Breaking: Nigeria military Alpha Jet (NAF 466) bombing Boko Haram missing

An Alpha Jet (NAF 466) belonging to the Nigerian Air Force and involved in the counter insurgency operation against the extremist Boko Haram sect has gone missing around Adamawa State.


The spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters, Chris Olukolade, a Major general, said the aircraft, with two pilots onboard, went missing on Friday. In a statement early Sunday, Mr. Olukolade said the aircraft “left Yola at about 10:45a.m on 12 September 2014 on a routine operational mission and was expected back by 12:00 noon”.


“Since then, all efforts to establish contact with the aircraft have not yielded any positive result,” the statement said. Mr. Olukolade said search and rescue effort had since commenced “to establish contact with the crew”.

More than 50 insurgents, 6 soldiers killed as Boko Haram attacks Nigerian military formation – DHQ

At least 50 members of the insurgent Boko Haram group were killed on Friday night after the group attacked a military location in Damboa, Borno State, the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has said.

The spokesperson of the DHQ, Chris Olukolade, said the insurgents “stormed the troops’ bases and police locations while most of the troops were out on patrol of surrounding villages.”

Mr. Olukolade also said six soldiers including a “senior officer” were killed as soldiers battled to repel the insurgents.

CHRIS OLUKOLADE: Nigerian Troops Bust Terrorists' Intelligence Network, Arrest A Key Actor In Chibok Abduction

A terrorists’ intelligence cell headed by a businessman who participated actively in the abduction of School Girls in Chibok has been busted by troops. The man, Babuji Ya’ari who is also a member of the Youth Vigilante Group popularly known as Civilian JTF which he uses as cover while remaining an active terrorist, also spearheaded the murder of the Emir of Gwoza. His main role in the group is to spy and gather information for the terrorists group.

Babuji has been coordinating several deadly attacks in Maiduguri since 2011, including the daring attacks on Customs and military locations as well as the planting of IEDs in several locations in the town.

The arrest of the businessman who is known to deal in tricycles has also yielded some vital information and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’ intelligence cell who are women. One of them, Hafsat Bako had earlier escaped to Gombe State to avoid suspicion but was tracked and arrested. Prior to her arrest, Hafsat coordinated the payment of other operatives on the payroll of the group. In her confession, she disclosed that a minimum of N10,000 is paid to each operative depending on the enormity of his task.

Military frees 144 out of 486 Abia “travellers”

The Nigerian Military has released 144 out of 486 Port Harcourt – bound travellers suspected to be members of the extremist Boko Haram group. They were arrested last week in Aba, Abia State, along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, while travelling at night in a convoy of 35 buses from Northern Nigeria.

The defence spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, had said that a wanted Boko Haram suspect was identified during the screening of those arrested. He did not name the suspect.

But a security source added that after the arrest and in addition to the lone suspect, 86 of the travellers were identified as suspected terrorists.

A Military In Tatters And The Senseless Onslaught Against The Media, By Dele Agekameh

It is most apt today for this column to open with the timeless saying “Those who the gods want to destroy, they first make mad”. Otherwise, how would someone describe the unpalatable development that has been going on since the early hours of last Friday across the country? Last Friday, the Nigerian press came under a coordinated assault by security agents who had laid ambush for the daily newspapers on the highways and distribution centres. The assault bears all the trappings of the dark days of military dictatorship as soldiers claiming “orders from above”, intercepted, seized and, in some cases, destroyed newspapers on sight.

According to reports, soldiers who laid ambush at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, confiscated copies of the The PUNCH, The Nation, Daily Trust and Leadership, while , in some cases, wrappers and cover pages of The PUNCH were damaged. In various statements issued after the early morning rampage, Leadership reported that soldiers intercepted and destroyed copies of the day’s publication at the Kaduna toll gate. The Nation too saw its vans ambushed in Abuja, Benin-Warri Road, Port Harcourt, Kaduna-Kano Road and Nasarawa-Jos Road. In Benin, Edo State, soldiers stormed the Nigerian Union of Journalists Press Centre to disrupt activities as they stopped vehicles, hunting for some national dailies. And this is still an ongoing thing.

Why Nigerian military blocks newspapers distribution in Abuja, Lagos

The Nigerian military on Saturday continued its onslaught on newspapers by sealing off the popular major distribution depot in the Area 1 District of Abuja, from where all newspapers are distributed to agents and vendors across the Nigerian capital. Witnesses said soldiers in about seven trucks laid siege on the distribution point, preventing any kind of newspaper circulation from taking place.

The military attack on Nigerian newspapers commenced on Friday with soldiers confiscating thousands of Nigerian newspapers including Leadership, The Nation, and Punch newspapers.

Media houses promptly devised an alternate and secret means to ensure their papers get to the public in the Nigerian capital promptly; a reminder of the days of military dictatorship.

