Buhari Quick To Condemn Cote d’Ivoire Attacks But Ignore Agatu, Mile 12 Deaths – Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has again attacked President Muhammadu Buhari, accusing him of focusing on issues pertaining to other countries, rather than dealing with the problems facing the Nigeria.
...He urged the president to pay more attention to security and economic issues affecting Nigeria, describing his condemnation of Sunday’s terrorist attack on the Grand Bassam Resort in Cote D’Ivoire as “hypocritical and demonstration of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians”.

If President Buhari could afford to pick his phone and call the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, immediately after the attack, Nigerians must ask the President why he kept mute for days over the Fulani herdsmen massacre of over 300 Agatu people of Benue State, the Mile 12 Lagos killings and wanton destruction of properties among others,” Mr. Fayose said on Tuesday in a statement signed by his Special Assistant of Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

He noted that it was strange that President Buhari was more concerned with the killing of 16 people in Cote D’Ivoire than the Fulani herdsmen’s murder of over 300 citizens of Nigeria.


Mr. Fayose said it was alarming that even when former Senate President, David Mark, was attacked by the Fulani herdsmen last Saturday when he went on inspection of the eight communities destroyed by the Fulani herdsmen, there was no reaction from the president condemning the terror attack.

From all indications, our president has abandoned governance. The only thing going on in the minds of those running the affairs of this country in Abuja is how to entrench themselves in power by crushing anyone perceived as capable of hindering them,” said Mr. Fayose.

That is the reason they are using the Department of State Services (DSS) to harass and intimidate us here in Ekiti, under flimsy excuses like investigation of members of the State House of Assembly for alleged forgery of tax certificates when the Ekiti State Government, which issued the certificates have not complained to the DSS that its tax certificates were forged by the lawmakers.

That is also the reason the president keeps showing his anger against Nnamdi Kanu and his Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) agitators while the same president has failed to approach the economy and insecurity, especially the Fulani herdsmen menace with the same level of anger.

Even when their own Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, has told Nigerians that the economy has gone out of the hands of the president, they keep using anti-corruption fight to persecute opposition elements both in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their own party, All Progressives Congress (APC), forgetting that fighting corruption is not a substitute for putting food on the table of Nigerians.

The president must therefore be made to realise that Nigerians are suffering, with price of foodstuffs skyrocketing. The economy is in comatose, Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen are killing people. President Buhari must learn to begin to cry over Nigeria’s problems first before going to other countries to cry over their problems for them.

What is it with Northen Leaders And Christian Preachings:PFN Tells Buhari To Warn El-Rufai Over ‘Licence For Preachers’

The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, has sent a warning to President Muhammadu Buhari over the bill seeking to license religious preachers in Kaduna State.
In a statement yesterday in Enugu, Chairman of the PFN in the State, Rev. Dr. Godwin Madu, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call Governor Nasir El-Rufai to order as such move was capable of throwing the country into chaos.

According to Madu,

The situation in Kaduna State today calls for caution because this religious issue may bring problem in other states if not properly checked.

The licensing of preachers is not in the best interest of the nation and it is contrary to the constitution of the country.

Are we being forced to have two countries in Nigeria or two constitutions? Mr President should intervene in this matter. Let there be caution and proper understanding between government, leaders and religious leaders; let us stop anything that will not make for peace.

On the planned establishment of grazing reserves across the 36 States of the Federation, the PFN said it was a veiled plan to Islamize the country.

He said,

We frown at the impending doom that  may befall the nation if Mr. President fails to check the incessant attempts to Islamize the states.

We request the National Assembly not to consider such bill; let the sponsors of such bill desist from it.

The nature of attacks on the host communities of the Fulani herdsmen is so damaging; how can a grazing field be given to them whereas it is the cause of crisis in several cities across the country.

The group while decrying the cases of rape, murder and arson linked to herdsmen, called on security agencies to rise in defence of helpless citizens..

..whose farms are being damaged, their wives and daughters raped and murdered.

