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| Ali Modu Sheriff |
Borno State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Kaka Shehu Lawan, has listed 40 ways former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff allegedly aided and abetted Boko Haram violence.
Lawan said he was a discussant in a paper delivered by Prof Mohammed Tabiu of the Bayero University, Kano, titled: โStrengthening the Justice Sector: Implications and Challenges of National Security And Economic Growthโ.
In his contributions, he accused Sheriff engaging in acts of impunity that led to the festering of the sect while he was governor from 2003 to 2011.
Reacting, Sheriff reportedly asked Lawan to publish facts in support of his connection to Boko Haram.
Lawan, in statement, listed the โ40 factsโ, which he said were ether unknown to many or were simply ignored or suppressed.
He said in 2008, Borno under Sheriff established a special joint police and military anti-robbery squad called Operation Flush, with the commander reporting directly to the governor rather than the Commander of the 21 Armoured Brigade in Maiduguri.
According to Lawan, on June 11, 2009, a detachment of Operation Flush intercepted a group of Boko Haram members then known Yan Yusufiyya who were on a funeral procession and sought to know why they rode on motorcycles without wearing crash helmets.
โAn armed member of the Operation Flush eventually opened fire on 17 members of the Boko Haram sect with some of them sustaining fatal shots and were admitted at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital,โ he said.
He said the state government disregarded the incident and did not condemn it, with the sectโs leader Malam Muhammad Yusuf threatening a reprisal attack in a newpaper interview.
โA day or so after the interview, Yusuf delivered a sermon in Hausa language, titled, Open letter to President Umaru Musa Yarโaduaโ and directed his followers to go and arm themselves in preparation of self defense and eventful Jihad in response to the shooting of his 17 followers.
โEven while Muhammad Yusuf issued this directive and threat for Jihad, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff still disregarded the possible room to make peace with the sect,โ Lawan said.
According to him, on July 21, 2009, nine members of the sect were arrested for possessing 74 empty bomb shells and materials for improvised explosive devices, which they said was in preparation to defend themselves against Sheriffโs operation flush.
He said a counter-insurgency operation was launched by the Federal Government, with soldiers deployed to Maiduguri, targeting Yusufโs enclave which is the sectโs headquarters.
โAfter the sect was dislodged, Sheriff invited traditional ward heads and ordered them to point at houses belonging to fleeing sect members with most of the houses brought down,โ Lawan said.
According to him, Boko Haram attacks did not preceded Sheriffโs administration.
He said: โShortly after winning the 2003 elections, Ali Modu Sheriff created the Ministry of Religious Affairs under a pioneer Commissioner, Buji Foi with who was later found to be one of the financiers of the sect under Yusuf. However, Sheriff didnโt introduce Sharia.
โWhereas Sheriff has always claimed that the violence of Boko Haram preceded his administration, what is a fact in October, 2003, part of the Boko Haram members, then known as Taliban, broke away from Muhammad Yusuf claiming that they could no longer live in a place that wasnโt being governed by Sharia law and this was some months after Sheriff took oath of office on May 29, 2003.
โThe breakaway faction called themselves โTalibanโ led by someone nicknamed Mullah Umar. They set up a base outside Kanamma, a village in Yobe state, located on the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic. They nicknamed their new base โAfghanistanโ. They declared the new base a sovereign State under Sharia law.
โOn 5th of July, 2011, former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff tendered an apology to the Boko Haram sect โfor whatever he might have done wrong to themโ. Why did he apologise if he knew he did nothing wrong to the sect,โ Lawan asked.