EXCLUSIVE: Nigerian Military sights abducted Chibok schoolgirls in 3 Boko Haram camps

Nigeria’s Special Forces from the Army’s 7th Division have sighted and narrowed the search for the more than 250 abducted Chibok schoolgirls to three camps operated by the extremist Boko Haram sect north of Kukawa at the western corridors of the Lake Chad, senior military and administration officials have said.

“It has been a most difficult but heroic breakthrough,” one senior military official said in Abuja.

That claim was supported by another senior commander from the Army’s 7th Division, the military formation created to deal with the insurgency in the Northeast. The 7th Division is headquartered in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The breakthrough comes at a critical moment for the Nigerian military that has faced cutting criticism over its handling of the kidnapping of the girls more than a month ago.

Boko Haram Ambush: Why Nigerian Soldiers Open Fire at Army Commander in Maiduguri

Witnesses confirmed that the Nigerian Soldiers opened fire on their commander in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

Reliable security sources also confirmed that men of the Nigerian Army who are Angered by the death of 12 of their colleagues in a Boko Haram ambush, on Wednesday, opened fire on the vehicle of the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed bu that GOC escaped unhurt after soldiers shot at his car at the Maimalari barracks, the sources said.

Amnesty Reports unfounded - Defence Headquarters

The Nigerian military on Friday said a report by Amnesty International, AI, on the abducted Chibok schoolgirls was false. The global human rights organisation had released a report on Friday indicting the Nigerian military for the kidnap of over 250 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.

AI said the military had at least 4-hour prior warning of the Chibok attack, but did not do enough to stop it. According to AI’s report, sources said that local patrols (known as “vigilantes”, set up by the military and local authorities) in Gagilam, a neighbouring village, were among the first to raise the alarm on the evening of 14 April.‬

‪The locals, the report said, raised the alarm after a large group of unidentified armed men entered their village on motorbikes and said they were headed to Chibok.‬

(ENDLESS) BOKO HARAM CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS: Over 1,000 people are crossing into southern Niger every week fearing attacks by Boko Haram - UN refugee agency

“The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, or People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad (commonly referred to as Boko Haram, Hausa for “Western education is forbidden”), continued to commit violent acts in its quest to overthrow the Nigerian government and impose its own religious and political beliefs throughout the country, especially in the North” (USDOS, 20 May 2013)

“Boko Haram, a militant group that espouses an extreme and violent interpretation of Islam, benefits from this culture of impunity and lawlessness as it exploits Muslim-Christian tensions to destabilize Nigeria. Boko Haram also justifies its attacks on churches by citing, among other things, state and federal government actions against Muslims.” (USCIRF, 30 April 2013, p. 8)

“The group has primarily targeted police and other government security agents, Christians, and Muslims working for or accused of cooperating with the government.” (HRW, 31 January 2013)

Latet Update: Abducted schoolgirls; parents insist 234, not 129, girls abducted Premium Times

There was confusion today in Chibok, Borno state, when parents of abducted schoolgirls at Government Girls Secondary School insisted that 85 more girls than admitted by officials were abducted from the school.

The Borno state commissioner for education and the principal of the school had claimed that 129 girls were kidnapped when the suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed their dormitories on April 14.

Of the number, the officials said, 28 initially escaped while another 16 broke free from the abductors days later. The remaining 85 are still missing, they claimed.

However, parents told Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima, who visited Chibok Monday, in defiance of security warnings, that by their records, 234 girls were abducted, suggesting that 190 of the pupils are yet to be found.

BREAKING:Explosions Rock Maiduguri Again, Four suicide bombers killed, many others feared dead, Peace FM Radio house affected

Maduguri, the Borno state capital has again been hit by deadly explosions from suicide bombers suspected to be members of the dreaded group, Islamist Boko Haram fighters.

Premium times reports that four suspected terrorists believed to be suicide bombers, apparently heading for an NNPC facility along Maiduguri-Damboa road have died in their IED-laden vehicles, the defence headquarters has said.

The Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade, said the explosions took place at Mulai in the outskirt of Maiduguri.

Mr. Olukolade, a Major General, said three of the four explosive-laden vehicles were demobilized by shots fired at them by soldiers at the check point shortly before the explosions that rocked the area.

Five soldiers were wounded while the civilian casualties are yet to be determined, Mr. Olukolade said.

Boko Haram’s massacre: Women to Organise Mourning Protest in Nigeria Major Cities Wearing Black

Thousands of women are gearing up for mass protest in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Benin and Abuja following Boko Haram’s massacre of school children and others in Yobe and other northern states.

‘Mother of all Protests’ will see the women wearing black, which symbolises mourning, and they will march on the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Benin in a peaceful protest to call for an end to the endless gorry killings in the north.