The Boko Haram sect had been using abduction as a powerful tool to perpetrate their act on innocent people especially women and girls. Now that the game plan has change, what is left for the group. Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri, looks into the activities of the outlawed group in this regard
Kidnap or abduction of persons is known world over as a criminal stratagem used to either force a person to part away with valuable (money in most cases), or as a coercive measure to make someone or a body to succumb to difficult demands.
Of late, the outlawed Nigerian terrorists organisation, Boko Haram, aside from other belligerent options like maiming, killing as well as destruction of both public and privately owned properties in a bid to advance their undying quest to Islamise the Nigerian state, has also introduced kidnapping and abduction as part of their warfare strategy.
Their latest, and of course, one of its first kind, according to the global rating, was the abduction of over 300 secondary school girls in Government Secondary School, Chibok on April 14, 2014.
The Chibok abduction, though had attracted a global attention and of course brought the terrorists group under close radar of the international community, still was not the first of Boko Haram’s escapade as far as kidnapping and abduction are concerned.
Analysts have opined that the present day Boko Haram, which has continued to wax stronger with its evolving strategies of advancing their insurgency, had used abduction in the past two years to achieve different nefarious aims and goals.
The idea of Boko Haram’s abduction, when it started, was pecuniary. It could be recalled that aside the various bank heists and shop breaking carried out by them, the group had also abducted several notable individuals or their relations and parents to rake in ransoms that were usually paid in millions of naira, mostly by relatives or government officials.
According to a security personnel, who wanted anonymity, “Several individuals in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, had silently paid huge ransoms without letting us in the security circle to know, because the abductors had warned of fatal consequences should they bring the police or the military into the affair.”
Even before the insurgents went wild with their novel idea of kidnapping persons for money, the erstwhile spokesman of Boko Haram, Abu Qaqa, had warned in a teleconference with journalists in Maiduguri on January 30, 2012, that they would commence abduction of persons, especially “spouses and children of security operatives and public office holders”, in retaliation for the continued detention of their members and families.
One of the earliest cases of abduction recorded in Maiduguri that came to public glare was that of an administrative manager of Maiduguri Flour Mill, Baba Umar Maisalati, who was kidnapped by gunmen that ambushed him as he was leaving the flour mill complex. His abductors took him to an unknown destination where he was kept for about three days until he paid a couple of millions of naira as ransom.
About a week after that, the news came from Bauchi State that suspected Boko Haram gunmen had kidnapped eight Lebanese construction engineers working with Satraco Construction Company. How the seven expatriates were released was still shady till date.
Shortly after that, some seven French families were kidnapped by Boko Haram and kept under captivity until their release in April after government was said to have paid heavy ransom in the region of half a billion naira to the sect; a claim which has not been officially confirmed.
On February 24, 2013, a university lecturer, Dr Abba Kagu, fell into the hands of the Boko Haram kidnappers, who picked him as he was mistaken for an undisclosed relative of a Borno State top public officeholder. The abductors who earlier demanded N50 million had to reduce the ransom to N5 million when they realised they were holding the wrong man. But till date, Kagu’s whereabouts still remains unknown to both security agencies and the university community.
Also, a renowned grassroots politician and ex-local government chairman in Borno State, Mr Mustapha Gadobe, was on April 7 kidnapped at an outskirts area of Maiduguri by gunmen who identified themselves as Boko Haram. The kidnappers, who took Gadobe away in his car to Marte border area demanded N50 million. After about a week of negotiation with government, Gadobe got his freedom, following the payment of an undisclosed amount of ransom.
On April 27, another kidnap was made of the general manager of Borno State Water Board, Mr Baba Gujbawu. He was picked by two young gunmen as he was setting out to attend a meeting in his office. Gujbawu’s abduction was even more dramatic as he was taken away alongside a Tiv neighbour who happened to witness the scenario. The water board GM had to part with N3 million as ransom paid through his friends before he secured his release. But unfortunately, Gujbawu came with a sad news that the Tiv man was beheaded in his presence. Perhaps he had no one to pay the ransom for him.
The spokesman of the JTF, Lt-Col Sagir Musa, had on April 28 issued a caveat, warning residents of Maiduguri and the environs that the Boko Haram had resorted to kidnapping prominent citizens with the aim of getting money from their relatives.
Musa’s statement read, “Intelligence available to the task force has indicated that Boko Haram terrorists have resolved to concentrate more on kidnapping than robbery. They alleged that kidnapping is more lucrative, less dangerous and requires short time to plan and execute. Similarly, a special kidnapping squad has been earmarked and tasked by Boko Haram sect to kidnap persons who could be wealthy relations, politicians, businesswomen/ men, traditional rulers, senior civil servants and foreigners alike.”
