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By Ibrahim Usman. The Sunday Punch of August 5, 2012 published an empty article by one Toyosi Ogunseye on mass importation of rocket launchers into the hands of terrorists in Nigeria,
which it said was planned to replace the Improvised Explosive Devices hitherto used. According to the article, “the planned adoption of this new strategy would help them (terrorists) evade arrests by security agents.”
The write up, having given unnecessary detailed explanation and near-practical guide on how to use rocket launchers, said the weapons were smuggled into Nigeria from “extremist Arab countries”, with much emphasis on Iran. It indicated that, the report came from a “highly – placed source”. This is a dangerous and spurrious speculation that cannot be defended.
True to word, Nigeria had had, and is still having, a fair share of bomblasts that is claiming lives of innocent people. And true, there had been reports of security interception of weapons across porous Nigerian borders, especially from neighbouring African countries. We never had report of interception of weapons from Arab countries. It is however worth knowing that, the first time we heard of rocket launchers used in religious or tribal conflicts in Nigeria was recently in Jos, where an Islamic school in Buruku was targetted and a 10-year old boy was killed. To say that a rocket launcher imported from Arab countries, especially Iran was delivered into the hands of Non-Muslims, to attack Muslims is absurd. The article is insinuating that Arab countries are supplying rocket launchers to their fellow Muslims in Northern Nigeria to kill Non-Muslims. We may then ask, who then is supplying rocket launchers to Non-Muslims that was used on Muslims in Jos, and others recovered by Nigerian security operatives in some Non-Muslim dominated areas? No one cared to ask the countries supplying sophisticated weapos, including rocket launchers, to militants in the Niger Delta.
In an obvious contradiction, the report say, “It is no longer news that the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have penetrated this country and we can easily tell where these rockets are coming from. “We don’t have the sophistication to manufacture these war weapons. Iran, Yemen, Syria, Libya and others are suppliers.” To put record strainght, Iran had never been a haven for Al-Qaeda insurgency, even the U.N can attest to this fact. If Al-Qaeda is supplying these rocket launchers to their fellow terrorists in Nigeria as alleged, can we then say that the chief financier is the United States? It is now an open secret that Al-Qaeda is the brainchild of the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an attempt to justify U.S. presence in Pakistan, told the world that the United States created and funded the so-called Al-Qaeda. Hear her: “…the people we are fighting today, we funded twenty years ago.” Similarly, Jason Burke, author of a book titled, “Al Qaeda” told CNN in an exclusive interview that, “There was no Al-Qaeda organization. There was on international network with a leader with cadres who unquestionably obey oders, with tentacles that stretch out and split its cells in Amercia, in Africa, in Europe… that idea of a coherent structure terrorist network with organized capability simply does not exists”.
This spurious speculation is similar to the one made by the United States on Iran is supplying arms to Syrian government forces to crush the U.S. manufactured rebels. The aim is to weaken the good relationship between Iran and her neighbours. Nigeria and Iran are good allies with bilateral relationship in education, technology, petroleum resources development and many other aspects of development. To say that Iran will destroy such rewarding fellowship by hatching chaos in Nigeria is a statement with insidious intent .
This is not the first time such spurious speculations were made to surpress influence of Iran in Africa, Nigeria in particular. In 2008 former Israeli ambassador to Nigeria announced that, Hizbullah was planning to attack Israelis and their interests in West Africa to avenge the killing of its member by Israeli secret service, MOSSAD. According to Ram, the security report uncovered by the Israeli media did not specifically mentioned Nigeria, but it is all pointing towards that direction: “We know that they were not particular about Nigeria but I think that it is very feasible and might, you know, in the chain of events it might happen and eventually it can become a problem”.
Israel has history of arms deal in Nigeria, and now that the Nigerian security system is hijacked by Israel and United States by virtue of the so-called global global war on terror, anything can happen. One day, maybe after twenty years from now they will make it an open secret that they created and funded Boko Haram insurgency.
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