Terrorists freely running their ‘own government’ in Kaduna, El-Rufai writes Buhari

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has written to President Muhammadu Buhari informing him that terrorists now have their own government and are holding grip on communities in the State.

He said, the terrorists have their permanent operational base, warning that the development might spell doom, if nothing was done immediately.

In a memo he wrote to President Buhari, El-Rufai disclosed the identities of the terrorists group as Ansaru al-Musulmina fi Bilad al-Sudan, or Ansaru, saying that they moved to Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State in 2012 after they broke away from Boko Haram.

The memo confirmed to Buhari that it was the splinter group from Boko Haram that were responsible for the series of attacks on high profile institutions, particularly that of United Nations building in 2011.

Their targets being high profile places, the Ansaru has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, in 2020.

The memo also said, they are responsible for series of abductions and kidnappings in the Southern Kaduna and they have attacked the police in the State.

The memo which was raised in late July, 2022 asserted that terrorists have infiltrated and taken over communities as their permanent operational base, and had formed “a parallel governing authority,” exercising control over social and economic activities and dispensation of justice in the area.

He said the terrorists have advanced in their plans to make Kaduna forest areas their “permanent operational base” for the North-west region, citing a “series of intelligence reports.”

“Observed movement patterns and intercepted communications of migrating terrorists have shown a clear interest in setting up a base, with the stretches of forest area between Kaduna and Niger states strongly considered,” he wrote.”