Shortly after Musa’s warning, on May 3, 2013, Boko Haram gunmen carried out one of their daring abduction when they picked 90-year-old elder-statesman and former petroleum minister, Shettima Ali Monguno, in broad daylight. Monguno was whisked away amidst hundreds of worshippers performing Friday prayer near his family home. The nonagenarian was abducted amid hundreds of people that performed the Friday prayer and was later released about four days after the payment of heavy ransom by the government.
Though government of Borno State had severally denied paying any ransom to secure Monguno who had spent three days in a remote camp of Boko Haram in Kirenowa border village, it was generally believed that the N50 million demanded by the sect was paid.
On May 30, a gang of Boko Haram stormed Ngamdu village of Kaga LGA and abducted the father and mother of a House of Representatives member, but failed to get them far before security operatives intercepted and rescued them.
A serving Borno State House of Assembly member, Hon Zakariya Dikwa, had his mother in captivity after Boko Haram members abducted her last week in Dikwa town. The old woman was later freed from captivity after the alleged payment of undisclosed sums of money.
On May 12, in Bama town, gunmen defied the 24 hours curfew imposed on the town after the massacre of 55 persons, to kidnap a younger brother of the Shehu of Bama, identified as Abba Zaru. A recent video in the custody of the military but obtained from one of the raided camps of the Boko Haram showed the prince being executed alongside three others by Boko Haram gunmen in a bush location.
April 9 was the day the news was made public by family of a prominent Borno politician, Stephen Marama, who was 62 years, that their father had been abducted and the perpetrators called the phone number of his eldest son, using the abducted politician’s phone and demanding huge ransoms from top officials of Borno State government. Marama was not released until very late in April after his family members allegedly paid some huge but unspecified ransom.
The above time-lines were just a few of the cases that were made public. LEADERSHIP Sunday reliably gathered that many more abductions were made and the victims had either died in captivity or the families had secretly paid ransoms to gain their freedom.
But from the recent happenings, it does seem that Boko Haram terrorists do not kidnap individuals for pecuniary benefits alone; their hostage taking strategy now functions dually as source of income and as cannon fodder to avert attacks. But most sadly, while their hostages (mostly women and girls) continue to remain with them, they also serve as tools for quenching or servicing their rusted sexual libido. Many women that had escaped captivity in recent times had been courageous enough to tell gory stories of how they were being subjected to sexual abuses by their heartless abductors who would line them up to take turns in a sordid sexual orgy. Many of the “lucky” escapees came back home, battered, abused, injured and/or impregnated.
A top security official who spoke off the record said that given the manner in which the girls were moved out of the school in Chibok and marched into Sambisa forest where they were allegedly split into various camps indicated that the Boko Haram intended to use the girls beyond the usual quest for ransom.
“They are very much aware that measures are being taken concertedly by the Nigerian forces to close in on them, hence they resorted to buy time by taking hostages. They did not only plan to use hostage as cannon fodders, but they tactically picked on a sex that would generate a lot of concerns within and outside the country in such a manner that stringent military measures would not be taken, even if forces are to raid Sambisa to rescue the hostages,” said the security source.
The source further described what is going on as “a high profile art of warfare” which may not have been masterminded without the aids of experienced terrorists. “That we have been recording the faces of foreign nationals among some of the Boko Haram members killed during recent shoot outs with our troops is enough pointer that Boko Haram enjoys both technical and material support from foreign terrorists organisations. That is why you would normally hear them speaking Arabic in most of their released messages which is a tacit way of impressing their paymasters who ordinarily would not understand the Hausa language that is their main lingua franca.”
Some other opinions viewed the abduction of the girls as a strategy by the leaders of the Boko Haram terror group to continue enjoying the supports of their foot soldiers who would someday naturally protest being in the bush without any form of feminine comfort. “It is not easy to stay in the bush as a matured man without a woman; and this could be a strategy of ensuring that the armed members of the group do not one day protest out of want of sexual satisfaction to abandon the Boko Haram,” a University of Maiduguri’s senior lecturer in the department of sociology and anthropology, who preferred not to be quoted, said.
“With money, power (in form of arms) and women to sleep around with, an average tout would rather spend the rest of his life in the jungle than coming out to the free world where such luxury may be lacking. What I am saying is that the purpose of picking the girls may not be all about pecuniary gains, it may also be for the purpose of fulfilling that sexual issue in order to keep the men in the bush and loyal to their nefarious cause. That is why we hear Shekau saying in his last video that he has no intention to negotiate the release of the girls; that they would be married off as war booties to his members. And this alone should ginger the federal government to action and ensure that these girls do not suffer further abuses or torture in the hands of these insurgents.”
The time is fast ticking and the misery of the poor girls yet to be rescued soared by the minutes. The fear now is what becomes of these poor girls, should the foreign experts eventually arrive Nigeria and head straight into the Sambisa forest or wherever these young girls are being held hostage. Would the Boko Haram abductors abandon them and flee? Would they used them as shield? Or would they agree to negotiate a fee for their freedom? These are some of the painful questions troubling the minds of many Nigerians.
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