Daesh recruiting youths through social media: Nigeria

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS

Nigerian authorities insisted on Thursday that the Daesh militant group was radicalizing and recruiting Nigerian youths via social media.

"The [National Information] Center... wishes to alert the nation to intelligence reports indicating the radicalization of our youths through social media and a variety of other sources," center head Mike Omeri told reporters at a news briefing in Abuja.

The center is devoted to providing updates on the country's counterterrorism operations.

He said intelligence reports showed that youths "who are mostly children of the rich and affluent" were being recruited by Daesh, which is the Arabic acronym for the "Islamic State of Iraq and Levant" (ISIL) militant group, which now controls vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

"We, therefore, call on parents and guardians, especially those whose wards are schooling abroad, to closely monitor the activities of these students who may be susceptible to the antics of the promoters of the ISIS ideology," Omeri added.

In 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old British-educated Nigerian, attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft.

He was later suspected of having been radicalized by controversial preacher Anwar Awlaaki, a U.S.-Yemeni dual national who was later killed in Yemen in a suspected U.S. drone strike.

It was the first time a Nigerian was fingered for an act of global terrorism and came at a time when the home-grown Boko Haram terror group was coming into the international limelight.

More attacks

Omeri repeated warnings, meanwhile, that Boko Haram planned to strike soft targets.

"Therefore, operators of motor parks, gardens, schools, churches and mosques need to exercise extra caution to be able to check the activities of these fugitive terrorists who are now resorting to attacking soft targets in the face of the onslaught by military forces," he said.

At least 13 people were killed on Tuesday in northeastern Nigeria while aboard a bus heading for Kano city.

Shortly after the bombing, two suicide bombers struck a bus station in Kano town itself, killing at least 12 people.

Omeri said Nigerian troops had recaptured most of the towns and villages earlier occupied by Boko Haram in the northeastern Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

"We call on our citizens to shun the trend of cynicism among some unpatriotic Nigerians who have chosen to ascribe the recent successes in the anti-terror war to external efforts instead of the untiring efforts of Nigerian troops," he added.

Since 2009, Nigeria has battled a fierce Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the country's volatile northeast and left thousands dead.

A seemingly emboldened Boko Haram recently stepped up its militant activity, seizing several areas of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where it has declared a self-styled "Islamic caliphate."