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Religion is like magic. It is all about tricks (Michel Onfray)

Tricks and treachery are merely proofs of lack of skill (Fran�ois de la Rochefoucauld)

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest (Benjamin Franklin)

Continued from Part 4

igerians woke up two to three days after Boko Haram killed about 42 students in Yobe State to read that the sect has begged for forgiveness, and have signed a ceasefire deal with the federal government. Nigerians, including the military forces fighting the sect, were caught off guard by the news. Only discerning minds knew then that the said cease fire was only a trick by the sect to get the federal forces to relax their onslaught against it so that the sect members can have the chance to get their acts together again, after the federal forces have smoked most of the sect�s members out of the �holes� they were hiding, killing some of them, while some of them disappeared in different directions, so there has been a lack of co-ordination, and that�s what the sect wanted to achieve by hoodwinking the authorities by claiming that they are ready for a cease-fire.

Just in a twinkling, a group that just killed 42 schoolchildren two days before, became remorseful and started begging for forgiveness from the people over the number of people its members have killed in the country. Boko Haram became a saint group overnight, and said through Imam Muhammadu Marwana, who claimed to be an influential member of the Abubakar Shekau-led Boko Haram sect: �we appeal to those who lost their loved ones to our activities to forgive us and on our side we have forgiven all those who committed atrocities against us."

Boko Haram�s deadly activities across most states of Northern Nigeria has claimed about 4,000 lives and destroyed properties worth billions of Naira since 2009. How come that the sect suddenly decided to embrace peace? Confirming that the federal government has sign a ceasefire deal with the deadly sect, the Minister of Special Duties and Chairman of the Peace and Dialogue Committee in the North, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, announced the ceasefire agreement, saying that the Boko Haram insurgents had agreed to lay down their arms. To know that the group that claimed the ceasefire agreement with the federal government was a fake one, it also vehement denied that Boko Haram had hands in the murder of boarding students of a secondary school in Yobe few days earlier. What should have exposed the fraudulent nature of the purported ceasefire was that a few hours after (the so called ceasefire); a faction of the sect distanced itself from the peace-deal and accelerated its deadly attacks.

The federal government came out to tell the world of the purported ceasefire without being sure of whom it was dealing with. That was not the first time a splinter group has decided to fool the government by claiming a ceasefire.

Then, the bombshell: The leader of the Islamist group, Boko Haram, then denied entering into a cease-fire agreement with the Federal Government and endorsed the attack on a school in Yobe State that left about 42 students and a teacher dead. In a video message, the sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, denied the claim by the Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki, that a cease-fire was reached on July 8 after talks with the group's deputy leader, Mohammed Marwan. In his words, Shekau said: "Let me assure you that we will not enter into any truce with these infidels. We will not enter into any truce with the Nigerian government. We believe in the massacre inflicted on the secondary school in Mamudo and Damaturu and other schools; we earlier warned that we were going to burn all schools. They are schools purposely built to fight Islam. While Boko Haram doesn't attack children and young girls or old women, teachers that teach Western education, we are supposed to kill them in the presence of their students." This Shekau of a guy claimed that they don�t hurt women and children, but, the military forces fighting his sect said they rescued women and children hostages from a Boko Haram Islamist stronghold last weekend. According to the military spokesperson "Many abducted women, children and girls were rescued and handed over to their families. A number of bodies were also found. The dead included people killed by the terrorists, as well the bodies of presumed Boko Haram members who went down fighting the military forces.

When the news broke that Boko Haram terrorists have agreed to a ceasefire with the federal government, this writer was sceptical, because, that was not the first time we have heard about the sect�s declaration of ceasefire only for the main leader of the sect to deny ever making such a deal. This writer was astonished that the presidency was in a celebration mood as a result of the purported ceasefire. This writer wondered why the Nigerian leaders can�t learn from past experiences, because, Boko Haram has tricked them so many times by claiming to have laid down its arms only to get deadlier thereafter. That�s the sabotage we are talking about here. Some of those advising the president on issues regarding to Boko Haram and its bombing campaigns, are not genuine, they are those encouraging the deadly sect in one way or another. Some of those advisers are eating their cake and still having it. When this writer heard of the brokered ceasefire, one thing that jumped to his mind was that the said ceasefire is a Greek gift. What can make a sect that rejected an amnesty offered to it, claiming that it was the federal government that needed amnesty from it, to change its mind suddenly and decided to accept a ceasefire? If the sect ever agreed to a ceasefire as the presidency claimed, then it was deceitful. The reasons for Boko Haram to claim that it has abandoned the path to perditions it has taken must be to hoodwink the authorities, and the military in particular, into letting their guard down by relaxing the military onslaught against the sect. That will then give the sect the time to re-group after the federal forces had flushed them out of their hideouts and made them to scatter. If there should be a genuine ceasefire here, the Nigerian military forces hot on the sect�s heels, must be part of the agreement, but, we now know that the military forces didn�t know anything about the purported ceasefire. But how can the politicians reach a ceasefire agreement without the knowledge of the military forces fighting the insurgents? The whole thing looked suspicious and it was not surprising that it has unravelled so soon. We read that in spite of the ceasefire, the Joint Task Force has vowed to continue its crackdown on terrorists in the North-East, because, the military authorities expressed ill-feelings that they were not informed before the ceasefire agreement was reached. A military source said: "We have not been informed about the ceasefire. The JTF will continue to arrest suspected terrorists. We will continue our crackdown on the terrorists until we are sufficiently convinced that they have laid down their arms and denounced terrorism. As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of that ceasefire they are talking about, and we are not reckoning with it."

