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By Sam Eyoboka

“Even though the events of September 9, 2011 were localized to New York plus three other cities, and the July 2007 attacks on the United Kingdom restricted to London, the governments of the United States and Britain rightly interpreted these as acts of war against America and Britain, respectively. In the same vein, the Nigerian government should have recognized the continued acts of terrorism in the country as war against the sovereignty of the Nigerian State. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government has been in denial and the problem has continued to escalate….The consequences of Nigeria’s continued denial of the war declared against its sovereignty will be very grave. More puzzling is the fact that the countries that recognize Islamist attacks as declarations of war have tried to convince Nigerians to see the situation otherwise” – Excerpts from The Boko Haram Chronicles.

Deadliest group

The Islamic State in West Africa or the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (abbreviated as ISWA or ISWAP), formerly known as Jam’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihd (“Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad”) and commonly known as Boko Haram, until March 2015, was a jihadist terrorist organization based in the North-East but also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon.

Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, the group has been led by Abubakar Shekau since 2009. When Boko Haram was first formed, its actions were non-violent. The main goal was to “purify Islam in northern Nigeria”. But since March 2015, the group has aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Meanwhile, it has killed tens of thousands and displaced about 2.3 million from their homes and was rated the world’s deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index in 2015.

Boko Haram’s increasing radicalisation led to military operations against the group and the summary execution of its leader, Yusuf, in July 2009. Its unexpected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, but progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. Government’s declaration of a state of emergency at the beginning of 2012 in Borno State, but extended the following year to cover the entire North-East, led to an increase in security forces’ abuses and militant attacks.

Of the estimated 2.3 million people displaced by the conflict since May 2013, at least 250,000 have left Nigeria and fled into Cameroon, Chad or Niger. Boko Haram, according to reports, killed over 6,600 in 2014. The group has carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 girls from Government Secondary Girls School in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014 and later some girls in Dapchi, Yobe State.

In mid-2014, the militants reportedly gained control of swathes of territory in Borno estimated at 50,000 square kilometres (20,000 square miles), but did not capture the state capital, Maiduguri, where the group was originally based. On March 7, 2015, Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIL, rebranding as ISWA. In September 2015, then-Director of Information at the Defence Headquarters announced that all Boko Haram camps had been destroyed but attacks from the group continued with the Wall Street Journal, penultimate Thursday, alleging, in a report, that about 1,000 soldiers killed by Boko Haram were secretly buried in the North-East. The Director of Defence Information, Onyema Nwachukwu, however insisted that the military does not engage in secret burial but accords fallen soldiers a befitting funeral.

Despite the denial, tales of woe continue as several persons displaced are yet to return to their homes while several others have taken flight to different habitats for fear of further damage to whatever is left of their ‘homes.’

Relocation

The story is told of this widow who was forced to relocate from the North to Lagos with her children after the horrific murder of her husband. Tearfully, she narrated her ordeal as her husband, who came back to Maiduguri from Bible School to visit his family, was murdered. She recalled the sermon he preached at the church that weekend encouraging all to be firm till the end. As if he knew…

Later that week, Boko Haram went on the rampage. They operated freely in Maiduguri where they had a camp ground, targetting Christians. Pastor George Ojih and his family were amongst those who fled to a military barracks for safety. Several days later when the violence appeared to have subsided, he (Ojih) went in search of a widow from his church who wasn’t hiding in the barracks with them.

During that rescue mission, he and an accompanying deacon were captured by Boko Haram militants and taken to their camp. There, then group leader, Yusuf, reportedly addressed Ojih among other captured Christians and announced, “Convert to Islam or die!” Ojih wouldn’t bulge. Instead he kept urging fellow captives to stay strong.

Incensed, Yusuf allegedly ordered the beheading of the pastor after which he declared to the other captives, “This is what we do to those who refuse to accept Islam!”

A few days later, security forces captured Yusuf and he died mysteriously in custody.

Final moments

Some of the captives who renounced Christianity at the point of being killed, after their rescue, told Mrs. Veronica Ojih about her husband’s final, defiant moments. She is obviously one of Nigeria’s earliest widows from Boko Haram terrorism going back to the group’s July 2009 uprising, 10 years ago.

When America-based international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, asked the widow if she had received compensation from government as some were being offered, she said Borno State government officials told her they were only paying compensation to the families of people killed during their tenure. Her husband’s murder happened before their tenure and so she wasn’t qualified for compensation. How could a nation fail to protect its citizens and then fail to comfort them?

It was, however, gratifying when she spoke of her eventual relocation from the theatre of war as Mr. Bayo Adewoye, acting on the instructions of the erstwhile National President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, and a security consultant and President of Macedonian Initiative, Rev. Ladi Thompson, helped to move her and her two kids from Borno to the South. She was pregnant with their third child then.

According to her, Adewoye got in touch with her and promised to pay for her kids’ education. And once in a while, Adewoye would call and ask about the kids’ results. One year, she read the grades to him and he said, “Let me call you back.”

When he called back, he said: “I have discussed this with my bible study group. Your son’s grades are not great. We need to move him to a better school. We will pay for the new school”.

On the gesture, the widow said, “It is one thing to be a one-off or cash-and-go philanthropist and it is another thing to be a caring, consistent humanitarian. He not only paid the fees but he cared about the kids’ performance. In that wise, Adewoye was doing what Ojih himself would have done. George must be smiling in heaven”.

Expressing gratitude on her behalf, Ogebe said, “This is a man whom she tells me she has never met. Yes. He has never shown up to claim credit or glory for his charity. He is leaving it all up to His Rewarder. He is from South-West, she is from North-Central and the pastor who relocated her is from the South-South. They have no bond, no connection than the love of God. Ironically I found out during our interview that she is from my place…

“This is why I believe in Nigeria but I believe in Nigerians more. We have been our own government when there was no governance. We can be our own ministers when there is none. We have proven time and again that we can survive without them and in spite of them”.

Quoting Isaiah 1:4-23, he went on, “Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!…..They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.”

Veronica had wanted to relocate to Kaduna because of the high cost of living in Borno but discovered after buying a land there that it had been taken over by herdsmen.

The 10th anniversary of the killing of Ojih coincides with the news of the alleged execution of Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi girl, in Boko Haram’s captivity.

It is sad that 10 years after Boko Haram terrorism started, tragedies linked to the group have continued in Nigeria. In the UK, a Nigerian grandfather, Oluwole Ilesanmi, was arrested by the police for preaching on the street. The police have since apologized for wrongful arrest and paid him compensation of £2,500.

However, in Nigeria, Evangelist Eunice did exactly the same thing – preached on the street in Nigeria’s capital – and slaughtered like a ram, and three years later, there has been no justice in her case.

Additional report by Emmanuel Ogebe

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