'How I was Recruited By Boko Haram Insurgents'

A 34-year-old man, Oyebuchi Romanus, who hailed from Ekwusigo Local Government Area in Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria, has revealed how he was forcefully recruited by the Boko Haram insurgents in Jos, Plateau State.

While speaking with newsmen in Yola, Adamawa State on Wednesday, 17 September, 2014, Romanus stated that he was recruited by the Boko Haram terrorists in May this year and taken to a place near Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State for training against his wish.

The Igbo man added that he was  recruited by insurgents shortly after he had lost his business in a bomb blast that rocked Jos early this year.

Romanus said while he was lamenting over the loss of his business, unknown men forcibly put him in the boot of their car and later discovered that they were driving towards the Northern part of the country.

He claimed that he couldn’t resist the terrorists because he was drugged before he was bundled in the boot of a car.

Romanus informed that when they got to their destination, his abductors finally introduced themselves as members of the Boko Haram sect.

He said he was asked by his abductors to join them or they would kill him.

“I accepted to join the Boko Haram group to save my life. My religious belief and upbringing forbid me from killing my fellow human being which made me not to participate in any of their activities.

“And when they realised this, they started threatening my life even to the point of swearing in the name of Allah(God) that they would killed me if l continue to dodge their activities.

“But when I saw how serious they were, I decided to run away from their camp to Niger Republic when I was asked to fetch water from a nearby river before finding my way back to the state,” Romanus narrated.

He claimed it was the prayers of Nigerians that helped him to escape from the training camp of the insurgents near Madagali.

It would be recalled that it was reported few weeks ago that the Boko Haram sect has been forcefully recruiting youths into the Islamist group.

Last week, the father of the personal assistant to acting Gover­nor of Adamawa State, Tanko Wazimtu was killed in his Madagali residence by youths who are members of Boko Haram group.

It was gathered that Pa Wazintu, 75, was killed by members of the Islamist sect in the presence of his wife and daughter.

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Insurgency: Nigerian Soldier Narrates Ordeal

A Nigerian soldier (name withheld) involved in the war against the dreaded terrorists group, Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State capital on Friday revealed that the sect will continue to thrive because of the happenings in the Nigerian army.

Vanguard reports that the soldier in an email sent to them, said he is attached to the Multinational Joint Task Force located in KauKirie Section 3 Baga, insisted that the army lacks modern equipment to fight terrorists, and pointed out saboteurs among others as factors stalling the fight.

The soldier who said he joined the Nigerian army less than three years ago with the purpose of defending Nigerian territory and sovereignty against both external and internal aggression warned that more soldiers will continue to desert the army due to low morale.

Giving account of their battle with Boko Haram, the soldier said after six months training, troops were drafted to Maiduguri to engage insurgents. He said he was initially enthusiastic about fight the bloodsucking demons that have caused innocent Nigerians pains without a just course.  He said not quite long in Borno, himself and his colleagues realized that they were in a different army from the one they thought they had joined, because it was highly politicised, demoralised, lacks discipline and did not weapons to fight.

He therefore listed some of the major challenges hindering their operations to include lack of intelligence gathering and increasing cases of saboteurs in during assault. He recalled an incidence when their driver refused to take a particular route that we ordered to ply; he said they did not argue when he took the decision, which was what saved their lives as they found out the next day that terrorists had laid ambush waiting for them. He said the militants angrily killed every civilian that passed that route on that day after waiting for them.

The soldier further revealed that on July 31, 2014, Boko Haram attacked their camps, killed two of the colleagues, set the camp ablaze, while 19 soldiers were declared missing. He said all the soldiers ran away from the scene, before they were later rescued by Chadian soldiers.

According to him, seven soldiers came back to base while 12 were confirmed dead.

“As I write this, their corpses have not been recovered. In fact, they were left unburied and left to decompose like animals” he said.

He said the incidence killed the morale of soldiers, which had resulted to increased deserters every day. He said those of them yet to desert were surviving by the grace of Almighty God. He said bullets are rationed to soldiers to go and fight highly equipped terrorists with state of the art weapons. He said his gun and that of some other soldiers had locked severally in battlefield, and noted that political leaders and Military hierarchy were gambling with the lives of soldiers.

READ ALSO: Soldiers Pursue Terrorists In Northeast

“They are just sacrificing our lives for nothing. On several occasions, when we go for operations and come under heavy attacks, when we call for reinforcement, there will not be any, and if they decide to send, it takes several hours if not days.  We have been having problem with intelligence gathering since we came here.  It is absolutely difficult to use non-Northerner for intelligence gathering because of unwillingness of the indigenes to cooperate” he said.

The soldier said most of his colleagues from the area are sympathetic to Boko Haram, and stated that the terrorists may continue to have the upper hand in the war because of the operational problems he had earlier mentioned.

Meanwhile, the unknown soldier revelation is contrary to the statement issued by Col.Timothy Antigha of the Nigerian Army Public Relations Directorate, who claimed that the soldiers morale were very high.

It would be recalled that on August 20, 2014, BBC reported that Nigerian soldiers were nolonger willing to risk their lives in the fight against the dreaded Boko Haram sects until they are provided with better and more sophisticated equipments, while the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen. Kenneth Minimah had earlier revealed that some soldiers had abandoned the force over fear of  being killed by Boko Haram.

