Borno Elders Warns Buhari: Don’t Make IMN New Boko Haram

Kaduna State Government’s recent branding of the Shi’ite group, Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) as insurgents is similar to what happened in Borno State back in 2009, leading to the rise of Boko Haram and President Muhammadu Buhari should move quickly to avert a similar occurrence, the Borno Elders Forum said in Maiduguri yesterday.

A statement signed by its chairman, Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari after the forum’s meeting, said the elders were “deeply concerned that a dark history appears to be repeating itself and given our most horrifying experiences in the North-East, we as elders owe you and our country the shared responsibility of pointing at potential danger and advising on ways to averting it.”

Yesterday’s statement was the second by the Borno Elders since last December’s deadly clashes in Zaria, Kaduna State, between the Army and IMN members, which led to the death of more than three hundred persons. The Forum is an umbrella body of Borno elders irrespective of religion and ethnicity and was a major voice during the search for a solution to the Boko Haram crisis.

The statement titled, An appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the Kaduna-Shi’ite crisis, said, “The Borno Elders Forum (BEF) is constrained to write through the public medium to appeal to you to promptly intervene and amicably resolve the brewing religious stand-off in Kaduna State. From what we read and heard in the print and electronic media, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria has been branded as an insurgency group and therefore outlawed. We see what is happening in Kaduna State as similar to what happened in Borno State back in 2009 leading to a sorry state of affairs in the State.

“For the record Mr. President, the Borno Elders Forum has no interest whatsoever in the existence or otherwise of Islamic Movement of Nigeria. However, we are deeply concerned that a dark history appears to be repeating itself and given our most horrifying experiences in the North-East, we as elders owe you and our country the shared responsibility of pointing at potential danger and advising on ways to averting it.”

A retired top security official told Daily Trust in Maiduguri yesterday that the Borno elders’ stance was due to many remarkable similarities between events leading to the Boko Haram insurgency and developing events in Kaduna State involving IMN. He said, “I did not see this in the Borno Elders Forum’s statement but there is this serious concern that though the issues are different, there are many similarities in the sense that both the Zaria and Maiduguri clashes started with disagreements over right of way. Both clashes involved religious groups and armed security officials. Both disagreements led to violence resulting in injuries and deaths. In both cases governments at the state and federal levels neither showed empathy for victims of the religious groups nor tried to seek peaceful resolution. Both incidents resulted in arrest of the leaders, Mohammed Yusuf of Boko Haram and Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky of IMN. In both cases, the governments of Borno and Kaduna states pulled down the headquarters buildings and houses of followers of the two groups.

“In both cases too, state governments outlawed the groups, through a State Assembly law in the case of Borno and through a gazette in the case of Kaduna State. In both cases, courts delivered judgment directing payment of compensation to actors associated with the religious groups. While a Maiduguri High Court ordered payment of N100m to in-laws of the late Muhammad Yusuf, an Abuja court recently awarded payment of N50m compensation to El-Zakzaky. In both cases, there are fears that the followers are receiving training in violence and have access to weapons. The major concern is not El-Zakzaky per se but the eventual reaction of his followers, who may be ready to die for what they believe in. It appears Governor Nasiru el-Rufa’i is handling the IMN crisis almost exactly the way then Governor Ali Modu Sheriff handled the Boko Haram crisis after the June 2009 clash with security officials in Maiduguri.”