The Nigerian Islamic sect leader Mohammed Yusuf held Nigeria to ransom for about a week. He and his Boko Haram zealot followers killed, maimed and destroyed at will, their rampages spread across four northern states, in quick fires. Mohammed Yusuf was a mad man to say the least, and deserved the big stick, but not at the hands of the Nigerian Police Force.
Mohammed was alive when captured by the army on Thursday, and was handed over to the police, intact alive, as I read the news on my google reader late yesterday afternoon. About one to two hours later, I read he had been killed, while in custody of the police. The BBC confirms:
Col Ahanotu, the commander of the operation against the Boko Haram group, said he had personally captured Mr Yusuf and handed him over to the chief of police.
He said Mr Yusuf had been unarmed when caught, hiding in an empty building a short distance from his enclave, and that he gave himself up willingly.
“All I know is that in the attack, I was able to pick him up from his hide out and hand him over to police,” he told the BBC…
Col Ahanotu said Mr Yusuf had a wound on his arm which had already been treated.
“But he was OK. As I got him alive, I handed him over to the authorities,” he said.
The BBC also quoted the Information Minister Dora Akunyili, saying the ” government does not condone extrajudicial killings”, but then she quipped that Mohammed Yusuf’s demise was “positive” for Nigeria.
Certainly Nigerians will not weep for Mohammed Yusuf. However, to say his death — made possible via police execution — is positive for Nigeria, is not only condoning a grave human rights crime that crystallizes further the negative impressions of Nigeria, it runs contrary to Akunyili’s self-imposed task of national re-branding as well! It appears the minister lost her mind and shot herself in the foot.
Mohammed Yusuf may be dead, and the riots over, and the police may be basking in their ‘victory’, what Akunyili and other members of Nigerian political ruling class need to know is it takes little effort to fan the embers of religious zealotry in present day Nigeria into destructive flares of catastrophic proportions.
Across Nigeria, several ‘Mohammed Yusuf’ are lurking around the corner to take charge. and launch another cycle of mindless killings and destruction. It’s happened in the past, and it just happened last week, so why not tomorrow? Nature abhors a vaccum after all.
The police claims Mohammed was shot while tring to escape…not that I believe that though.
Why do you think police executed him? Is there a Henry Okah connection here?
I think so. Getting rid of Mohammed forestalls a situation whereby his base — whatever that’s left of it — will be empowered by his incarceration –which would have been prolonged by the inefficiencies of police/judicial system.
If Mohammed must be killed, rather than killing him within the yards of the police station, why not knock him off just as he was arrested, by the army?
July 31, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Some vital intelligence just got lost…
Who were Mohammed’s financiers and associates?
July 31, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The Nigerian press is silent on the killing…what do you make of that?
July 31, 2009 at 1:56 pm
One of the reasons Boko Haram attack was launched is because its membership do not believe in western education, saying it corrupts their ideas and belief. This is a major head-knock to the leadership of the Northern states.
This 2009, yet we have some people with 1800 mindset!
July 31, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Boko haram = western education is sin.
That this kind of religious bigotry could manifest in present day Nigeria is an indication of how precarious the nation is.
July 31, 2009 at 2:07 pm
The only thing that came to mind reading this post is this:
Even Sadam Hussein was not eliminated in detention. He was tried and punished after. This should be the norm Nigeria. I do not condone religious riots but as the writer did say, you cannot murder to prevent murder…
As for Madame Dora Akunyili’s statement, which I find very tactless (near incredible), she has lost the Information and Communication plot. Sad that I so so fought and routed for her when the chips were down. Anyway let’s just say she’s been infected by the same sickness that’s troubling her boss…
August 2, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Alhaji Buji Foi, an alleged financier of Boko Haram, and a former commissioner in Borno state was executed shortly after arrest by the police.
See report in Guardian
See picture (graphic) and story via Sahara Reporters
August 5, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Alhaji Buji Foi was Borno State Commissioner for Water Resource in 2006.
Here is a video clip of his execution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhp9Y8rPhG8&feature=player_embedded
August 6, 2009 at 9:42 am
What happened to not guilty until proven????? Watched the Utube video clip and my heart skipped some beats. Brutish, primitive and a disgrace. Even Sadam Hussein had a better chance of being proven guilty and executed properly. What if later the man was not a financier and simply implicated? Nigeria please now, enough of showing that we really are what some would rather want us to be – PRIMITIVE APES.
August 6, 2009 at 3:33 pm
The video has been removed from you tube. This is just a fight between Government and Islam. Its happening everywhere. America, Afghanistan, Algeria, Somalia, Russia.
April 5, 2011 at 4:38 am