Arms inflow from Northern borders intensifies: Boko Haram members relocate to Kano

Posted by admin Boko Haram, Kano, Latest Politics, State News Monday, October 3rd, 2011

AS security services struggle to combat budding terrorism, a fresh alarm has been raised about the inflow of sophisticated arms of various types into northern Nigerian cities from the vast northern borders of the country with Niger and Chad.

Nigerian Tribune was told that arms and ammunition taken by loyalists of ousted Libyan president, Moammar Gaddafi, from Libya to the Agadez region of Niger Republic are finding their way into northern Nigeria, even as fresh reports indicated that hard core Boko Haram members are now hibernating in northwestern cities after escaping counter-terrorism onslaughts from the northeastern part of the country.

Previous reports had shown that Nigerians who served as mercenaries in the Libyan army were flocking into the country through the country’s northern borders, even as speculations are rife about the involvement of the former Libyan strongman who had earlier advocated a division of Nigeria into three, in the Islamic insurgency led by Boko Haram sect.

A retired senior security officer told the Nigerian Tribune that the nation had about 480 irregular border crossings in its 4,500-kilometre borders with Niger and Chad Republics while the official border manned by Nigerian officials are 12.

“These illegal crossings are witnessing inflow of arms and nobody is checking, nobody is trying to control this dangerous phenomenon. The arms are highly sophisticated going by the advanced nature of Gaddafi armoury,” the source said.

Affirming that the nation’s northern borders have not been demarcated nor properly policed 51 years after independence, the ex-security officer noted that “on a daily basis since the defeat of Gaddafi, northern borders are witnessing strange movements, not just of men, but of arms and this is beyond the control of police, immigration and customs service.

“Have you ever heard of any arms seizure in the northern zones? Go to Ngala, go to all those remote areas in the North, go to areas south of Gimbiya, Ilela and others, you will see ungoverned territories with criminal gangs dealing in arms and ammunition,” the source said.

Nigerian Tribune further investigations revealed that the promised military patrol of the northern borders to stop the influx of arms and mercenaries has not taken off, even as the existing military patrol in the Chad Basin is alleged to have become compromised and incapable of controlling the growing mercenary and criminal activities in the Chad Basin.

Citing a report by our sister paper about extremists and northern porous borders, the source explained that “since that report three weeks ago, no high-level visitation and action have been taken,” adding “the new trend is Gaddafi’s ammunition flowing into the country.”

Meanwhile, Islamic insurgents may be feeling the heat in the northeastern part of the country, as fresh reports indicated that the north-western cities of Kano, Sokoto, Gusau, Kaduna and Katsina are now witnessing the inflow of internally displaced persons from northeastern states.

“These so-called internally displaced persons may include many members of the Boko Haram, who may be fleeing the counter offensive of the securitymen in the North-East. That is why there is a renewed interest of security agencies in these ‘refugees,’ a security source told our correspondent.

Contrary to earlier reports that the Boko Haram members fled to the South after operations in the North-East, members of the sect are reportedly finding solace in the North-West, a situation said to have heightened security screening and checks, especially in Kano.

“The North-East is now very hot for the sect. The Kano command of the intelligence service has done a good job of containing the extremists based on immediate actions on actionable intelligence on movements of these sect members from the crisis zone to the North-West,” a very dependable security source told the Nigerian Tribune

-Tribunewp_posts