The Boko Haram Tragedy

Comfort Obi

I have no use for religious fanatics. They mislead the people, and misinterpret the Holy Books – the Bible and the Koran. Yet, like most Nigerians, I am outraged by the alleged judicial murder of some adherents of the Boko Haram sect – chief among them, its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and Alhaji Buja Fai, a former Commissioner of Religious Affairs in Borno State. More outrageous is the buck-passing between the Army and the Police on who was responsible for this shame. And the world is watching us in shock. How did we arrive at this mess?
It began on Saturday, July 25, when hundreds of Boko Haram adherents, a Muslim sect which says it rejects education and western civilisation, marched into Bauchi, and wreaked havoc on the people. The group went on a killing spree, targeting mostly policemen. They set police stations ablaze, and in the process released detainees, some of them hardened criminals. Security agencies were caught unwares. Where were they when these guys moved in droves, carrying dangerous weapons?
Mercifully, 24 hours later, the police woke up from a deep slumber, and joined by the Army they managed to contain the havoc in the state. But then, the surprise: Everybody went back to sleep as the sect spread its havoc to other states, namely: Yobe, Kano, Yola and Borno. They committed atrocities, beheading at least three Christian Clerics in Maiduguri. Scores of others, including security agents were killed. For five days, it was like a war. Maiduguri was the war front. The Army and Police used what they insist was minimal force, to bring back peace and order. But it was at a price. By the time the madness ended, a conservative estimate of 700 Nigerians lay dead. The streets were littered with corpses.The climax was the arrest of Yusuf and Fai.
When Yusuf's capture was announced, Nigerians were relieved. My first reaction was that he be taken to a psychiatrist. Anybody who would encourage people to tear up their academic certificates, to me, needs a psychiatrist. But we were heading for an anti-climax, confusion, and more tragedy, all at once. For, hours later, Yusuf’s death was announced. Initially, I thought he was badly wounded in battle, and so died of gunshot wounds. The next day, when his body, eyes open, stared at us from the pages of newspapers, I said to myself: what a waste of youth and life. He was young, handsome, and healthy. Most of these fanatics have a way of looking like the word, melancholy. But not Yusuf. Yes, he may have been deadly, but not intelligent. For someone planning a Jihad, he was easily captured. Of all the places to hide, he chose a goat pen, in his father-inlaw's house. He should have taken some tutorials from the Niger Delta militants on how to hide. How did he ever manage to convince thousands of people to believe in him, and his preaching? My take is that there are bigger fishes behind him than we are being told. But again I digress.
I was not surprised when the controversy over his death started. There are different versions. The police claim he died of gunshot wounds after his arrest as he, allegedly, tried to escape. Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sherrif claims Yusuf was killed in battle. But the Army tells a diferent story. They insist Yusuf was alive, and okay, when they handed him over to the police. As at the time of writing this, investigations, as ordered by President Umaru Yar’Adua, to unravel the truth, were still on. So, I can only speculate here, by putting two and two together. And I will start by dismissing the governor’s story as cock and bull.
Yusuf did not die in battle. His photograph as leaked, allegedly, by the Army, and published by newspapers, with telling captions confirm that. He was captured in battle. The police story is hard to believe. Yusuf’s photograph, as published upon capture, did not look like a man who was terribly wounded. What was glaring was a wound on the left arm which was already bandaged. And we have since read excerpts from his interrogation by the Army. The claim that he died while trying to escape is also not believable. Did his adherents invade the Borno State Police Command and tried to free him? Was he not in hand and leg chains? So, how?
Understandably, Sheriff and the Police Command are angry. Yusuf had been arrested before, as Sheriff noted, by the State Security Service (SSS), and was set free. That was not even his first brush with the law. But each time, he managed to go scot-free, and continued to kill and maim. In the case of the police, this guy had killed hundreds of people, including the police, and given them sleepless nights. Yet, that was no reason to allegedly murder him extra-judicially. Fai’s case was the same. The Guardian of Saturday, August 1, had published his photograph, after his arrest, with a caption: "Foi, before he was executed." Who ordered his execution?
Yar’Adua did well to order an investigation. The police have recalled the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Christopher Dega, to Force headquarters. That is heart-warming. No matter what crimes Yusuf and Fai committed, having arrested them alive, they should have been put on trial in a law court. In all of America’s outrage against Saddam Hussein, when he was arrested, he was not murdered. He was put on trial, and given a fair hearing. Having killed Yusuf and Fai, they have been finally shut-up, thus denying us from knowing how they operated, and who their real sponsors are.
And now, may I say how shameful it is that this sect was able to assemble thousands of people, planned this mayhem, moved their members in droves, without detection. Where were the security agents? What happened to intelligence and counter – intelligence gathering? How could such large movement of people escape them? Look at even the number of women and children taken hostage by the sect for months, and locked up in compounds. How did that escape them too? Truth is: what happened was a total breakdown of intelligence gathering. But back to the alleged extra-judicial murder of Yusuf and others.
If, indeed, they were extra-judicially killed, the culprits should face the full weight of the law. For long, Nigerians have endured these bestial killings. It is no longer acceptable.