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Three Stories Of Former Boko Haram Members

The first thing that today is associated with Boko Haram is terrorism. During its existence this group has earned a bad reputation due to the use of violence as a basic tool of its activities. The methods used by members of Boko Haram are very severe and require specific psychological qualities of the members. Not everyone is able to intimidate, kidnap and slaughter innocent people… This group has a strict discipline, and we can only guess how many members in Boko Haram remain silent and continue to do horrible things on the path of death.

However, we can recall some famous cases when Boko Haram members broke free from being brainwashed and left this sect. NAIJ.com recalls three different stories of such people.

1. Nasir Isiaku



The shocking confession of this man happened about 13 months ago, in August 2013. Nasir has reportedly dumped the Islamist sect and chose to convert to Christianity after spending 3 years with Boko Haram.

From confessions published by TheSun we learned that the 27-year-old men used to belong to one of the 6 major gangs of the sect called Shiite. This division has its members in such states as Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara, among others.

Apart from physical training Boko Haram commanders conduct extensive psychological training for the members in order to boost their readiness to fight.

In his words: “We were told that the more we kill the Christians, the greater will be our chances to enter the paradise of God. At the same time, our command referred to the Koran.

“Originally we were going to kill all the Christians in Kaduna and then kill those who live in the north.”

According to Isiaku, before each operation gang members drank “spiritual water” and, as a result, they become especially furious and could easily kill anyone, without much thinking. The sect members are convinced that this potion protects them from bullets.

“I do not remember how many people I killed. We shot in the legs and asked the victims if they would like to become a Muslim. When a person said “no”, we cut his throat like a goat. After the murder of a non-believer, we collected his blood and drank it. We believe that in this case, the spirits of the murdered will not come to haunt us in a dream. If we had no desire to drink blood, we only dipped fingers in it and then put them into mouths,” Nasir admitted.

When asked how he became a Christian, Isiaku told about “a man dressed in white” who appeared in his dream after which he decided to change his faith.

In his speech the former Muslim send a warning message for all the Christians, saying terrorists are determined to exterminate all the ‘infidels’ in Nigeria, not limiting to any particular area:

“I sincerely advise Christians to begin to prepare for war, to arm and “tighten their belts.” The Islamist terrorist sects are ready to go to war.”

READ ALSO: Boko Haram Takes over Gulak Town in Adamawa”

2. Mustapha

The video message released by Emmanuel TV, run by Prophet T.B.Joshua, shocked thousands of Nigeria about 5 months ago. A self-acclaimed Boko Haram member appeared before the congregation of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) causing uproar.



He introduced himself as Mustapha from Yola, Adamawa State and confessed of being a Boko Haram member. The person continued his speech by explaining their plan on camera:

“We were five in number. We dropped at the junction opposite the church. There was a man who used to sell something opposite the church here. He is selling sweets, soap and cigarettes. I met the man and asked him to help me keep the bag I was carrying. It contained some instruments – bombs, to kill people.

“Later, we decided to sit down and eat before going on our mission here. Our plan was to take souls, to destroy at this Synagogue Church.”

However, whilst sitting down to eat with his colleagues at a restaurant opposite the popular church in Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos, Mustapha recounted a strange incident.

“They brought food for us and we were eating. At that place, they had television. We were watching the television and discussing. It was Emmanuel TV – I saw you (T.B. Joshua) preaching to people.

“By the time you prayed and laid hands on the screen, it was like you were there with us and you joined our midst. As you laid your hands on the screen, you laid your hands on our face. That was when confusion came between us; everybody scattered.”

This prompted Mustafa to come and make this confession.

After Mustapha’s words Joshua prayed and the young man fell to the floor. As he got up slowly from the floor, tears were in Mustapha’s.

“The spirit leading him to kill is gone,” Joshua declared to applause from the onlookers. The curse of Boko Haram has been removed from the man.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9-qoP7TpK0

3. Hosea Bulus

The SCOAN repeated ‘confession’ of a Boko Haram member about 2 months later. At the end of the service held at T.B.Joshua’s church a “aggressive young man” stood forward and said:

“I am one of the Boko Haram. They said they would give me N2,000,000 if I blow up a church. Every church would be N2,000,000. They said they would give me a big house and a wife.”



When he was asked why he had come to the church, the man said: “I have listened to T.B. Joshua – that is why I am here.”

Moments later T.B. Joshua himself returned to the congregation and said he had heard the confession, called that “mind-boggling”.
The famous pastor continued the query and asked the man, who identified himself as Hosea Bulus, how he initiated into the group, to which he replied: “They gave me blood; they gave me charms. I took it inside food.” He added that after this the urge to kill and destroy entered him.

Addressing the congregation regarding T.B. Joshua said:

“One thing you must know – we are fighting evil spirits that steal, kill and destroy. Let us not fight with our neighbours. We have Muslim brothers and sisters. They are our neighbours. We live together and work together.”

According to the prophet, the problem is not about Muslims and Christians, but about “evil spirit”, saying that no one could bring himself to killing innocent lives without being under the influence of an ‘evil spirit’.

T.B. Joshua finally stated that he would not ask the man any further questions publicly so as not to undermine the intelligence Hosea would be able to provide to the relevant authorities. Then the man of God prayed for Hosea, who fell to his knees.

READ ALSO: BAMA ATTACK: Boko Haram Kills Senator’s Nephews

These stories shook the community. One may believe them or not. The thing which remains undoubtful is the morale that they carry. These episodes showed that many in the Boko Haram sect do not agree to continue to do evil. And the fact that Nazir, Mustafa and Hosea wanted to say about this publicly and furthermore do so in front of Christians indicates a serious need for repentance for their anti-human activities in Boko Haram.

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