Terrorists currently ‘recruiting massively in Niger, Kaduna’, security expert raises alarm

A terrorist group, Ansaru, is currently recruiting people in their numbers in Kaduna and Niger states, a security expert, Kabiru Adamu said on Friday

Adamu is a security, risk management and intelligence solution consultant. He spoke on Channels Tv’s Daily Sunrise programme.

“Terrorist enclaves are being set up between the boundary communities of Kaduna and Niger states,” he said, adding that the situation calls for a serious concern and need urgent attention from the government.

Adamu said, “The worrisome aspect is that they are recruiting actively within those locations. In several communities there, what they do is that they use little influence sometimes offering residents little money or protection and residents out of fear or perhaps because they don’t have any choice, embrace that olive branch they are offering to them.

“Before you know, the various participation of a person in a terrorist group starts exhibiting itself. It could be either silent membership or active support, it could be in the form of informants.

“This is well established. As far back as November last year, we started documenting this.”

Noting that Ansaru broke out of Boko Haram in 2012 because of ideological difference, the security expert said members and leaders of the terrorists’ group are from the Northwest of Nigeria.

He said they started their operation in Kano and parts of Katsina.

“You will recall in 2014 when a French engineer was abducted in Katsina, then another engineer was abducted in Kano and in Birnin-Kebbi, a Briton and an Italian were abducted. All of these were related to the activities of the group,” Adamu said.

He further said that main ideological difference between Ansaru and Boko Haram was the methodology with which the parent group was trying to achieve its objectives which is through suicide bombing.

“They felt that suicide bombing was not the way they want to embrace because people were killed at random.

“What they did was abductions, specifically targeting internationals and then they will now make political demands.

“When they abducted the French engineer in Katsina, one of the demands was that France should repeal the law on the use of veils by Muslims in France,” Adamu said.