The joint operation led to several arrests after the Cameroonian officials turned down a 2.5 million FCFA bribe. There were also indications that some government officials and clerics living close to Chad’s border with Nigeria had joined the terror group, due to inducements from its commanders. This discovery adds to the recent phoney ceasefire deal which Chadian President, Idris Deby, reportedly packaged between Nigeria and Boko Haram.
The fake peace deal, which led to the Nigerian military high command ordering troops to stop hostilities against Boko Haram, led to deadly consequences as the terrorists attacked some villages in Borno and Adamawa states in North- East Nigeria within hours of the announcement of the ceasefire. These developments are said to have perplexed Nigeria’s political and military leaders.
They are now said to be considering various options to counter the threat posed by Chad’s seeming connivance with Boko Haram. Intelligence sources said the recent arrests had confirmed suspicions that Chad was secretly aiding the insurgents. Attempts to obtain comments from the Presidency, the Defence Headquarters and the Nigeria Police failed as several calls and text messages to their spokespersons did not yield.
When Sunday New Telegraph visited the Embassy of Chad at 53, Mississippi Street, Maitama, Abuja to obtain a reaction to the development, it met a brick wall. Two uniformed policemen and another security man in plain clothes at the gate said there was no embassy official in the compound as they had all closed for the day. They also declined to provide the telephone contacts of any of the diplomats. The Nigeria Customs Service denied knowledge of the arrest of gun runners by Cameronian Customs officials. Its spokesperson, Wale Adeniyi, told Sunday New Telegraph in Abuja that no such report has been brought to his attention.
Adeniyi said the Nigeria Customs was part of the Joint Task Force set up in the North East to check mate the activities of insurgents in the area. “The officers are deployed to JTF to undergo special training before they are dispatched to border control exercises. When they finish, we withdraw the batch and replace it with another one. Right now, some customs officers are undergoing training in our school at Basawa near Zaria,” said Adeniyi.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied knowledge of the development and referred us to the Defence Headquarters, Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Immigration Service. Director, Public Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Ogbole Amedu Ode, said he was not aware of any such incident. According to him, the Nigeria Customs and Immigration Services were in a better position to know because they have operatives at the borders.
“We only get to know such things if these agencies notify us and they only notify us when an incident is likely to affect our relationship with another country. Though I have been away; I am just coming back from an official engagement in New York, but I can tell you that I have not heard any such thing,” Ode said.
Meanwhile, Cameroonian investigative journalist, Chief Bisong Etabohen, reported on Twitter yesterday that his nation foiled an attempt by Boko Haram fighters fleeing Mubi in Nigeria to infiltrate a border town, Fotokol. He stated that few days after the Nigerian army routed the sect from Adamawa State’s second largest city, they had attempted to gain a foothold on the Cameroonian border town but were repelled. He said they used 120mm guns to fire rockets into the border town on Thursday night but were resisted by the Cameroonian army.
The insurgents tried a second attack yesterday morning, firing five rockets into Fotokol from Gambaru. One of the rockets hit a Peugeot 504 car while another landed in Gadumba Quarters in Fotokol. Eighteen suspected Boko Haram members were arrested in Fotokol yesterday by the Rapid Intervention Battalion of the Cameroon army
Source: New Telegraph
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