Jonathan

Abducted girls still within Nigeria —Jonathan

 President Goodluck Jonathan  believes the  276 secondary school girls abducted in Chibok, Borno State are still within the country and  possibly in  the Sambisa Forest.

 He is not persuaded  by speculations that they may have been moved out of the country.

Fielding questions from reporters  at the end of  the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja yesterday, President Jonathan also dismissed suggestions that his government was slow in responding to the abduction crisis.

He said:  ”The attackers are in a part of Borno State described as Sambisa Forest. It is a forest area and we are working with the experts that will use remote sensor to see that wherever they are we will see,” he said.

“So, the best we can say is that they are within the Sambisa forest area. Of course, I agree that there are stories that they have  been moved outside the country. But if they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see. So I believe that they are still within Nigeria.”

He thanked all the countries assisting Nigeria in searching for the  girls.

He said that with  the massive support the country is receiving from the international community, Boko Haram will have  no choice but to “bring back our girls; and there is no where they will take these girls to.

“They have no hiding place. We must work with the global community that is quite keen to make sure that we bring back these girls.”

He pleaded with the parents of the girls to continue to exercise patience and that he himself as a father and the President of Nigeria feels pained and doesn’t sleep  ”with my two eyes closed and will not sleep” until the girls rejoin their families.

Defending government’s handling of the situation, especially what is generally criticised as  government’s slow response, he declared: “There is no slow response at all.”

“ No, no, it is a misconception. The response is not slow. I have explained this. Borno State can be described as the headquarters of the terrorists, Boko Haram.

“They are more in Borno State, then followed by Yobe and then Adamawa. These are the three states in which we have declared state of emergency already.”

 “So they have military personnel in those states. Immediately this happened, they have been following it, both the army and the airforce, they have been combing everywhere. The only thing we did not do, because we felt it was not necessary then, was to video the aircraft moving, the military people moving and the fighter helicopters.

“We did not do the video to show because the people were on ground because of the state of emergency because of these terrorists. That is why people thought it was slow, no it was not. We started work immediately. It was not slow, the Nigerian government responded immediately. If somebody gives you the impression that government is slow, that is not correct.”

On whether there  could be  a political solution to Boko Haram, President Jonathan maintained that there is an element of politics in terror but that it is complex and beyond poverty.

He said: “Yes, political solution is there, some elements of politics is there. But terror all over the world is beyond economic.”

He likened  Boko Haram to  other terrorists group, saying: “Boko Haram is a terror group. As a journalist you know much more on terror than I do. When Al-Qeada started, most people did not know the dimension until the 9/11 in the US. That was when the whole world knew that terror could be very very devastating.”

He also said that a lot of the suspected brains behind the recent bomb explosions at Nyanya, near Abuja have been arrested.

Jonathan also thanked the participants who defied the terror threats to attend the World Economic Forum on Africa.

•Boko Haram insurgents

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric says Nigeria’s Boko Haram smears Islam

 Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, the top religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, yesterday condemned  Boko Haram as a group “set up to smear the image of Islam” and deplored  its kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls.

Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh dismissed  the movement, which says it wants to establish a “pure” Islamic state in Nigeria, as “misguided” and should be “shown their wrong path and be made to reject it.”

His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world, who often do not comment on militant violence, joined in denouncing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for saying Allah had told him to sell off the kidnapped girls as forced brides.

“This is a group that has been set up to smear the image of Islam and must be offered advice, shown their wrong path and be made to reject it,” he told the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published  yesterday.

“These groups are not on the right path because Islam is against kidnapping, killing and aggression,” he said. “Marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.”

On Thursday, Islamic scholars and human rights officials of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest Muslim body representing 57 countries, denounced the kidnapping as “a gross misinterpretation of Islam”.

This week, Al-Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Sunni learning, also said that the kidnapping “has nothing to do with the tolerant and noble teachings of Islam.”

United Nations - The UN Security Council ordered sanctions on Friday against three Central African Republic leaders, including former president Francois Bozize.

The leader of the anti-Balaka militia Levy Yakete and the Seleka militia's number two Nourredine Adam were also targeted.

These targeted sanctions - an asset freeze and a travel ban - were anticipated in a 28 January UN resolution proposed by France and the United States.

The decision taken by the Security Council's Sanctions Committee was delayed for several weeks by Russia and China, who requested time to examine the case before finally giving the green light, diplomats said.

Some 5 000 troops in the African MISCA force along with 2 000 French soldiers under a UN mandate have been deployed to help restore order and security in the country that plunged into chaos following a coup in March 2013.

After the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels were ousted from power in January, Samba Panza was chosen to head a transition government until elections could be held.

But a cycle of revenge attacks between the Muslim ex-rebels and vigilante groups from the Christian majority have led to unabated killings and lootings, and caused a major humanitarian crisis.

The Sanctions Committee accused the three men of "engaging in or providing support for acts that undermine the peace, stability or security of the CAR."

Bozize, who was overthrown by Seleka rebels in March 2013, "provided material and financial support to [anti-Balaka and former army officers] militiamen who are working to destabilise the ongoing transition and bring him back to power," it added.

"Forces loyal to Bozize have become involved in reprisal attacks against CAR's Muslim population."

Yakete is accused of having ordered the arrest of people with ties to the Seleka and of having organised the distribution of machetes to young, unemployed Christians to attack Muslims.

Adam, who headed the intelligence services under the new regime, is accused of arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions.

He also "actively directs ex-Seleka... and directs operations against Christian neighbourhoods," the Sanctions Committee said, adding that he had a part in diamonds trafficking between the CAR and Chad.