100 Dead: Boko Bombs Church; Christians Kill Innocent Muslims in Nigeria; Media Spins Story

June 17th, 2012; Updated June 18th; 20th

@Sowore of SR, @Guardian: Murdering Innocent People is Terror, Not Reprisal!

NewsRescue– As the insanity of the Nigerian terror saga continues, 3 bombings of Church’s in the North Nigeria resulted in at least 20 dead and many wounded, and Christian groups in anger and frustration over the Boko terrorist group’s activity went on street rampage killing at least 40 innocent Muslims unrelated to the terrorist attack and wounding over 30 more.

Many of the innocent’s killed were burned to death by the rampaging youth. Among the killed was reportedly a Muslim army officer, who was slaughtered. Several Mosques were also burned.

And these numbers are rapidly increasing as the Christian waged war on Muslims in Kaduna progresses.

Kaduna Bomb blast: Rampaging Christian Youths Kill Over 40 people

Gandu Report reaching our desk indicate that rampaging christian youths in Christian dominated part of the state capital, kill over 40 innocent people, eye witness say in Sabo area of Kaduna shops belonging the Igbo business community were looted, cars as well as innocent Muslims who were unlucky to be in the area were killed and some sustained injuries of various degrees. Along Kaduna/Abuja road many motorists were victims of these armed Christian youths, a BBC hausa reporter who narrowly escape told BBC hausa that he saw over 4 corpses and 20 burnt cars along Goningora area (Abuja rd junction). In another incident a Christian Police officer in Nassawa area of Kaduna was reportedly killed by armed Christian youths when he tried to stop them from attacking Muslims, an army officer was also over powered and brutally slaughtered by these youths. It will be recalled that 2 bombs want off this morning at various location in Kaduna city, one of the bomb exploded at church along bye-pass Abuja road, while second exploded along the same street at place called IBBI junction, which is a Muslim dominated area.

The government immediately imposed a curfew.

Update June 20th, Kaduna: Allegedly up to 100 Muslims were killed. The government is keeping a tight lid on this information to prevent Muslim counter terror against likely innocent Christians. A mass burial was quickly organized for the many murdered without even allowing family identify most victims.

Christian Mob Murder is Terror, Not Reprisal attacks

Nigeria’s predominantly Christian-extremist media continues to label the attacks ‘reprisal’, which is highly inaccurate, malicious and harmful, as well as being insulting to the families of lost ones.

Last week the Nigerian Christian-extremist media made the same error, and even managed to make the story in which not a single Christian lost their life, but over 7 innocent Muslims were killed by Christian angry mobs, appear as though the failed bomb had taken Christian lives.

View: SaharaReporters, PremiumTimes Spread Rumor of Attack on FGC Kano: Media or Monster?

Muslim Army officer killed by Christian Mobs on the Kaduna/Abuja expressway- Gandu

The continuation of this makes Christians and Muslims in Northern states, many of which have significant indigenous Christian populations at increased risk. These media manipulated stories are deadly.

Boko Haram group is a terrorist shadow group which operates from hidden locations in Nigeria’s North. They have attacked government installations, Churches and few times Mosques. Majority of their victims have been Muslims.

Kano 200, Boko Haram’s Biggest Attack Was Against Muslims

Their most massive single attack, which occurred in Kano in January this year. The Kano 200 attack was against the indigenous Muslim population, in which up to 200 mainly Muslims died. View: Boko haram insurgency spreads to north-west 200 Killed in Kano.

Boko in frustration, warned and killed so many Muslims in anger over the Muslim communal cooperation with, and rooting out Boko members to security forces.

In essence Boko is an enemy to all, and their greatest goal can be seen as the destruction of and splintering of Nigeria.

Attacking Christians and Churches to annoy and manipulate Christians and trigger the very fight between them and Muslims that happened last and this Sunday is their evil tactic.

Are we going to let Boko use our heads and win?

The media must unambiguously condemn the terror by Christians against innocent Muslims in appreciable frustration of the barbaric acts of Boko Haram.