Moves and laws like this against any religion from any Governor, will be seen as a very great time bomb ready to explode as at this time in which Nigeria is recovering from. is el-rufai trying to incapacitate Christians and Christian beliefs and worship in the Nation. Not this time when most people of the world are weary of gruesome evil and terror done by most Islamic terrorist groups.
   And  why not raised the issue of license for Muslims clergies too...with such actions of those stopping  a whole convoy of the the Army chief.
       NIGERIA NEEDS LEADERS WITH VISIONS THAT WILL UNITY NIGERIA AND DONE AWAY WITH ALL THESE RELIGIOUS , TRIBAL AND SOCIAL STATUS SENTIMENTS DRAGGING US ALL DOWN.

Jonathan Blasts Buhari Over Corruption, Challenges Him

Remember Buhari's comment/tweet during President Goodluck Jonathan's administration about fuel scarcity?
Buhari, who was Jonathan's rival during the presidential elections, condemned the fuel scarcity that hit former President Jonathan's regime as president.

The ex-president has however referred back to that comment, saying;

Nigeria's productivity is being hindered due to the countless man hours spent on petrol stations today.

Jonathan also condemned Buhari's method of tackling corruption. He said that his strategy for combating corruption is not by indiscriminate arrest and jail of people.

I stand by due process. Any country that does not respect due process is a jungle,” Mr. Jonathan said.

They say to be strong is to jail people indiscriminately. For 300 years. Is that where we're going to?”

 

What we know about Salah Abdeslam, the elusive Paris terror suspect arrested in Brussels

Europe’s most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, has been arrested in Brussels after a police raid Friday.

The 26-year-old Belgian national is the only known living suspect in the Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people last November — and he has been on the run ever since. According to the Belgian federal prosecutor, Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found in a Brussels apartment that was raided earlier this week.

The day after the November 13 attacks, the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility, referring to “eight brothers,” though police had initially only identified seven suspected attackers. ISIS also referred to attacks in the 10th, 11th and 18th arrondissements. An attack had not taken place in the 18th, but that is where authorities found the car they believe Abdeslam had been driving, suggesting that he was the eighth “brother” and may have backed out of another planned attack.

 

Abdeslam's brother is Ibrahim Abdeslam, the suicide bomber believed to have been responsible for the explosions outside a café on Boulevard Voltaire.

 

Abdeslam, a French citizen, has been on the run since the city-wide attacks, eluding authorities, who, at one point, believed he might have fled to Syria. Investigators reported that Abdeslam bought 10 detonators and batteries at a fireworks shop outside Paris before the November attacks.

In January, images surfaced showing Abdeslam at a gas station in northern France, near the Belgian border, on November 14. 

 

According to the British newspaper the Independent, Abdeslam's professional résumé includes a two-year stint as a railway mechanic, in addition to working for family businesses, and a personal reputation as a hard-partying gambler, drinker and smoker. A childhood friend who recalled Abdeslam's interest in football and motorcycles told the Independent, “I didn't see any sign of hatred in him whatsoever.”

 

However, another childhood friend of Abdeslam's was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind behind the Paris attacks, who was killed in a raid by French authorities days after the attacks. Before the November attacks, Abaaoud had been suspected of organizing a number of other acts of terrorism throughout France and Belgium and was the subject of an international arrest warrant for recruiting people to join radical Islamic groups in Syria. The Independent has reported that the two were arrested together for armed robbery in 2010 and “may have been radicalized during their time in prison.”

The armed robbery wasn't Abdeslam's first brush with the law. His rap sheet includes convictions for a number of petty crimes, including possession of cannabis, for which he was arrested and fined by Dutch police in February 2015. The same month, Belgian investigators questioned Abdeslam and his brother Ibrahim after Ibrahim took a trip to Turkey and was deported by Turkish authorities. 

Rumors emerged after the Paris attacks that Abdeslam was a regular at a gay bar in Brussels. Other acquaitances of the alleged terrorist reported that Abdeslam often spent time playing video games at a bar previously owned by his brother, Ibrahim.

