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Boko Haram, the Islamic sect that has killed hundreds of people through bomb and gun attacks, is now a house divided against itself

Boko Haram, the Islamic fundamentalist sect, is now a house divided against itself. The sect which hitherto maintained a no-negotiating stance with the government, is faced with dissent amongst its ranks. In the last one month, it has been eliminating its ‘dissident’ members.

Sources said  seven Boko Haram members were killed by the group on February 1, in Shuwari, Kawar Maila area of Maiduguri, Borno State, because they were in support of negotiation with the federal government.

Sources in Maiduguri told Newswatch that the seven were showing signs of fatigue in the arms struggle with the Nigerian state and thus argued in favour of dialogue to end the insurrection.  For that reason, Abubakar Shekau, spiritual leader of the group, ordered that they should be publicly executed. His order was carried out and the men were publicly slit in the throat.

The group also said similar fate will befall 23 more of such members whom they called traitors because they were said to be the ones that gave information to security agents on the 11 members of the Boko Haram earlier killed by members of the Joint Military Task Force, JTF, in Maiduguri.  The sect, in a statement, said the total number of alleged traitors earmarked to be killed were 30 and that they have killed seven, remaining 23.

The splinter group is suspected to have compromised on the location and identity of Abu Qaga, the group’s spokesperson, which eventually led to his arrest. Though the group said it was Abu Darda that was arrested and not Qaqa, Newswatch was, however, told by sources in Maiduguri that the arrested person was actually the lead spokesperson who often used the pseudonym Qaqa.

The “slaughter” of the seven members in public was said to be a measure by the group to discipline dissenting members. It was also a warning message to persons who might be privy to the identities of Boko Haram members, that any security tips about them would be met with violent death.

The group was still restive because of the arrest of Qaqa, considered to be number two after Shekau in terms of ranking. It is being feared that this development could compromise their operations. That much is already coming out from the interrogation room of the State Security Service, SSS. Qaqa’s interrogation log made public detail the strategy Shekau uses to compel loyalty amongst members. Qaqa said any member who tries to back out from the struggle is summarily executed. Qaqa also revealed to the interrogators that there exists deep division amongst the ranks of Boko Haram along ethnic lines. The division is between the dominant Kanuri members of the group and the others who consist of Hausa, Fulani, Chadians and Nigeriens. He said the realisation by the non-Kanuri members of the group that most of those arrested were often not Kanuris, has fuelled the suspicion that ethnicism had become a divisive factor in the group.

Already, the splinter group has made statements that it was different from the main group and vowed to do everything possible to scuttle the effort of the Boko Haram which it accused of being inhuman to fellow Muslims. And unlike the Boko Haram, whose leader, Abu Shekau, is known, the splinter group still remains faceless.  But sources in Maiduguri said that the splinter group might remain faceless in the meantime because it might still be operating among the Boko Haram network because it lacks the structure to be on its own.

Last week, the group made a move to get the federal government to the negotiation table. It delivered a tape to the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, on its interest in dialogue. In the tape, five persons were named as negotiators on behalf of the group. They are Sheikh Abubakar Gero, Shettitima Ali Munguno, Bukar Ibrahim, Jinadu Idris and Aisha Al-Wakil. The speaker in the tape said the decision taken by their appointed negotiators could bring change to the entire situation. “Their word is our word. We trust and respect them,” the group spokesperson said.

However, despite the division within Boko Haram, the sect had on Tuesday, February 7, made good its threat to attack Kaduna when its suicide bombers attempted to bomb two military formations and a bridge in the town. The places attacked were the 1 Mechanised Division, Nigerian Army; Nigerian Air Force Base and the popular Kawo bridge. The three bomb blasts were said to be co-ordinated as they occurred almost at the same time and within the same vicinity.

The sect had a fortnight ago, threatened to bomb major areas in Kaduna, the political capital of Northern Nigeria, shortly after it carried serial attacks in Kano that left more than 200 people dead.

Two suspected members of the sect driving bomb-laden cars stormed the 1 Division headquarters of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force Base few metres from the army formation and another one at Kawo Bridge simultaneously. However, military authorities claimed that only one of the suicide bombers died  in the attack, but sources said there were a number of military and civilian casualties.

Abubakar Edun, a lieutenant colonel and the army spokesman, said that two suicide bombers attempted to bomb the headquarters of 1 Division Nigerian Army. According to him,  “one of the suicide bombers disguised himself in military uniform and was heading towards the administrative block of 1 Division before soldiers opened fire on him and the explosives inside his car exploded, destroying windows of the building.” He also said that the two suicide bombers simultaneously rammed their separate explosive laden vehicles through the main gate leading to the formation’s premises.

The Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the attack on the military formations in Kaduna. It said it struck because its members in the state were still being detained by the police. The spokesman of the sect said government security agencies had betrayed the peace talks they offered. “That is why we attacked Kaduna and henceforth, we will always attack any town or city where our members are exposed or arrested.”

The blasts disrupted commercial activities in the state capital. The pandemonium that followed the blasts led to the closure of schools, offices,  banks and markets especially those around Kawo, where the blasts occurred. The popular Kawo market, was literarily a ghost of itself a day after the incident as traders and buyers avoided the market for fear of a fresh attack.