A fellow Nigerian sat beside me for four minutes on a London bus (he dropped after 3 stops) moments ago. What I heard made me extremely anxious about our country. Once he realised that I’m Nigerian, he unleashed a dumb conspiracy theory on the result of the presidential election. He said “the number one hacker in the world who’s Russian” had hacked into INEC’s systems and revealed the “true” results of the presidential election - “Obi got 55m votes, Tinubu is a distant 2nd and Atiku withdrew his court case” immediately after he saw the hacked results.

Shaykh Goni Aisami was the most popular Muslim cleric in Gashu’a, my hometown. He’s killed on Friday by a soldier who claimed to be on duty & begged for a lift from Nguru to Jajimaji town. On their way, the soldier stopped & shot him 3 times and dumped his body to steal his car. But Shaykh Aisami‘s car failed to re-start. The solider summoned his friend who’s also a soldier. Both spent the whole night trying to start the car. In the morning, villagers saw the body and reported to the police who arrested both suspects still struggling to start the car.

If you’re in doubt that the Buhari govt is clueless, listen up. Garba Shehu told BBC Hausa today that they gave the Abuja-Kaduna train attackers all their demands, but they refused to free their victims. That’s because the terrorists outsmarted them. Here’s what Garba Shehu said. First, the gang leader demanded the release of his pregnant wife who’s in jail. The govt took her to a hospital, where she birthed twins at taxpayers’ expense and all 3 were freed. He refused to free his victims, but demanded the release of 6 or 7 members’ children from prison.

Another Jonathan-era arms scandal is unfolding under Buhari. The NSA told BBC Hausa that Billions disbursed for the purchase of weapons and equipment DISAPPEARED under the sacked Service Chiefs, now ambassadors. He said he hopes Buhari will probe it. #Abayomigate or #Burataigate? Here’s what he said as translated by Daily Trust,
“It isn’t that we are not working to end the security challenge in the country. The president has done his own part and allocated huge amount of money to purchase weapons but they are yet to be here. We don’t know where they are.”

In 2018, a lady trafficked from Kano to Oman reached out to me seeking help. The agent offered them a job in Saudi Arabia. Given every Muslim’s eagerness to visit the Holy Land, she didn’t hesitate to accept saying, “If nothing, I’d be honoured with a visit to the Prophet (SAW)”. On getting to Lagos, the agent collected her and other victims’ passports and never returned them until they got to departure. He didn’t show them the tickets either. They first landed somewhere she thinks was Cairo and then flew to another country that they’re told was Saudi.

In this article, @BokoWatch examined Gov. Zulum’s recommendations in the wake of the #ZabarmariMassacre. The author worried that Zulum is drifting from his “soft” war on BH to a “hard” one. With respect, I think Jacob misconstrued Zulum’s position on this.
strongcitiesnetwork.org/en/guest-artic… Gov. Zulum has always advocated for the use of force on BH and I think he’s right. A vicious terrorists group that targets civilians deserves all the military might in the world. Violence must be used to prevent the group’s fighters from killings & destruction and decimate them.

BBC Hausa reports that 15 security forces were killed and many injured in an ISWAP attack on the convoy of Gov Zulum yesterday. This followed the one in July that generated controversy. That a sitting Gov would be targeted twice in <3 months shows that BH remains a potent threat. We often read spurious claims of defeat & chaos in BH from security forces and their surrogates, and those of us that dare tell the truth are branded by paid trolls as unpatriotic or even sympathetic to terrorists. That’s completely false. Nothing could be further from the truth

The Nigerian Army said today that it has dispersed a commune called Darus Salam in Toto LGA of Nasarawa State. That 410 members, mostly women and children, have surrendered and some weapons have been recovered. Darus Salam is a separatist religious group, but it differs from BH. It’s a radical group with similar ideology with BH, but it’s non-violent. They believe that Nigeria is soiled with corruption, unbelief & unchastity that one can’t be true Islam there. So it’s incumbent on members to migrate and worship God away from the dirt of cities and towns.

Kebbi is the only state in its axis largely NOT affected by the growing violence in northwest Nigeria, but some elements are working to disturb this amazing, if not miraculous, record.

Fulani communities in Zuru LGA reported earlier this week that 63 of their members- including women and children- have been extrajudicially murdered in the past few months by a group of overzealous vigilantes. They said they’ve the particulars and photos of each victim and that the youngest was a 1-yo baby.
The victims said they didn’t do any wrong except they’re Fulanis.

Gov el-Rufai’s claim yesterday that the killings in Southern Kaduna are “organised” by the victims “so that their leaders are invited” to wine & dine with the Governor & be given brown envelopes is untrue, reckless & dangerous. It’s irresponsible of him to make such a statement. No person in their right senses will believe the absurdity that a people would conspire to kill dozens of their own just to get invited by a bloody politician who will lie to them & give them chicken change. This is another reason why a section of the state doesn’t trust the man.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, they’d say ‘hold on’. This morning, BBC Hausa did a story on how a DPO in Bauchi tortured two men to DEATH and left the 3rd with FIVE fractures for allegedly stealing seven CHICKENS. Here’s what happened according the surviving victim: The victims were arrested for allegedly stealing seven chickens. The man they sold them to was sommoned and ordered to pay N2,000 each for thirteen, instead of seven chikens, and he did. The suspects were ordered by the DPO to pay N4,000 and their parents paid a total of N12,000.

