Boko Haram issues threats over anti-Islam video, attack on members

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The violent Islamic sect Boko Haram has warned that there will be unspecified consequences over the anti-Islam video that denigrates Prophet Mohammed, while threatening to attack those in authority (Emirs, State Governors and others over recent successes against the sect's members by the security agencies.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau issued the threat in a video he posted on YouTube recently, details of which were published in the local Premium Times newspaper Tuesday.

''I have words for you (the makers of the video). All these have no impact on the prophet you know, however you wait and see what the consequences will be for you,” he said in the local Hausa language widely spoken in the predominantly-Muslim northern Nigeria.

Angered by the video, a cross section of Nigerian Muslims have staged demonstrations in several parts of the north.

Shekarau also warned that his sect would henceforth target those in authority, including Emirs and State Governors, apparently because of the recent military onslaught that has seen several top commanders of the sect killed or captured.

“This message is for those in authority (Emirs, Governors, and people in authority). Wallahi you have no resting place again and no resting time again, either we are here or we are not,” the group said. “You have messed up yourselves and you have messed up your own situation.”

While again denying any dialogue with the government, he acknowledged the stepped-up military campaign against the sect, saying “All I can confirm is that they are killing us rather than dialoguing with us.”

But he denied that the sect's Spokesman, Abul Qaqa, has been killed and its leadership decimated

''The most bogus of these claims is that the leadership of our group has been decimated or arrested. It is probably the leadership of the rogue group that they killed which they created in the first place,” Shekarau said.

He also alleged that the security agencies have been arresting female members of the sect and torturing them, and vowed to retaliate by focusing its attacks on women related to security and state officials.

“As at Saturday when I made this video, between 7 and 10 of them (women) have been incarcerated. We don’t know where they are kept or what they are doing to them. “But as Muslims, we know what unbelievers do to women …Now, married women are victims of State terror,” he said.

Boko Haram has killed over 1,400 people in gun and bomb attacks since 2009, when its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed by security agencies.

The sect has mentioned the establishment of a Muslim state in the north as part of its objectives.
-0- PANA SEG 2Oct2012