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BREAKING: Akinyemi opens can of worms on USAID! *They were dropping weapons for B’Haram
Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria’s former Minister of External Affairs, on Monday added flesh to the revelation that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was involved in equipping and financing Boko Haram, one of the terrorist groups responsible for devastating attacks that have left thousands of Nigerians dead in recent years.
Scot Perry, a US congressman, had last week, named the dreaded group as one of the terrorist groups the aide agency had sponsored in foreign countries using US tax-payers money during a congressional hearing, an exposé that raised a lot of dust within Nigeria and beyond, with Ali Ndume, foremost Bornu Senator calling for probe.
A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise News Television, Akinyemi, who returned recently as the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), a body which he once headed as Director General (DG), the foremost international scholar, spoke on how locals in the Boko Haram affected areas had reported of helicopters piloted by “white men,” were used to drop catches of weapons and cash for the terrorists at night.
He said at the point the committee set up by Goodluck Jonathan, former President of Nigeria to look into the terrorist group in which he was a member, had thought that the white men in question were French nationals, but Perry’s revelation had now confirmed who the collaborators were, adding that the main goal must have been to destabilise the country.
Hear him: “I served on the committee on Boko Haram and villagers kept telling us that in the middle of the night, helicopters piloted by white people kept landing and offloading guns, goods and money to these people. Now villagers didn’t even know who these people were. And they had no reason to lie to us. Now, we made a mistake, when I say we, some of us on the Boko Haram Committee, made a mistake.
“We thought it was the French that were doing this. Now we have an American congressman, saying no, it was the Americans who were doing this. Now when you add that to the (Barak) Obama’s administration refusing to sell weapons to Nigeria on the grounds that we had human rights violations in the way we were dealing with Boko Haram, not in the way we were dealing with ordinary Nigerians where there were no security issues.
“Now, we got a plane to go and buy weapons in South Africa, someone tipped-off the South Africans. It wasn’t Nigeria who tipped-off the South Africans. Who tipped-off the South Africans? You’d have to come to the conclusion that it has to be a power that had access to information that was able to do that. They not only did that, they also penetrated our armed forces.
“Behind the scene, our boys told us that there were times when they would have Boko Haram people in the sight of their guns and they would now ask their headquarters for permission to open fire, only for their superior officers to tell them to pull back and not open fire. That shows the extent to which there was penetration and destabilisation of our security forces.
“Now, who would do this? Who would destabilise our own security forces? There were Nigerians also who were involved. Now this is where I have to be careful. I’m not going to mention names. But people who were going to the United States, who were leading delegations to the United States during this period. Our ambassador there, unfortunately he’s dead now, but he wrote reports about the activities of these Nigerians, some of them governors, who were involved with the State Department and who were also involved with the White House and what they were doing.
Now, who were the people who organized trips for Hilary Clinton and John Kerry who would ignore Abuja and fly over Abuja to go and hold meetings with political operatives in parts of Nigeria without clearance with own Aso and our own phase office?
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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