Exclusive Interview: Yuguda, Goje, Sheriff Had Killer Squads - Boko Haram
SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, (THEWILL) – The radical Islamic sect operating mainly in Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram has lately risen from a Boko who!, to a dreaded and violent radical Islamic sect feared nationwide because of its trademark bomb attacks.
Barely one week after the former Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff dissociated himself from forming and bankrolling the dreaded radical Islamic sect, the group has corroborated his assertion adding that he (Sheriff) operated a radical killer squad alongside Isa Yuguda (current Bauchi Governor) and Danjuma Goje (former Gombe Governor).
Below is an excerpt of THEWILL four minutes telephone interview with Mallam Ali Teshako, an adherent of the slain leader of Boko Haram, Mallam Muhammad Yusuf:
On Ali Modu Sheriff being the mastermind of the group
Ali Modu Sheriff is not our mentor. We don’t have anything to do with him. Nonetheless, he is evil. He is a tyrant that worked in tandem with his colleague Isah Yuguda in Bauchi and Danjuma Goje in Gombe, to undermine our movement. Just as he tried to destroy us, God will surely eliminate him. All the three of them had their killer squads. Goje had Yan Kalare. Yuguda has Yan Sara Suka and Sheriff had Ecomog. They all used these groups to perpetrate mayhem that were blamed on Boko Haram at different times. But nobody blamed them. It was Boko Haram that was on the fire line all the time.
On why they are fighting
They forbid for us to stay in peace with our family in our homes. They chase us wherever we go and want to kill us all. We have no other alternative but to defend ourselves since we do not have any other person that will fight for us except Allah. That is why we have been seeking ways to fight for our rights.
I want you to know that Islam and our movement does not allow any Muslim to kill any person except if there is a genuine reason for doing so. We are not to the best of our knowledge ignorant about the provisions of Islam. So, I want people to know that late Mallam Muhammad Yusuf had never in his sermons or preachings advocated that we should go and rob banks. Those doing this are operating outside the ambit of what Mallam Yusuf taught us.
On the situation in Maiduguri
We never wished for the situation to degenerate to the level it did now. Nobody will like to be running helter-skelter and abandon his legitimate means of earning livelihood. This whole thing is the fault of the federal and the Borno state governments. You do know that an unjust ruler always seek ways of being relevant. There are two ways he does this. First by brewing trouble and second by stealing from the public treasury. Whenever there is unrest this becomes justification for looting public treasury.
On dialogue with government
The government keeps calling us criminals. It has forgotten that Governor Yuguda, ex-governors Goje and Sheriff are those that were using criminals against the people they were ruling. I want you to give me one reason that will signify that the federal government is desirous of having a dialogue that will lead to a truce with us. Give just one such example of such desire. The government is not ready to talk with us yet. I want to advise it that very many people are disguising as Boko Haram adherents and wrecking havoc across the country. As a matter of fact some people from foreign countries are also cashing in on our existence to cause trouble. Even neighbours that do not see eye to eye exploit the name of Boko Haram to harm his neighbour. Our own struggle and fight is between us and the government as well as the police.