American IS fighter: I made a bad decision

The American Islamic State group fighter who handed himself over to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq earlier this week said he made "a bad decision" in joining the IS, according to a heavily edited interview he gave to an Iraqi Kurdish television station.

In the TV interview, which aired late Thursday night, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, 26, from Alexandria, Virginia detailed his weeks-long journey from the United States to London, Amsterdam, Turkey, through Syria and finally to the IS-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul.

Once in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city that was captured by the Islamic State in the summer of 2014, Khweis was moved into a house with dozens of other foreign fighters, he told the Kurdistan 24 station.
Khweis said he met an Iraqi woman with ties to IS in Turkey who arranged his travel into Syria and then across the border into Iraq. In Mosul, Khweis said he began more than a month of intensive Islamic studies and it was then he decided to try and flee.
"I didn't agree with their ideology," he said, explaining why he decided to escape a few weeks after arriving. "I made a bad decision to go with the girl and go to Mosul."
Khweis said a friend helped him escape from Mosul to the nearby city of Tal Afar. From there he walked toward Kurdish troops. "I wanted to go to the Kurdish side," he said, "because I know they are good with the Americans."

The surrender took place on the front lines near the town of Sinjar, which was retaken by Iraqi forces from IS militants late last year. In the past year, IS fighters have lost large amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Khweis is currently being held by Kurdish forces for interrogation.

Though such defections are rare, Syrian Kurdish fighters battling IS have told The Associated Press that they are seeing an increase in the number of IS members surrendering following recent territorial losses. As the militants lose territory, U.S. officials predict there will be more desertions.

"I wasn't thinking straight," Khweis said in the TV interview.

"My message to the American people is that the life in Mosul is really, really bad," he said, adding that he doesn't believe the Islamic State group accurately represents Islam.
U.S. analyst Seth Jones with the RAND Corporation said much can be gleamed about the way the Islamic State operates from Khweis' account and his "defection" from the militant group.
"He wasn't a senior member of the Islamic State, of ISIS, but he did at least use their network to get himself into the region," Jones said from Arlington, Virginia. "So he's going to know a number of things about the pipeline to get into Iraq and Syria, the key individuals at least that he associated with on his way there."

Jones, who heads the International Security and Defense Policy Center, also said Khweis' account is valuable, because "this is someone who was inside a training camp, wo was getting indoctrinated."

"That's a much more powerful narrative to undermine the ideology," he added. "What we see now with his defection is that the picture he's painting of what life is like in cities like Mosul is not as good as the selling points."

The United Nations estimated that around 30,000 so-called foreign fighters from 100 countries are actively working with the Islamic State group, al-Qaida or other extremist groups. An earlier estimate by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, a think-tank at King's College London, said IS fighters include 3,300 Western Europeans and 100 or so Americans.

Death toll in Nigeria suicide bombing rises to 25

The death toll in a suicide attack by female bombers at a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri has risen to 25, a regional official said Thursday.

"Twenty-two people died immediately following the blast and three others died later in the hospital, bringing the total number of deaths to 25," said Mohammed Kanar, the northeast coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

"This is apart from the two suicide bombers who also died," he said on local television.

Kanar said NEMA has begun to provide relief materials to the families of those affected by Wednesday's attack.

The bombing, carried out by two women disguised as men, hit the Molai district of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram which has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamists in the past.

The attack was only the second this month in northeastern Nigeria and came after four raids and suicide bombings in February and eight in January believed to be the work of Boko Haram -- a marked fall since last year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Wednesday's bombing bore all the hallmarks of the Islamic State affiliate, whose insurgency has left at least 17,000 people dead since 2009.

The US Just Declared ISIS "Responsible for Genocide"

The United States government declared on Thursday the Islamic State group is responsible for genocide and war crimes. 

"[ISIS is] genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions," Secretary of State John Kerry said, according to the BBC, in a press conference at the U.S. State Department. 

"My purpose here today is to assert in my judgment. [ISIS] is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims," Kerry also said, according to CNN. 