It is the duty of the government to eradicate terror in Nigeria.

Both Muslims and Christians must be encouraged to work together to bring an end to the in-despicable acts and dis regard for the sanctity of life by Boko Haram terrorists.

All youth caught in the so called ‘reprisal’ attacks must be arrested and charged with murder. Mob murder must be criminalized in Nigeria to stem wanton indiscriminate episodes like this.

Here is the story from a Christian-extremist media source-

SaharaReporters Supports Terrorism:

Daily Trust has confirmed that at least 13 people lost their lives in the bomb attacks on three churches in Kaduna this morning.

In addition, about 11 others have been killed in reprisal attacks across the town.

According to Dr. Taylor Adeyemi, the acting Chief Medical Director of St. Luke’s hospital in Wusasa, 40 victims, mostly children were brought into their hospital following the blast at ECWA in Wusasa. Of this number, three were dead on arrival.

From the blast at the Christ the King Cathedral at No. 80 Yoruba street Daily Trust confirmed 10 dead and over 50 injured. Daily Trust is yet to get details of the casualties from the Trikania attack.

Three churches were attacked this morning by suicide bombers in Kaduna. One went off at the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church, Wusasa and another at the Christ the King Cathedral Catholic church at No. 80, Yoruba Street, Sabon Gari, Zaria, just behind the Army Depot, Zaria where all Nigerian soldiers receive their basic training. The third church, Shalom Church at Trikania close to Abuja Fly over and Textile Labour house, was hit by multiple explosions around 10:17am.

Also, about 35 victims of the reprisal attacks that followed the bombing have been taken to St. Gerard’s Hospital within the metropolis according to the hospitals public relations officer. Seven of them were dead on arrival, burnt by their presumed assailants.

The explosions sparked violence in Kaduna as christian youths retaliated, moving around with cutlasses and sticks among other weapons. Sources say the youths burnt a mosque at Television area and another at Goningora was broken into and vandalised in retaliation for the attacks on the three churches.

Men of Operation Yaki are said to have taken charge of the situation, especially around Goningora which is along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway and where Christian youths were beginning to get violent. An eyewitness told Daily Trust he saw four dead bodies near the Goningora mosque. Other trouble spots so far identified are Sabo, Trikania, Television area, Tudun Wada and Unguwan Rimi.

Road blocks have been set up at strategic areas and traffic along the expressway which was initially halted is now being allowed with military escorts. Other areas of Kaduna metropolis are experiencing an uneasy calm.

The Abuja-Kaduna expressway links many states in the North to Abuja.

Nigerian Guardian Promoting Terrorism

The Nigerian guardian in writing about the carnage in Kaduna, presented it thus:

IT was another dark Sunday yesterday as rage, blood-letting from suicide bombing and reprisal attacks in Kaduna metropolis and Zaria brought the two cities to their kneels.

….Eyewitnesses claimed that three suicide bombers drove to the gate of Christ The King Catholic Church on Yoruba Street in Sabon Gari at 8.45 a.m. but were stopped by security personnel attached to the church.

Apparently sensing that security operatives had aborted their mission, two of the bombers allegedly attempted to escape, but were intercepted and set ablaze by a mob. The third bomber, The Guardian learnt, set off the bomb he carried and died instantly with one of the security personnel.

A few minutes after the incident, another explosion occurred at Shalom Church in Trikania in southern Kaduna at 8.55 a.m. The blast forced youths in Gonin Gora, Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, Angwar Sunday, Sabon Tasha, and Television Village to go on rampage and burnt some worship places.

Author of this article: From Madu Onuorah, Joke Akanmu (Abuja), Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Niyi Bello (Akure) and Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt)

How can a media depict and describe terrorist youth taking law into their own hands and killing innocent passer-byes and commuters, as being ‘forced’ by a bomb blast act-of-terror?

