NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams
“Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”
― William Shakespeare
(Barrons) Boko Haram jihadists killed a group of women in Nigeria after accusing them of witchcraft following the death of a militant commander's children in northeast Borno State, relatives, residents and a woman who escaped have told AFP.
Accusations of witchcraft are not uncommon in Nigeria, a religious conservative country almost equally divided between the mostly Muslim north and Christian south.
Northeast Nigeria is at the heart of a conflict involving security forces and Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province jihadists that has killed more than 40,000 people.
Last week, around 40 women were held in a village near Gwoza town on the orders of jihadist commander Ali Guyile whose children suddenly died overnight, according to relatives and a woman who escaped.
In interviews conducted on Sunday and Monday, they said the commander had accused the women of causing the children's deaths through witchcraft.
Guyile, a 35-year-old commander asked his men to arrest the women from homes known to practise witchcraft, said Talkwe Linbe, one of the accused women.
Linbe said she managed to escape and fled to the regional capital Maiduguri after the killing of 14 women on Thursday.
The relatives and residents AFP interviewed did not specify how the women died but the term they used in Hausa usually refers to jihadists slitting victims' throats.
(NY Post) - ISIS-aligned jihadists have released a video claiming to show the execution of 11 blindfolded Christian men in Nigeria, in what analysts say was a barbaric act that was clearly timed to coincide with Christmas, according to reports.
“This is a message to Christians all over the world,” a masked man says in the one-minute video posted online late Thursday by the terror group’s Amaq news agency.
He claimed the killings at the hands of jihadists from the Islamic State West African Province were in retaliation for the death of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman.
Baghdadi committed suicide in October during a US special forces operation in Syria.
No details were given about the victims, but ISIS said they were “captured in the past weeks” in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, according to the BBC.
One captive was shot dead while the other 10 were beheaded.
In recent months, ISWAP has ramped up its attacks on Christians, security personnel and aide, setting up roadblocks on highways and conducting searches, according to Agence France-Presse.
The UN has condemned the “increasing practice by armed groups to set up checkpoints targeting civilians” in the northeast of Nigeria.
On Sunday, jihadists killed six people and abducted five others when they intercepted vehicles on a highway near Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
ISWAP, which pledged allegiance to Baghdadi in 2016 and split from insurgent group Boko Haram, stepped up attacks on military outposts and troops last year, but has increasingly begun targeting civilians.
(Daily Post) - A new bill by the Nigerian Senate has proposed that any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person shall die by hanging upon conviction.
The bill, which reflects the growing concern over the spate of violence in the nation, was sponsored by the spokesman of the upper chamber, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger).
The bill notes: “A person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, commits an offence, if such person intends thereby to stir up ethnic hatred, or having regard to all the circumstances, ethnic hatred is likely to be stirred up against any person or person from such an ethnic group in Nigeria.”
It notes that “a person subjects another to harassment on the basis of ethnicity for the purposes of this section where, on ethnic grounds, he unjustifiably engages in a conduct which has the purpose or effect of (a) violating that other person’s dignity or (b) creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person subjected to the harassment.
“Conduct shall be regarded as having the effect specified in subsection (1) (a) or (b) of this section if, having regard to all the circumstances, including in particular the perception of that other person, it should reasonably be considered as having that effect.”The National Commission for Hate Speeches shall be headed by an executive chairperson who would be appointed by the president on recommendation of the National Council of State, subject to the confirmation of at least two-third majority of the National Assembly.
A Nigerian man was lucky to escape with his life after being viciously attacked by an angry mob who accused him of turning a person into a goat in the Nigerian state of Rivers, local media reports.
The bizarre incident allegedly took place in Rukpoku, less than 20 kilometers north of the city of Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria, according to the Daily Post.
A 36-year-old man was seen being followed around by a black goat, which somehow raised suspicions among locals who accused him of Voodooism. They reportedly suspected him of using magic to transform a human into the animal which was now chasing him.
The Nigerian newspaper report that the mob then attacked the man, beating him until he lost consciousness. The beating could have been even more severe if not for the intervention of security forces who broke up the altercation.
