WHAT’S NEWS? September 27, 2023
By Ezinwanne Onwuka
● Abducted schoolgirl Leah Sharibu leads ISWAP medical team: Nigerian Newspaper
Leah Sharibu, the schoolgirl held in captivity by members of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) since 2018, now leads a medical team of the sect in Lake Chad, according to a local security source who spoke to Daily Trust. TruthNigeria has not currently verified this claim.
Sharibu was among the 110 schoolgirls of Government Girls’ Science Secondary School, Dapchi in Yunusari County [local government area] of Yobe state whisked away from their hostels by ISWAP on February 19, 2018. Five of the girls died at the hands of their captors. But after weeks of negotiations between the Nigerian government and the abductors, 104 of the schoolgirls were released except for Sharibu.
The terrorists reportedly said they kept her back because she refused to denounce her Christian faith and vowed to keep the Dapchi schoolgirl as “a slave for life“. Daily Trust reports that Sharibu was trained on how to tend to injured Boko Haram fighters. “She was trained as a medical personnel and now leads the ISWAP medical team in the northern part of the Lake Chad area,” a source revealed.
● Nigerian troops kill top Boko Haram commander, Ari Gana
Troops of the Nigerian Army’s 144 battalion have killed Ari Gana, a top Boko Haram commander in Borno, a north-eastern state in Nigeria. Gana, the second-in-command to the Boko Haram leader Ari Ngulde, was killed alongside five of his bodyguards.
The terrorist commander and his men were killed on Monday (Sept. 25) after running into an ambush by the gallant troops in Takaskala, a community in the Gwoza local government area of Borno, according to Zagazola Makama, a counter–insurgency expert and security analyst in Lake Chad area.
Before his death, Gana led dozens of attacks around the Bama, Banki and Gwoza areas of Borno State. Earlier this month, he led an improvised explosive device (IED) attack between Banki and Darajamal villages, killing several persons and burning many vehicles. He recently attacked a military escort patrol at Nvaha village, killing four passengers and military personnel. The Nigerian Army said his elimination was in continuation of the military’s renewed offensive operations against the terrorists in Borno State.
● Gunmen abduct market chairman for violating work-strike order
Chief Enibe Francis, the chairman of Mgbuka Amazu market in Onitsha, the economic nerve center of south-eastern Anambra State, was kidnapped by gunmen on Monday (Sept. 25) for violating the weekly work strike order by the Biafra secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The armed hoodlums, who were enforcing the outlawed work strike dubbed “sit-at-home” and observed every Monday throughout Southeast Nigeria, accosted the chairman shortly after he opened the market for business on Monday. They reportedly beat him to a stupor, bundled him into a waiting vehicle and drove off to an unknown destination.
The leader of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu had ended the work strike in July. The sit-at-home was instituted to pressure the Nigerian government to release Kanu from detention.
● Terrorists attack Southern Kaduna community, kill six including children
Six persons were killed on Tuesday [Sept. 26] night by terrorists who invaded the Takanai community of Atyap Chiefdom in Zango Kataf County [local government area] of Kaduna State. Two children also lost their lives in the attack.
The acting secretary to the district head of the community, Samson Markus confirmed the attack to The PUNCH on Wednesday (today), saying the gunmen who spoke the Fulani language stormed the community at exactly 7:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday and started shooting indiscriminately. He said the gunmen ran away as soon as the military arrived.
“We were going about our normal businesses when we heard gunshots, we thought it was the military at first until we saw it was the Fulani’s who came in from Zango Urban,” Markus said. “Before the military arrived, they had succeeded in killing six persons, including two children. The arrival of the military was what scared them, and they took to their heels and left the community.”
● Nigeria’s Army Chief orders arrest of killers of Herder in Plateau
General Taoreed Lagbaja, Nigeria’s chief of army staff (COAS), has ordered men of the Nigeria Army to immediately arrest the killers of Adamu Idris Gabdo, the mayor of the Fulani residents in the Panyam community in Mangu local government area of Plateau State.
Gabdo was “brutally attacked” and killed by “hoodlums” in the evening of September 23 in an all-too-familiar clash involving nomadic Fulani herdsmen and local farmers, TruthNigeria reported. The Army Chief gave an order for the mayor’s killers to be arrested within 48 hours.
Abdusalam Abubakar, the leader of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), a military task force maintaining peace in Plateau, Bauchi, and Kaduna States, has said that his men would accomplish the task. “This is an act of criminality, and we will ensure that we bring the criminals to justice, or we bring justice to them,” he assured.