It will be noticed that the Guardian refuses to refer to ‘Mosques’ as being burned by the rampaging Christian deviants, but rather uses the ambiguous term, ‘worship places’, these are deliberate tactics by its authors, Madu Onuorah, Joke Akanmu (Abuja), Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Niyi Bello (Akure) and Kelvin Ebiri, to manipulate the public mind on the evil… this technique is also utilized to make it impossible to pull up such articles from internet searches in the future for reference.

This type of journalism is murderous, it denies respite to the victims and supports terror and murder. The media is not only an accomplice but now an active participant in the bloodshed in Nigeria.

A responsible article from Punch earlier-

PUNCH: Boko Haram: Reprisal is a beastly idea

Wole Soyinka: We should not give room for reprisal

Nigerians should heed the timely warning by the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, to strongly resist any urge to retaliate against the innocent in response to Boko Haram’s killings and other provocations. “We should not give room for reprisal. Protection of our neighbours should be our first principle.” The call points out a major flaw in targeting members of an ethnic group in the name of retaliation: it is innocent neighbours that bear the brunt. There is, of course, no religious justification for terror or reprisals. The world recognises that those extremists who fly the banner of religion to unleash violence on others are on the fringes and are disavowed by mainstream faiths.

The threats and attacks on Southerners and Christians also clearly reveal a sinister agenda by Boko Haram. It aims to provoke widespread sectarian strife to make the country ungovernable and thereby accomplish its ultimate goal of imposing its variant of sharia rule on some Northern states and forcing the splintering of Nigeria. Those pondering reprisals therefore unwittingly help the terrorists. A former military governor of old Kaduna State, Abubakar Umar, says that the terrorists gain when diverse groups tear into each other in revenge for the atrocities of a vicious, evil and violent sect. He is right.


One priority should be to promptly prosecute those hoodlums who recently hid under the excuse of reprisals to visit mayhem on other Nigerians. Failure to diligently apprehend those who terrorised and murdered others over the years has emboldened mass murderers and their sponsors. The state governments and opinion moulders(Media) should impress it on all that anyone staging reprisals is as vile as the Boko Haram bombers and gunmen and would be met with the full weight of the law.

http://www.punchng.com/editorial/bok…-beastly-idea/

In current news:

Shoot At Sight Order As Violence Hits Kaduna

As the death toll from today’s sectarian violence in Kaduna State continues to climb, law enforcement officers have been given orders to shoot any perpetrators of violence at sight.

Two senior police sources in Kaduna told SaharaReporters that more than 50 people have lost their lives in a spate of attacks and counter attacks by Muslims and Christians precipitated by bomb attacks at several churches in Kaduna and Zaria.

“The government wants us not to announce the real number of those killed, but I can assure you that more than fifty lives have been lost,” said one source. He added that hundreds of people had been wounded.

Another source added that people in most parts of the state were observing the curfew, but added that the level of tension remains “very high.”

Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna had earlier declared a 24-hour curfew in the state with immediate effect.

Mr. Yakowa said it become imperative to declare the curfew considering the need to avoid escalation of violence. However, one of our police sources said that the order came after irate Christians had already taken to various streets in pursuit of Muslim targets.

Governor Yakowa has condemned the multiple bombs that targeted Christian worshipers this morning in the state. Mr. Yakowa also warned against reprisal attacks. He threatened that security operatives would deal with those seeking to take the law into their hands.

The governor’s statement, released by his media aide, Reuben Buhari, condemned “the unfortunate bombing of three churches in Wusasa in Zaria Local Government, Sabon Gari LG and Trikania, Chikun Local Government, Kaduna State.”

In declaring a curfew, the statement added: “In view of the incidents and the need to have complete normalcy and to forestall further break down of law and order, the State Government has imposed a 24 hour curfew in the whole state. The curfew hours start with immediate effect until further notice.” The statement regretted any inconveniences caused to residents of the state by the “drastic measure.”

Even so, the governor defended his action as a step “to avert further loss of lives and property in the state.”

Mr. Yakowa’s statement pleaded with the residents of Kaduna State to “ignore various mischievous texts messages currently in circulation.”

SaharaReporters learnt that the text messages galvanized members of both Islamic and Christian faiths to do battle with “common enemies.” -SR