If Boko Haram tricked the government with a fake ceasefire, it must be because of the opportunity it gave them to re-arm its members after the depletion of its weapons. A lull in military attack against the sect even for a day is a long time for the sect to move weapons around. It could also be possible that the federal forces were closing in on the leadership of the sect, so the fake ceasefire gave the leaders the leeway to relocate to a safer hideout, and now that they think they�re out of harm�s way, Shekau can then deny the ceasefire, just as he had done so many times. Some of those advising the President are also close to the sect and they know what they are doing, and have sold him (the president) a dummy in order to aid the sect in its campaigns against the state while getting more allocations from the presidency. Imagine the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North and Minister of Special Duties, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, having the gut to tell Nigerians that the group took the decision following their conclusion that the Federal Government was sincere in the search for dialogue. The so called minister said: �basically, they took into account, one; the sincerity of the committee which by necessary implication also, the sincerity of the President (Goodluck Jonathan) regarding resolving the issue of insecurity in the North. Number two, also unlike their thinking that the committee was meant to serve as a trap for them, they also realised that not only is the committee very sincere, government and indeed Mr. President is also very sincere about the whole discussion. They also took into account the fasting of the month of Ramadan which is on and felt that they should give peace a chance so that our Muslim sisters and brothers will be able to perform their religious obligation this month without any harassment, without any fear of any bomb exploding and any firing at them while they are in their place of worship."

Nigerians should see the kind of people we are paying as ministers and government officials. This minister knows everything about Boko Haram; he must be one of those sabotaging the efforts of the government. Unfortunately, the president entrusted a lot of responsibilities to his �enemies� and they are finishing him up. The Arewa Youth Forum leader, in reacting to the denial of any ceasefire agreement between the Federal Government and the Boko Haram sect, said that they were aware that the claim by the government minister was false and asked him to apologise and resign. The group called on the Federal Government to disband the Amnesty Panel and stop wasting taxpayers' money for something that would not yield any positive result.

There�s no way the sect can agree to lay down arms and embrace peace when it knows that its leader, Shekau, has been declared wanted by the United States� Government with a princely sum on his head for information leading to his arrest. If the sect declares a ceasefire, what will be the fate of its leader, as ceasefire will not make the United States� Government to rescind the decision to catch and try him in the United States? Only undiscerning minds can be deceived by such claim of fake ceasefire. If the sect had declared a ceasefire, and if the federal government had accepted it, it then means that all the victims of the sect�s bombing campaigns suffered or died in vain. Those who claimed to have brokered the ceasefire were those who told Nigerians recently that the federal government will compensate the aggressors, if they lay down their arms, but, not the victims. While declaring the claimed ceasefire, the sect observed that during the lingering insurgency, many Muslim women and children had suffered untold hardship, adding that, they also decided to lay down their arms for peace to reign in Borno State and the country at large, then appealing and calling on all their members to lay down their arms henceforth, till further notice. The group said after due consultation with the leader of the sect, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, as well as intervention and pleadings from respected individuals and groups in the state, we ''have all come to terms and agreed to lay down our arms." The sect then insisted that government should immediately release all their members from custody unconditionally, re-build their places of worship and compensate them, among other demands. If the sect wants the government to re-build their places of worship and to compensate them, as a condition for ceasefire to hold, what of the churches the sect bombed, who will re-build them, what about the victims of their bombs, who will compensate them? Most of all, in the above statement, the sect bemoaned the untold hardship suffered by Muslims because of the lingering insurgency, but, it (the sect) failed to show any remorse for what the non-Muslims went through because of the insurgency. That shows that the sect is not yet sincere and is not ready for peace. How can the aggressors be innocent while the victims are guilty? Only in Nigeria! As CAN noted: �There can be no amnesty for unrepentant murderers and insurgents without reconciliation with the victims, and then negotiation�!

The sect wanted to use the fake ceasefire to allow some of their fellow Muslims the opportunity to partake in the Ramadan, of course more bombings will resume immediately after the Ramadan festival. The sect also used the ploy of fake ceasefire to deceive the federal government into restoring the mobile phone network switched off immediately after the declaration of the state of emergency in the three states, so that it can be in a better position to disseminate its plans, information and orders to its members in the fields via mobile phones. We also read that Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe Sate has pleaded with the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa'ad, to restore the Global System of Mobile (GSM) Communications that had been shut following the declaration of state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states by President Goodluck Jonathan on May 14, 2013.

Is Boko Haram declaring ceasefire when it has maimed, ruined and wasted many lives and relationships, and also destroyed businesses? Even if the sect decides to lay down arms on its own, Nigeria should reject that because of the level of destruction it (the sect) has wrought in the northern part of Nigeria?

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQpe9fJ59MI

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 4