The Origin of Boko Haram in Nigeria

The Jama’atul Ahlus Sunna Lid Da’awatis Jihad Boko Haram is an Islamic Religious sect that’s been in existence way before the beginning of the brutal politically-motivated attacks in Nigeria.

The History of Boko Haram In Nigeria started as a cell of the sect, officially called Jama’atul Ahlus Sunna Lid Da’awatis Jihad but named Boko Haram by the northern elite who, under the pretext of sponsoring youngsters to study in the Middle East, sent them to terrorist training camps. 

They thought they could manipulate the leader of this sect called Mohammed Yusuf but he refused to tow the line, and in the end he was executed by the police, If he were alive, he would have had a lot to say. Nonetheless, we will reveal their identities at our convenience,’ said Teshako,  known as Yusufiyya after the slain leader. According to him, the clashes between Boko Haram and security forces were the results of police provocation. The police had shot dead two of its members and wounded 20 more after they followed mourners to the burial ceremony. 

Mohammed Yusuf

The armed uprising that followed affected four northern states and claimed the lives of at least 300 people. ‘We are attacking police because they killed our brothers,’ Ibrahim Khalil Zarkawi, a Boko Haram leader told Bashir Ibrahim Idris of RFI’s Hausa service at the time.  ‘There isn‘t good leadership in Nigeria. Muslims are being killed daily and the authorities are doing nothing about it. These are the reasons why we are retaliating against the police, because they are the ones who killed our brothers.’ Troops stormed Boko Haram’s stronghold in Maiduguri and Yusuf was arrested the following day after reportedly being found hiding in his parents-in-Iaw’s house. Later.

 journalists were shown two films – one Jonathan during his inauguration in May, which was marred by a series of deadly bomb blasts apparently showing Yusuf making a confession, the other showing what appeared to be his body, riddled with bullets.

Mohammed Yusuf bullet riddled body

Boko Haram is a controversial Nigerian militant Islamist group that seeks the imposition of Sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria. The term “Boko Haram” comes from the Hausa word boko meaning “Animist, western or otherwise non-Islamic education” and the Arabic word haram figuratively meaning “sin” (literally, “forbidden“). Boko Haram Mission & Agenda Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well. The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. In 2004 it moved to Kanamma, Yobe State, where it set up a base called “Afghanistan”, used to attack nearby police outposts, killing police officers. 

Yusuf was hostile to democracy and the secular education system, vowing that “this war that is yet to start would continue for long” if the political and educational system was not changed. Prior to the clashes, many Muslim leaders and at least one military official had warned the authorities about Boko Haram. Those warnings were reportedly ignored. 

In Yobe state, fighters reportedly “used fuel-laden motorcycles” and “bows with poison arrows” to attack a police station. On 30 July, there were allegations that Yusuf himself was killed by Nigerian security forces after being taken into custody. November 4, 2011 – Major Boko Haram bomb blast killed Over 60 people in Damaturu, Yobe state Nigeria January 2010, the group struck again in the Nigerian state of Borno, killing four people in Dala Alemderi ward in Maiduguri metropolis. September 7, 2010, Boko Haram freed over 700 inmates from a prison in Bauchi State. December 2010, Boko Haram was blamed for a market bombing, following which 92 of its members were arrested by police. Friday January 28, 2011, a gubernatorial candidate was assassinated, along with his brother and four police officers. March 29, 2011, police “thwarted a plot to bomb an (ANPP) election rally” in Maiduguri, Borno State. The threat was blamed on Boko Haram. On April 1 (the day before the original date of Nigeria’s legislative elections), suspected Boko Haram members attacked a police station in Bauchi. On April 9, a polling center in Maiduguri was bombed. 

On April 15, the Maiduguri office of the Independent National Electoral Commission was bombed, and several people were shot in a separate incident on the same day. Authorities suspected Boko Haram. On April 20, Boko Haram killed a Muslim cleric and ambushed several police officers in Maiduguri. On April 22, Boko Haram freed 14 prisoners during a jailbreak in Yola, Adamawa State.  

Tuesday February 8, 2011, Boko Haram gave conditions for peace. The radicals demanded that the Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, should step down from office with immediate effect and also allow members to reclaim their mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. On 9th May 2011 Boko Haram rejected an offer for amnesty made by the governor-elect of Borno state, Kashim Shettima. Boko Haram was blamed for a series of bombings in northern Nigeria on May 29, 2011 that left 15 dead. 

June 17, 2011, the group claimed responsibility for a bombing attack on the police force headquarters in Abuja that occurred the previous day. Officials believed that the attack was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria’s history and that it specifically targeted Police Inspector-General Hafiz Ringim.