The victim, the goat and two members of the mob were taken to Rumuokoro police station where the man told his side of the story.
“I was strolling out of my compound only to realize that my goat was following. Usually it follows me whenever I am going out because I used to buy biscuit for it, but this time I didn’t want it to follow me so I decided to run and try to dodge it. The goat’s name is Remember,” he said.
“I was surprised that people thought I changed a human being into a goat. How is that possible?”
Previous reports in the Nigerian press and blogosphere cited confused witnesses, who alleged the entire group was working together and turned a woman into a goat for some kind of ritual. A senior police official confirmed to the Post’s correspondent that an investigation is underway and that authorities are determined to crack the case.
(Breitbart) - Islamist militants from the Boko Haram terror group are instructing their teenage recruits how to sexually assault women as part of their training, both as a means of terror and an incentive for the young militants. As part of their formation program, the Nigeria-based Jihadi leaders rape women and young girls captured during raids in front of the boys as a visual lesson in how to subdue a struggling victim during sexual assault, according to reports. One 15-year-old boy known only as Ahmed said that the girls “scream and cry for help,” but the militants don’t care. “Sometimes they’ll be slapped and threatened with guns if they didn’t cooperate,” he said. According to Ahmed, the jihadists accompany their demonstrations with specific instructions on how to carry out a rape. “They tell us to remember to hold the girl tight on both hands, pinned to the floor,” he said. “They said we shouldn’t let a woman overpower us.” The young soldier said that before one attack, his superiors told the militants to capture as many women as they could, promising that they would be allowed to “have fun” when they returned to their base. “At first I didn’t understand what they meant by ‘you are going to have fun’ and nobody thought to explain,” said Ahmed. This was before his training in sexual assault. According to Ahmed, encouraging young militants to have sex with captives is a relatively new tactic, since previously, the leaders forbade teenage soldiers from doing so, saying that women belonged to men and not boys. The change in policy reportedly reflects a need to incentivize younger soldiers, especially now that a significant number of senior fighters have been killed off by the Nigerian military.
Rape Creates New Jihadis . (Daily Post) - Aisha said, “They show you a gun, and then whatever they say you have to follow their command. He would lock me up during the day and rape me at night. .
“He would go on operations and kill people, and then come home and force me to be with him,” she added.
Aisha, reports revealed, was rescued by the Cameroon military, but the worst of her ordeal was finding out she was impregnated by her rapist.
“I am not enjoying that I have a baby from a Boko Haram man,” she lamented.
(Long War Journal) - The Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), which is formerly known as Boko Haram, has exploited more than 100 women and girls as suicide bombers since June 2014, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The majority of these suicide bombings have occurred in Nigeria, however, the violence has spread to other countries.
Just a few days before the Jan. 31 attack, the jihadist group killed 9 when five women detonated themselves in the town of Chibok. Chibok came into international attention in 2014 when ISWA kidnapped over 300 schoolgirls from the town, of which, many are still missing.
Two days before the attack in Chibok, four ISWA female suicide bombers killed at least 35 people in a market in Cameroon’s Far North Region. The assault led the Cameroonian government to close down the region’s markets in an effort to cut down on allowing ISWA to target civilians.
"Apparently they (Republicans) are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America."
Barack Hussien Obama
(CNN) - Attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants have left more than 50 people dead and as many as 114 others wounded in the northeastern Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Madagali in the past 24 hours, according to residents and Nigerian officials.
Three young female suicide bombers detonated explosives -- two of them together at a market in Madagali Monday morning, killing 30 people, a local official said, and one at a checkpoint in Maiduguri, where one person died.
Sunday evening in Maiduguri, Nigerian troops battled armed Boko Haram fighters trying to enter the city, fighting that left at least 21 people dead and 91 wounded, according to Mohammed Kanar, head of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The Nigerian troops had spotted a group of armed Boko Haram fighters trying to cross a trench to get into the Jiddari Polo area of Maiduguri and opened fire on them, said Babakura Kolo, a vigilante assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram.
That city has been fortified with trenches to prevent infiltration by Boko Haram.
"Some of the insurgents managed to cross into Jiddari Polo and engaged soldiers in battles with guns and explosives," said Usman Bala, another vigilante assisting the military.
