Boko Haram: Why US hasn’t released $7m reward promised on Shekau – Envoy

THE United States of America, USA,
yesterday, stated why it was yet to release
the $7 million bounty it placed on the head
of the leader of the Boko Haram Islamist
sect, Abubakar Shekau. This is coming 10
days after the Joint Task Force announced
that the sect leader had died from gunshot
wounds he sustained in an encounter with
the task force on June 30.
In June 2012, the US Department of State
had designated Shekau a terrorist and froze
his assets in America, while offering a $7
million reward for his capture.
Explaining why the US was yet to redeem its
pledge on the reward for killing the Boko
Haram leader, outgoing Ambassador of the
US to Nigeria, Terence McCulley, told
newsmen shortly after his visit to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador
Olugbenga Ashiru, in Abuja, that his country
was not fully satisfied with Nigeria’s war
against terrorism.
Abubakar Shekau
He said: “I can say you are talking about the
Reward for Justice Programme, which
indeed offers a reward for help in
apprehending the leader of Boko Haram.
“But I can’t say that the United States has
been very satisfied with the work that has
been done in helping to counter the threat
of violent extremism in the region.
“But we certainly salute the work that
Nigeria has done as a regional leader to
contain the spread of violent extremism.”
He assured that fight against violent
extremism would continue not only in
Nigeria but any country or region that is
faced with the menace.
McCulley said: “We have strongly criticised
the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram and
we have called for measures targeted at
checkmating this threat.
“And we express our hope that going
forward, the government of Nigeria will be
able to contain the threat posed by Boko
Haram.”
Residents to sue FG
Meanwhile, Borno State residents have
threatened to sue the Federal Government
and its security agencies for detaining their
relatives and making them inaccessible.
The residents, through a human rights
group, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, led
by Sheu Sani in Kano, said security forces in
the state were carrying out night raids in
residential neighborhoods.
According to AFP report, distraught relatives
have, therefore, asked the army, the police,
intelligence services and government
officials where the arrested people were to
no avail and that no one even knows, or is
saying, how many people have been
detained.
The rights group said it had received about
3,000 calls from people across northern
Nigeria, that loved ones had disappeared
after being arrested by the military or police
in the past three years.
Sani said: “If we go to the police, the police
will say that they are not with them but may
be with the military. The military will say they
must be with the intelligence service.
“The intelligence service say they don’t keep
detainees — even though they do— that
they hand them over to police. So there is
this cycle of confusion. The conditions in
which people are being detained is very
secretive.”
“My 3 children missing”
One Habiba Saadu said his two sons and her
daughter were taken on August 3 by
soldiers that went from house to house in a
night raid in Maiduguri, accusing them of
participating in the Boko Haram uprising.
“Up to now, I have never seen my children,”
Saadu said.
Saadu said her visits to police stations, the
army barracks, the intelligence services and
local politicians gave no clue to the
whereabouts of her children.
Asked about the disappearance of the
suspected Boko Haram members, the Joint
Task Force spokesman, Lt-Col Sagir Musa,
told The Associated Press that “if they are
arrested, then they are being held.”
In its half-year report published last month,
the Federal Prison Service said it was
holding 202 Boko Haram suspects by the
end of June.