This announcement came just days after the House of Representatives unanimously voted on Monday that ISIS' atrocities in Iraq and Syria are tantamount to genocide.

The terrorist network has targeted minorities since its rise to power in 2013 as part of its mandate to create a Sunni caliphate. 

Yazidis, a Kurdish religious minority, are found around the shared borders of Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Sinjar, a village in northern Iraq predominantly inhabited by Yazidis at the time, suffered a targeted insurgency by ISIS in August 2014. There was a miscellany of war crimes committed, from mass murder to forced conversions to sexual slavery.

The State Department's latest proclamation could pave the way for military intervention in the region. Thus far, America has opted for an extensive drone program instead of boots on the ground. Experts have warned that using drones too often results in civilian casualties and gives ISIS an opportunity to recruit those devastated locals. 

"ISIS forces have committed organized rape, sexual assault and other horrific crimes against Yazidi women and girls,"  Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said in April. Yazidis, she said, endured "unimaginable trauma."

The House's unanimity in its decision to declare genocide may well indicate a willingness to more aggressively intervene.

What is eMarketing and how is it better than traditional marketing?

Marketing has pretty much been around forever in one form or another. Since the day when humans first started trading whatever it was that they first traded, marketing was there. Marketing was the stories they used to convince other humans to trade. Humans have come a long way since then, (Well, we like to think we have) and marketing has too.
The methods of marketing have changed and improved, and we've become a lot more efficient at telling our stories and getting our marketing messages out there. eMarketing is the product of the meeting between modern communication technologies and the age-old marketing principles that humans have always applied.
That said, the specifics are reasonably complex and are best handled piece by piece. So we’ve decided to break it all down and tackle the parts one at a time. This week we’ll be looking at the "what" and "why" of eMarketing, outlining the benefits and pointing out how it differs from traditional marketing methods.
By the end of the series we're pretty sure you'll have everything you need to tell better marketing stories.

What is eMarketing?

Very simply put, eMarketing or electronic marketing refers to the application of marketing principles and techniques via electronic media and more specifically the Internet. The terms eMarketing, Internet marketing and online marketing, are frequently interchanged, and can often be considered synonymous.
eMarketing is the process of marketing a brand using the Internet. It includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements and uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers.
By such a definition, eMarketing encompasses all the activities a business conducts via the worldwide web with the aim of attracting new business, retaining current business and developing its brand identity.

Why is it important?

When implemented correctly, the return on investment (ROI) from eMarketing can far exceed that of traditional marketing strategies.
Whether you're a "bricks and mortar" business or a concern operating purely online, the Internet is a force that cannot be ignored. It can be a means to reach literally millions of people every year. It's at the forefront of a redefinition of way businesses interact with their customers.

Arab League brands Hezbollah group a terrorist organization

The Arab League on Friday formally branded Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group a terrorist organization, a move that raises concerns of deepening divisions among Arab countries and ramps up the pressure on the Shiite group, which is fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

The decision came during a foreign ministers' meeting of the Arab League at the organization's seat in Cairo, the Egyptian state MENA news agency reported. It came just a day after the league elected veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as its new chief.

The move aligns the 22-member league firmly behind Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led bloc of six Gulf Arab nations, which made the same formal branding against Hezbollah on March 2. It also brings the league in line with the United States, which is closely allied with the Gulf states and has long considered Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization. The European Union only lists the military wing of Hezbollah on its terrorist blacklist.