Resident Madu Goni said the fighting lasted for almost two hours.
"This forced us to abandon our homes in fear," Goni said.
Hours later, on Monday morning, a teenage female suicide bomber killed one person and wounded seven others in an attack on a checkpoint in the Maiduguri suburb of Kushari, authorities said.
"The suicide bomber blended with the crowd and detonated her explosives," explained a Kushari resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of Boko Haram reprisals.
Two other residents corroborated his account.
The later attacks in Madagali, with two young female suicide bombers, left 30 dead and at least 16 wounded, according to a local government official who asked not to be named.
Brig. Gen. Victor Ezugwu, the military chief in Adamawa state, confirmed the twin suicide blasts to reporters but gave no further details.
Adamawa state borders Borno state, a Boko Haram stronghold. The militant group has frequently attacked Madagali and in August 2014 briefly captured the town, forcing residents to flee to the state capital of Yola, 225 kilometers south (140 miles).
A California National Guard Special Forces soldier from Los Alamitos-based Special Operations Detachment-U.S. Northern Command and Company A, 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), poses with Nigerian soldiers on May 31, 2014, during a training mission in Nigeria. (National Guard.mil)
The only good Islamist is a dead Islamist
It is not over yet. Plus the question needs to be asked where has Boko Haram been getting their weapons and funding from. Many suspect it comes from our Islamist "allies" Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It is not like you can just pick up AK-47s at your local Sears. To run a war in dirt poor northern Nigeria requires outside cash and weapons support.
(International Business Times) - The Boko Haram insurgents in northern Nigeria have run out of weapons and ammunition, and the Nigerian army is advancing on the militant group’s remaining territory in Borno state’s Sambisa Forest, military sources and residents told local reporters Thursday. The intensified military operation by Nigerian and coalition forces has reportedly weakened the Islamic militant group and cut off their arms supply.
“The Boko Haram terrorists have run out of arms and ammunition as the military intensify attacks on Sambisa Forest,” a resident of Tabe village of Damboa who narrowly escaped from the area, told Vanguard news in Abuja. “You can find more than 500 members of the insurgents, with only a few of them having rifles and even when one or two of them have rifles, it is like a stick, as they have run out of ammunitions, because the usual supplies they get are not forthcoming.”
Coalition airstrikes and ground troops have stormed the Sambisa Forest, which covers more than 23,000 square miles across mostly Borno, Yobo, Gombe and Bauchi states in Nigeria’s northeast. Nigeria’s defense headquarters spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade, told Vanguard news Thursday the operation has pushed out many Boko Haram fighters. Residents told Leadership newspaper in Abuja some militants have fled into the nearby woods of Yamtake, Tabe and Jangoro villages in the Damboa local government area of Borno state.
The War Against Boko Haram (Part 1)
VICE News traveled to Nigeria to embed with the country's army as it ramped up its fight against Boko Haram, whose rise has caused a state of emergency. As the only journalists on the front line in northern Nigeria, we witnessed the beginning of the largest military insurgency to date.
The War Against Boko Haram (Part 2)
The War Against Boko Haram (Part 3)
Since the military offensive has reportedly severed Boko Haram’s access to their main arms suppliers, witnesses said the insurgents have resorted to less sophisticated weaponry. “The Boko Haram terrorists have only bow and arrows, machetes, daggers and other local weapons, as they have run out of arms and ammunitions and were roaming about in the bushes of the villages along the fringes of the Sambisa Forest,” another resident of nearby Yamtake village told Vanguard news Thursday.
Although the group has fled much of Borno state, a former stronghold, the militants have left behind devastating destruction in northeast Nigeria. Entire towns were razed, with homes destroyed and corpses scattered in the empty streets. A security source from Bama said Boko Haram has nearly demolished the town in Borno.
“Only a few structures still standing, as the terrorists have virtually destroyed all structures in the town. Very soon we are also going to the Sambisa Forest for mop-up operations, as we have been directed to clear the Sambisa before the May 29 handing over [deadline],” a security source told Vanguard news.
