Continued from yesterday

By SHEHU SANI
THEY prevented other Mujahidden groups who attempted to attack and loot the convoy. The Taliban was formed by Mullah Mohammed Umar, a one-eyed puritanical cleric who was described as one of the most improbable characters in Afghanistan’s tortuous history. He recruited students from Qur’anic schools and this resulted in the Taliban being referred to in its early days as a student movement.

Between 1979 and 1989, there were visible armed Taliban uprisings against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Talibans from Afghanistan, however, succeeded in forcing the Russians out of their country. The Federal Government’s intelligence arm is apparently aware of the infiltration of Nigeria by foreign Islamic fundamentalists.

A renowned Islamic scholar and leader of a popular Islamic scholar believed to have escaped arrest in either troubled Sudan or the war-ravaged Afghanistan; the unidentified Islamic scholar was for eight months allegedly hidden by Alhaji Musa. A national daily reported that it was because of this that Musa himself was arrested in Katsina prior to the rounding up of his guest by security agents. The police swooped on Musa’s IBB Way residence in Katsina in anticipation of getting incriminating evidence in connection with the expatriate.

A faceless Islamic group was also recently indicted in connection with recruiting several students from Qur’anic schools in Nigeria for terrorist training in Mauritania. This was carefully done under the cover of Islamic training. The state security service had on July 7, 2004, released Alhaji Bello Damagun (a businessman) along with Mallam Mohammed Nazifi Inuwa and Mallam Mu’awuya Babayo, who were arrested, interrogated and detained since June 2001, on the allegation of illegally sponsoring some students to Mauritania for Islamic studies.

Reports from national dailies had it that some of the youths absconded from the camp less than seven months into their four year training programme because they were allegedly dumped in a desolate and isolated area 58 kilometres from Mouakchott, capital of Mauritania. The reason for taking these youths to a desolate place for training, it was learrnt, was to harden them so that when they come back, they would have been conditioned to be full of bitterness for the Nigeria’s socio-economic and political situation. The training of these youths, who are said to be about 10 years old, was to orientate them to be capable of inhuman responses to issues.

The Yobe Talibans

The self-styled Talibans of Yobe were not Afghans who infiltrated Nigeria; rather, they were Nigerian university undergraduates, ex-military personnel and professionals. They were easily identified by their spartan dress code and long beard, reminiscent of Osama Bin Laden. The Yobe Talibans emerged around 2002. The group, on emergence, decided to call itself Al Sunna Wal Jamma, which in Arabic language is literally translated as, “followers of Prophet Mohammed’s Teaching”.

The sect had its first camp at Zagi-Biriri, a desert village in Tarmuwa Local Government Area of Yobe State, located some 70 kilometres, north of Damaturu, the state capital. The sect had deliberately withdrawn to the desert settlement, so that they could be totally immuned from what they perceived as the corrupt Nigerian system, and to also effectively dedicate themselves to the life of prayer and the study of the Qur’an. This is preparatory to a revolution that would overturn the corrupt administration at all levels in the country.

The Talibans had hoped to replace the corrupt incumbent administration with a more holier government founded purely on the teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith. Security reports had it that the group was also engaged in covert military training and warfare.

The identity of Yobe Talibans

There was confusion as to the true identity of the group that enacted the bestial act that held Yobe hostage for three weeks. Those who seem to know, saw them as the reformed Maitatsine sect of the 1980s, while others said the Yobe Talibans could be those sympathetic to the Al-Qaeda Cabal of Osama bin Laden, who spilled over to Nigeria in their bid to escape the United States aggression in 2001. From the foregoing, it is evident that the true identity of the Yobe Taliban was a mystery.

The Taliban and the Government

The Yobe Talibans were unreservedly acerbic in their public criticism of government officials for failing to implement “True Sharia” in the 12 northern states where the system was operational.

The Yobe Taliban’s Crush

At its first camp at Zaji-Biriri, the Yobe Talibans were said to have lived a simple and quiet lifestyle. They had refused to mix freely with the larger society for obvious reasons. They were said to have worked on people’s farms where they got paid. They in turn used the money to buy food.

The Yobe Talibans soon exhausted the good will they had enjoyed until that moment, after they had beaten up a middle-aged married woman who dared to challenge their fishing rights in the local pond. The woman had told them that since they did not own any portion of the pond, they had no right whatsoever to fish in the stream.

