law and media. No president can just change a law that can affect investors. Especially, we encourage investors.
"Nigeria is a country with lots of natural resources. South Korea, on the other hand, is industrialised. So, if the two countries commit together, they can really enhance development. As Africa's number one oil-producing country."
Meanwhile, suspected members of Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State have reportedly killed the biological father of Boko Haram spokesperson "Abul Qaqa". Alhaji Abdullahi Jimoh, a former Deputy Comptroller of Nigerian Prison Service was killed by suspected members of Boko Haram.
A security source told SaharaReporters that Jimoh was killed with a friend in front of his home at the back of Railway Quarters in Maiduguri late Monday night, but it was yesterday that it became clearer that he was the father of Abul Qaqa, the detained spokesperson of the sect whom the SSS and Nigerian Army captured in Kaduna recently.
The source said that the father has been out of Maiduguri city for some time and just returned to the troubled town recently. The identity of the second person killed with Jimoh is still unknown, while Boko Haram is yet to claim responsibility for the killings.
In a related development, five al-Qaeda suspects linked to North Africa have been arrested in Kano by men of the State Security Services (SSS) over the kidnapping of a German engineer, Edgar Raupach, in January.
LEADERSHIP gathered that four of the al-Qaeda suspects, including a Mauritanian, were arrested last Thursday in a raid on a supermarket owned by the Mauritanian in the city of Kano while the fifth suspect was arrested in a separate raid.
A source within the security service was quoted as saying that guns and a laptop, containing al-Qaeda documents, were recovered in the supermarket raid.
Raupach was kidnapped on the outskirts of Kano in January. Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb said last week that it was holding the German while a private news agency in Mauritania said the group wanted to swap him for a jailed Muslim woman.
We killed Boko Haram Commander - JTF
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military Joint Task Force (JTF) has claimed that it has killed a senior commander of the Boko Haram in Maiduguri.
JTF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa made the claim in a statement released in Maiduguri.
He said "Following a tip-off, a special operation was conducted on Tuesday in Maiduguri, which led to the arrest of a notorious commander of Boko Haram who was involved in recent attacks in Maiduguri." The statement added that the Boko Haram top shot "was arrested with his gang members in Jajeri area of the city."
Musa also claimed that the group's commander and his gang attempted to escape shortly as they were being moved to a detention facility for questioning. He said, "Our men had no choice but to shoot them and they bled to death before they were taken to the hospital."
Comments Post a comment
The head of joint task force is repeating the same thing the police did to muhammed yusuf which uptil date has made the fight against boko haram impossible to end. He is a leader & now he is dead who else do you confront in other to solve the problem at hand.( A group with out a leader can do any thing,because they is no body to defrenciate whats right & whats wrong to them. There fore Nigerian govment must go back to the drawing board & try to figure out what realy went wrong before those people suspected to be bokoharam members were shot while trying to escape.(lets be honest to our selves & evreything will work out fine). God bless Nigeria.
If the President promises that by June the Authorities will have control over the security Challenges posed by Boko Haram,then he must have something up his sleeves for the nation.Nigerians can jolly well keep their fingers crossed and wait patiently till June whic is just a few months away. Perhaps our President is going to be Presidential by using his good office the way he should.In no uncompro-mising terms the President should give an ultimatum to the Hausa/Fulani muslims to accept unconditionally the secular status of our commonwealth or pull out of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The Hausa/Fulanis have been eating their cakes and having them back for too long.It is not sacrosanct that two incompatible must continue to cohabit when the basis no longer exist nor was Lord Lugard's 1914 amalgamation of the North and South a fait Accompli.Tanganyika and Nyasaland went their separate ways.Why can't the so called Nigerians go their separate ways?
We should pay our President the courtesy of listening to him but we have every right to accept or refute what he tells us. Boko Haram is one of the problems Nigeria faces. It may not be the most intractable to resolve. There are other complex issues such as (i) the continued existence of Nigeria as an entity (ii) corruption (iii) unemployment (iv) decadent infrastructure (v) declining school system (vi) lack of coherent foreign policy (vii) epileptic power supply (viii) kidnapping and armed robbery. Even if Boko Haram surrenders tomorrow, President Jonathan is very incapable of solving Nigeria's corruption malaise. Presidents have come and gone, Ministers have come and gone, Nigerian is still in darkness. The future does not look bright for Nigeria.
He is again making promises. We hope it is not like the electric power supply promise. This time we will hold his legs to the fire to deliver on this one. We have toyed with this boko haram rubbish for too long.