Last week, outgoing Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan rejected the United Nations’ offer to send international forces into northern Nigeria to help fight Boko Haram, saying the group has one remaining stronghold in Sambisa Forest. Jonathan said the Nigerian army, with support from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, had recaptured most of the territory seized by the Islamist insurgents, including the group’s stronghold of Gwoza in Borno state.
30 corpses were found from Churches in Kwada and Kautikari villages. The gunmen stormed the villages and started burning Churches, houses and shooting worshippers. (naijaloaded.com.ng)
"Killing Christians for Allah since 629AD."
(The Australian) - Christian congregations in northern Nigeria had taunted Boko Haram insurgents with defiant hymns about religious war before their churches were overrun and burnt and their people slaughtered.
Muslim community leaders have claimed that the militants targeted specific Christian communities after learning that people had circulated the songs, a cross between jingly church music and synthetic pop but with sectarian lyrics.
The lyrics accuse Boko Haram — which has killed up to 13,000 people and left millions more displaced — of travelling to centres of Islamic extremism such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and telling people there that Nigeria is a caliphate.
The songs came to light as news emerged that the Islamist militants had launched fresh attacks in Borno state, disguising themselves as preachers and gathering residents of a remote village at a mosque before opening fire. At least 24 people were killed in the latest demonstration that Nigeria’s government seems impotent against the extremists.
However, it is Nigeria’s Christian community that has borne the overwhelming brunt of Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency.
In one of the songs obtained by The Times the catchy beats belied an ominous message. “Muslims don’t want peace ... they are destroying people’s lives,” the singer claims. “We Nigeria, we Christian Nigeria, we have come together now, we understand this is a religious war.”
In a series of musical call-and- replies, a male singer lists states and cities that have been attacked by the insurgents while a female chorus responds: “They burnt our churches!”
“You Muslims you bring Sharia law just to oppress Christians,” it continues in the Hausa language, which is predominant in Nigeria’s north.
David Kwagga, an officer in the Boys’ Brigade, a Christian youth movement, had the song on his mobile phone when his home town, Michika, was overrun last year. He said members of the brigade, who provided security outside churches, had been “selling it around,” and that it was popular in services.
Salihi Ateequ, a member of the Muslim Council for Adamawa state, one of three north-eastern provinces under a state of emergency, said the hymns had encouraged Boko Haram to “vent on the people of Michika”. He said that one song had accused the insurgents of cowardice for not fighting in the daytime.
“People were selling audiocassettes with this abuse and it got into the hands of Boko Haram, because they have informants,” he said. “So they came, on a Sunday, in the day.”
When The Times visited towns that had been under Boko Haram control — including Michika, Bazza, Gombi and Mubi — all had churches that had been burnt. At a church in Bazza the insurgents had decapitated a statue of St Patrick and burnt the parish records office.
“Most of the first victims were Christians,” said a university lecturer who asked not to be named. “Some of the Muslims were jubilating and some of the young Muslims joined Boko Haram.”
He added that Christians were still so angry that “if a Muslim goes back to Michika, he will surely die”.
Three decades after seizing power in a military coup, retired Muslim Major General Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian to oust a president through the ballot box.
Buhari has given his support for the total implementation of Sharia in the country. He was quoted in 2001 as saying “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria”, he then added that; “God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country”.
(USA Today) - President Goodluck Jonathan conceded Tuesday to a former military general in an election decided by voter fury at government corruption and failure to combat Boko Haram militants who have killed thousands of civilians.
His defeat is the first time an incumbent has been voted out of office in Africa's most populous nation and represents its first civilian transfer of power.
Jonathan, 57, said in a statement that he congratulated his successor, former Army general Muhammadu Buhari, 72.
He conceded defeat at the polls, saying "nobody's ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian."
In his statement Tuesday night Jonathan said: "I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word." He said he wants to secure his legacy of expanding the space for Nigerians to participate in the democratic process, the Associated Press reported.
Buhari, who served as Nigeria's president after a military coup in the early 1980s, led by 2 million votes when tallies from all but one state were counted from Saturday's vote. Buhari was likely to carry the sole remaining state, northeast Borno, which is the birthplace of Boko Haram and has 1.4 million eligible voters.