When I hear people say things like Boko Haram is supported by the Presidency, I am like: which Presidency?

~The group was founded in 2003 during Obasanjo.
~It became violent in 2009 during Yar’Adua.
~It captured territory in 2013-2015 during Jonathan.
~It continued under Buhari. Some say Buhari has a soft spot for BH, but the truth is that BH suffered some of its worst defeats and lost most of its territory during Buhari. It’s Buhari that freed over a 100 Chibok girls. Buhari did well in the beginning but he declared victory too earlier, so BH started...

Governor Ortom’s call to permit “responsible” Nigerians to bear AK-series assault rifles will only allow the elite caste and their cronies arm themselves and their guards while the rest of Nigeria constiniues to get killed. An AK-47 costs at least N500k even in the black market. Where will the average Nigerian get this money from? Most of those affected by the violence accross Nigeria are subsistence farmers and petty traders who barely afford basic necessities. Their entire capital is less than the cost of an AK-47. What more of junior civil servants?

Cameroon has commenced a rehabilitation program for former BH members. It currently houses 264 people including 109 that defected recently. About 40% were active combatants, while the rest are women & children. Most are non-Cameroonian as only 3 of the last 109 are its citizens. Most are presumably Nigerians given BH’s composition. Recent defections suggest that BH is under pressure especially around the Cameroonian border. With Cameroon onboard, three of the four countries affected by BH have rehabilitation and reintegration programs. Only Chad doesn’t.

The Shekau-led faction of BH has released its first video exclusively featuring members claiming to be from Niger State.

It shows about one hundred persons praying Eid in the heart of a bush before showing three fighters sending Eid greetings in Hausa, English and Fulfulde. It’s interesting that two of the fighters were respectively wearing Nigerian military & police uniforms. This indicates that they might’ve recently killed security forces and got their uniforms. This is because in their past video, the only speaker from Niger was in mufti.

Days after attacks in Borno and Katsina killed over 130 Nigerians in one day, Pres. Buhari said insurgency and banditry have been downgraded and that all local govts controlled by BH have been recovered and “are now occupied by indigenes”.

These claims are untrue or inaccurate. BH was downgraded in Buhari’s first tenure, but it has recently been bouncing back. The group committed some of its deadliest attacks in Nigeria, Niger and Chad from Dec. 2019. It’s true that most of the local govts it controlled have been recaptured, but some are still under it.

Two months ago, the Army announced that its chief Buratai has “relocated fully to the North East” to lead the war against BH. “Relocate” & “fully” gave Nigerians the impression that Buratai has moved and will remain there until BH is defeated, but Buratai is now back in Abuja. He came back yesterday saying they’ve killed over 1,429 and arrested 116. But the army didn’t adduce evidence to support the figure they claimed. Even if we believe the figures and the ones from Chad, the total will be 2,500, which is still less than half of total BH fighters.

Just learnt that Fatima’s father-rapist has been sentenced to SIXTY years in prison by the High Court of Kano State. The beast was 61 when he’s sentenced so he’d be 120 years old when his term expires! Her ordeal has rightly caused outrage and I thought this could be consolation. He was charged with three counts of rape and two counts of incest, and was convicted on all counts. He’s sentenced to 14 years for each count of rape and 7 years for each count of incent. Additionally, he’s ordered to pay 100k fine, failing which he would serve another 4 years.

In 2018, a 14-old Fatima wrote me a short letter begging me to rescue her from her father, who's been raping her since when she's 7 years old when her mother died. She wrote her name, her school and class. I immediately asked a colleague to direct me to G. G. S. S. Sheka, Kano. The man remarried after Fatima's mother's demise, but would go to Fatima whenever her step-mother was not at home. He'd sometimes direct his wife to visit his or her family on purpose. He'd tell Fatima he couldn't resist her because she looked like her mother.

BREAKING: New BH Video Appears to Show Shooting Down of Military Helicopter and Beheading of Chadian Soldiers - A Thread The clip released today showed BH fighters shooting anti-aircraft weapons at a helicopter, then jubilant fighters started shouting “Allahu Akbar”, suggesting it might’ve been shot down. It then showed bodies of 4 soldiers in the sand, but didn’t show remnants of the helicopter.

Christians in Borno Villages Deserve Special Protection from ISWAP - A Thread ISWAP claimed several attacks in Borno and Yobe states in the maiden edition of its bi-weekly newspaper launched last month. One of the attacks that drew my attention is the one on Askira, the headquarters of Askira/Uba Local Government.