Defense headquarters link Oyo kidnap, beheading to Boko Haram faction

By Molade Adegbuyi

The attacks on a school in Oyo State where a teacher was beheaded by terrorists was carried out by members of a faction of Boko Haram, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said.

The Nigerian authorities said the attacks were carried out by members of Jama’atu Ahlis-Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), The attacks took place at Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The spokesperson of the Defence Authority, Micheal Onoja, the DHQin a statement made available to Irohinoodua said the attacks were carried out by members of JAS following consistent attacks on the group by the Nigerian Army.
Onoja spoke further that “For clarity, at no time did the Defence Headquarters undermine the authority of any democratically elected leader or sought to diminish the gravity of the heinous crime committed against innocent citizens by terrorist elements.”
Some 46 students were said to have been kidnapped by the terrorists. One of them, a teacher, Micheal was savagely beheaded.

The Defence Spokesperson said “The recent incidence (incident) of kidnap in Oyo State was clearly perpetrated by terrorists of the JAS Group that have been dislodged from other parts of the country due to high intensity operations being conducted all over.” The JAS group is an extremist Salafi-jihadist militant group that has been operating in the North East of Nigeria. The group is currently led by Bakura Doro. The group was foundedin 2002 by the late Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri. The mission of the group is to upturn democratic isstitutions in NIgeria and establish an Islmic state ruled by Sharia. In 2016, the group pledged allegiance to ISIS. The group broke into two, with one adopting JAS led by Abubakar Shakarau while the other faction became the Islamic State West Africa Province.
The daring terrorists stormed the Yawota and Ahoro-Esinle communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State around 9:30am last Friday stirring local and global outrage. The United States Government had identified West Africa as the target of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, following the onslught on the group in the Middle East with a warning that West Africa, including NIgeria may witness more attacks. In a new strategic document the US observed that ‘President Trump unleashed the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen, and within a matter of weeks, a Jihadi insurgency which controlled vast territories across Iraq and Syria was gone. Subsequently, the surviving remnants of the world’s most dangerous terrorist group of modern age were forced to relocate to Africa and Central Asia in turn exploiting the ungoverned spaces there.’ The strategic document noted that ‘as a result, today there are parts of Africa where a resurgent terror threat is the reality. These included in West Africa, the Sahel region, the Lake Chad Basin, Mozambique, Sudan, and of course Somalis, where parts of ISSI have re-established the,selves and Al Shabaab maintains its tribal-based Islamist insurgency.’