Jonathan's popularity plunged as Buhari accused the president of mismanaging Nigeria's oil-dependent economy and failing to defeat Boko Haram insurgents operating in the country's northeast.
Boko Haram killed 10,000 people last year and forced about 1.5 million to flee for southern Nigeria and neighboring countries.
The extremists have kidnapped hundreds of people, including 219 schoolgirls last year who have yet to be found. The radical Muslims often force abductees to convert to Islam and fight or work as sex slaves.
Militants from extremist group Boko Haram attacked several Nigerian towns, torching houses and fatally shooting those who fled before reportedly beheading some of the bodies with chainsaws. The string of terror attacks comes amid the presidential vote.
At least 25 people were killed and more than 30 injured in the village of Buratai in Borno state, local officials confirmed.
Surviving witnesses described gruesome scenes of murder, saying that not only did the extremists set homes on fire and shoot those trying to escape, but also decapitated the bodies reports RT News.
Local politician Ibrahim Adamu, who fled the scene, told CNN that Boko Haram “slaughtered their victims like rams and decapitated them,” adding that “they burned a large part of the village and we are afraid some residents were burnt in the homes because most people had gone to bed when the gunmen struck.”
Meanwhile, at least 14 people were killed in separate attacks by the radical Islamist group in the towns of Biri and Dukku, located in Gombe state. The victims included a legislator, AP reported.
The attacks came after the Nigerian military announced Friday that it had cleared all major centers in the northeast from militants. They also coincide with the country's presidential election, which Boko Haram had vowed to derail.
Tens of millions took to polling stations on Saturday in Africa’s most populous nation to vote in a closely contested election, with two of the 14 candidates – President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari – being the frontrunners.
Legislators for the 360-seat lower house of the Nigerian parliament are also being elected.
There were reports of attempted bombings attributed to Boko Haram at several polling stations, but those failed to disrupt the voting process and no one was injured.
The elections had been delayed due to a sharp increase in violence in the country, where 20 regions were controlled by Boko Haram extremists at the beginning of the year.
Boko Haram releases beheading video
Islamist Boko Harma brings eternal peace to local Infidels
Tshepo Cameron Modisane and Thoba Calvin Sithole were married in the town of KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in the area's first traditional African gay wedding. (towleroad.com)
Frightened of Freedom
I am fascinated how the politicians around the world take advantage of people who are frightened to death of Straight or Gay penises and vaginas. Putting bread on the table and a roof over our heads should be our main concern . . . . not who is screwing who.
(Zee News of India) - Twelve young men were arrested in the north Nigerian city of Kano for allegedly planning a gay wedding, the Islamic law-enforcement agency, the Hisbah, said on Tuesday.
The suspects, most of them teenagers, were detained on Monday at a popular resort on the outskirts of the city, said the head of the Hisbah, Aminu Daurawa.
Homosexuality is banned under federal law in Nigeria, where last year new legislation was passed outlawing same-sex marriages and the promotion of civil unions.
In northern states, where Sharia runs parallel to the state and federal justice system, homosexuality is punishable by death, although the sentence is rarely, if ever, enforced.
"We have 12 men in custody, including the bride. We arrested them at the venue of a planned gay wedding," Daurawa told AFP.
"We got information of the wedding four days earlier and our men stormed the venue while the wedding was about to start."
Many guests escaped during the raid, he added.
But one of the participants, 18-year-old Faruk Maiduguri, told reporters at the Hisbah offices that he and his friends were only celebrating his birthday.
"It was my birthday party, not a gay wedding," he said in tears.
Daurawa said the suspects, who came from Kano, the northern cities of Maiduguri, Kaduna and Bauchi, and Ibadan and Osogbo in the southwest, "looked and acted feminine", which prompted their arrest.
It was not clear whether they would be charged but their families had been summoned, he added.
In January last year, more than a dozen men suspected of organising a gay wedding were arrested and charged in Bauchi by the Sharia agency.
Some of them were discharged while others were released on bail.
Nigeria`s Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act carries penalties of up to 14 years in jail for anyone confirmed to be in a gay union.