In Cairo, Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Qattan, told the satellite TV station Al Arabiya that the vote was not unanimous as Lebanon and Iraq abstained.
Earlier in the day, the Saudi delegation stormed out of a league meeting in protest over a speech by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari hailing Hezbollah and Shiite militias as "resistant movements."
"I only described Hezbollah as a resistant movement and rejected accusations against the Popular Mobilization Forces (a Shiite Iraqi group) and other resistant movements," al-Jaafari told the state daily Al-Ahram.
The decision by the Arab League is a significant blow to Hezbollah and it is also likely to further aggravate tensions in Lebanon, undermining the country's delicate political balance amid fierce political infighting between groups loyal to Hezbollah and Saudi-backed factions.
The league's decision also reflects deep regional divisions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah's patron. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran earlier this year after protesters angry over the kingdom's execution of influential Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and another diplomatic mission in Iran.
In addition to diplomatic pressures, Saudi Arabia has just finished a three-week long counter-terrorism drill dubbed "Northern Thunder" that included 20 participating countries, in what observers say was a show of force by the kingdom against its foes. It also sent a strategic message to Iran, and extremist Sunni groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The kingdom has taken other punitive measures against Lebanon, including cutting $4 billion in aid to Lebanese security forces and urging its citizens to leave Lebanon — a blow to the tiny nation's tourism industry — in retaliation for Lebanon's siding with Iran amid the Sunni kingdom's spat with the Shiite power.
The GCC's and Arab League's decisions underline the steep price that Hezbollah's very public and bloody foray into Syria's civil war has had. Once lauded in the Arab world as a heroic resistance movement that stood up to Israel, Hezbollah has seen its popularity plummet among Sunni Muslims because of its staunch support for Assad.
In Lebanon, the main political divide pits a Sunni-led coalition against another led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which includes both political and military wings. The Mediterranean country has weathered a string of militant attacks in recent years linked to the war in neighboring Syria.
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry Gibran Bassil, speaking to reporters after the meeting in Cairo, said labeling Hezbollah as a terrorist organization goes against the Arab treaty for combating terrorism, which distinguishes between terrorism and resistance. He said Lebanon asked that the word "terrorist" be struck from the records of the meeting as if did not happen.
"Hezbollah is a Lebanese party that enjoys broad representation in the parliament and Cabinet ... Naturally we cannot accept that Hezbollah be described as a terrorist organization," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. On its main evening newscast, the group's Al-Manar TV reported on al-Jaafari's speech at the Arab League meeting without commenting on the league designation against Hezbollah.

Hours before the GCC decision, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a televised speech in which he harshly criticized Saudi Arabia for its punitive measures against Lebanon.

He repeated his accusations that the kingdom was directly responsible for some car bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and denounced Saudi "massacres" in Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a U.S.-backed coalition of Arab states targeting Iran-supported Shiite rebels.

"Who gives Saudi Arabia the right to punish Lebanon and its army and Lebanese people living in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf just because Hezbollah is speaking out? We urge Riyadh to settle accounts with Hezbollah and not all the Lebanese," he said.

He also accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to cause strife between Sunnis and Shiites everywhere in the world and said its execution of al-Nimr in January came in that context.

IS files refer to some Paris attackers

A cache of leaked documents containing the names of recruits into the Islamic State group includes references to several of the men who carried out the November attacks in Paris, a German broadcaster reported Friday. Security officials and counterterrorism analysts said the cache could provide valuable clues into how the group lures followers and how vast its global recruiting networks are.

German broadcaster WDR says that it, along with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and fellow broadcaster NDR, have obtained some 22,000 IS documents. On Friday, WDR reported that the files document the entry into IS territory in 2013 and 2014 of Paris attackers Samy Amimour, Foued Mohamed-Aggad and Ismael Omar Mostefai. In addition, the broadcaster said the files contain an apparent reference to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who has been identified as the architect of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed.

The IS files that surfaced in various outlets this week contain names of potential fighters, personal references, telephone numbers and other detailed information. The leak, which contains names of people from more than 50 countries, also stands to heighten suspicion among followers. Similar leaks within other terror affiliates have created fissures in Pakistan and elsewhere in the past.

Some of the documents included names of women, but neither their nationalities nor their roles were immediately known, according to Shiraz Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at Kings College in London.
Maher has seen a bulk of the files. He said while it would be unusual for women to be recruited as fighters, women may have been listed as personal references.

"One of the key things about these documents is that they contain names of people who have vouched for the recruits," Maher said. "By cross-checking these names against the information we have already, we'll be likely to piece together a detailed picture of IS networks and how they relate to one another. And a lot of the information we've seen on the documents correspondents to what we have on our databases which leads us to believe the documents are authentic."