The Yobe Talibans were said to have told her that since the pond was created by Allah, who also created the fish that swam in it, an ordinary mortal could not lay claim to any section of the pond, let alone decide who should fish in it. A hot exchange of words was said to have ensued between the group and the woman. She was thus beaten black and blue for daring to challenge them.

Criminal activities

The Yobe Taliban quickly became unpopular among the villagers who alerted the police of their presence in Zaji-Biriri. Following police reports indicting them of criminal activities, the Yobe State Government convened a security council meeting which resolved that the group be given a three-day ultimatum to leave Zagi-Biriri. With great reluctance, the group relocated to Kananma, a homogenous community of about 3000 inhabitants, east of Zagi-Biriri, in Yunusari Local Government Area of the State on Sunday, December 21, 2003. Kanamma, a very remote area, located some seven kilometres away from the Nigerian border and Niger Republic was strategically chosen.

This is with the hope of getting away from the attention of the authorities while going ahead with their training and hermetic meditation on the teachings of Islam. Having set up a new camp in Kanam, they had refused to forgive the police for the previous role it played in their hurried exit from Zaji-Biriri. Their renewed intention to avenge on the police thus led to a bloody confrontation.

The Yobe Taliban Revolution

The following day, the Yobe Taliban went into the town, where they demanded to see the DPO, the local government chairman and the district head of Kanama. But the villagers told them that none of these people were available, so they left a message that when they returned to town, they would only come back to kill all those whom they had requested to see. When the people concerned received the message, the DPO sent a report to the police headquarters in Damaturu requesting permission.

They (Taliban) returned on Wednesday, December 24, 2003, and burnt the police station, local government secretariat, local government’s lodge as well as the residence of the chairman, DPO and the district head, killing a new police recruit. The residence of the community leader was torched because they saw him as the representative of government in the village.

After burning down government-owned structures in the village, they clearly knew the repercussion which would follow. They, therefore, initiated a series of fortification measures for the eventual confrontation which they knew must come. They had abducted eight villagers and forced them to dig trenches around their camp.

They were to later engage armed troops in battle from these trenches. Before the confrontation with armed soldiers, some mobile police force units had arrived their camp, intent on sacking the group, but retreated in the face of the superior fire power of the Talibans, coupled with the advantage provided by the trenches that fortified their camp.

Sects in Islam

Who are Boko Haram?

Boko Haram is an Islamic sect based largely in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. Their leader was one Mallam Muhammad Yusuf, until he was reportedly killed by police.

Yusuf was born in Girgir village of Yobe State. The Boko Haram group started as Sahaba group in 1995. The main leader of the group then was one Abubakar Lawan who later left for the University of Medina to study. When he left, the older clerics conceded the leadership to Yusuf, who was young and versatile man.

But immediately Yusuf took over, the doctrine of the sect changed and he abandoned the older cleric and came up with Boko Haram. At the initial stage of their growth, the sect was entrenched in Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Kano States, but now have covered virtually all northern states and are advancing their frontiers to other parts of the country.

Muhammad Yusuf, because of his brilliance was a favourite student of Sheik Jafar Mohammed, the highly influential and well known preacher who was shot dead in Kano by gun men while leading the dawn prayers in his mosque on the eve of 2007 general election. Yusuf later fell out with his mentor Sheik Jafar, even before his death.

Resolution of differences

On at least seven occasions, teacher and student met, sometimes one on one, at other times in company of third parties, with the aim of resolving their differences, on other occasions, several other clerics also tried to dissuade Yusuf from his rigid ways. On most of those occasions, the student gave the impression that he would mend his ways, yet no sooner did he return to his base than he reverted to his condemnations of all things western, often he went even further by more or less declaring his counselors apostates.

Yusuf had severally described his groups as non-militants, but simply a group of youths who are bent on upholding the words of Allah. He warned that they will rather die than to succumb to the present corrupt system in the country. That they vowed to continue to fight the authorities and their accomplices until they succeed or die in the process.

The Name

Although the group has come to be popularly known as Boko Haram, it is not clear whether the group actually called itself by this name. Some called them Yusufuya sect, but some called them Jamaatul Takfur Wal Hyra Ahlus Sunna. Some still called them Khawaarji and some called them Jamaatu Alhlissunnah Lidda’awatiwal Jihad, which they approved of.

Continues  on Monday