In the documents, Amimour, Mohamed-Aggad and Mostefai said only that they wanted to fight for IS when they arrived, though it was possible to tick an option on the form to be a suicide attacker, WDR reported.

It said that Abaaoud apparently acted under a pseudonym, Abu Omar Al-Beliki, to vouch for the entry of another French Islamist. An initial analysis of the documents found no entry form for Abaaoud, WDR added.

The documents also showed that at least 14 men from France crossed the Turkish-Syrian border on Dec. 18, 2013 with the same smuggler and were vouched for by a single extremist of Moroccan origin, it said. Mohamed-Aggad was one member of that group.

Germany's federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of the IS files.

Britain's Sky News also reported it had obtained 22,000 files and Zaman al-Wasl English, a Syrian news site critical of extremist fighters and the government, also obtained the documents from a source in the border area, said its editor, Mohamed Hamdan. However, the site had only 1,736 names and Hamdan couldn't explain the discrepancy.

Hamdan said the database of names was handed over in December by a Syrian who is now in Turkey but the site held off publishing immediately — at the time, they simply ran a short story noting the existence of the documents. "We did not want to rush. There are those who want a scoop. But for us, we have a moral objective, because if we publish the names, there are consequences for their loved ones. Zaman al-Wasl refuses to deal with intelligence services."

Europol, meanwhile, was sharing material on it database with member countries though it wasn't clear how many had access to the leaked documents.

"Europol is in contact with the British and German authorities regarding the veracity and wider availability of the information," said Robert Wainwright, director of the European police organization. "If the provenance and accuracy of the information is confirmed it undoubtedly represents a significant intelligence gain for Western authorities and should be exploited fully."

Europol runs the European Counter Terrorism Centre and routinely assigns officers to help investigate terror attacks.

Sky said the files, obtained at the border between Turkey and Syria, were passed to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of the Islamic State group's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported it also had obtained the files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said IS files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and members of IS itself. The documents appear to have been collected near the end of 2013, Sky News reported. At that time, IS was "at a pretty early stage of its state-building capacity," said Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
The documents highlight the bureaucratic work of the highly secretive extremist group that has spread fear through its brutal killings and deadly attacks in its self-declared caliphate of Syria and Iraq, as well as in places like France, Turkey, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya.
As of last month, the U.S. estimates IS had 19,000 to 25,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, down from an estimated 20,000 to 31,500 fighters.

President Muhammadu Buhari:Nigerian president accused of overstating Boko Haram losses

Nigeria's president has exaggerated the military's success against Boko Haram, say officials in northern Nigeria in response to an American commander's testimony that the Islamic extremist group still holds territory.
President Muhammadu Buhari said in January that Boko Haram is "currently not holding any territory today as we speak." His claim — made at a summit in Abu Dhabi — was met with skepticism in Nigeria.
Buhari's claim was contradicted last week by Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of U.S. Africa Command, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that Boko Haram "does own some significant territory in northern Nigeria."
Rodriguez's statement indicates that Nigeria's government is overstating its success in the campaign to eliminate the extremists, a few northern officials said this weekend.
"All we know is that Boko Haram lacks the capacity to carry out their usual commando-like attacks during which they march in and run down towns or villages, but that is not enough to say that they are not around," said Ngari Modu, a transport official in the Nganzai area of northeast Borno state.
Modu, who stays in a camp for displaced persons in the city of Maiduguri, said his home village and surrounding areas remain "no-go" zones.
"We are left confused each time we hear soldiers saying no territory is now under the control of Boko Haram," he said.
In the 10 months since he took office promising to halt the insurgency, Buhari has replaced the military's leadership, resupplied soldiers and moved the headquarters for the fight from the distant capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri.

Sen. Mohammed Ndume of Borno said that Nigeria's soldiers are succeeding in cutting off Boko Haram's access to food and supplies and he is confident that eventually the military will regain all territory from Boko Haram.