Nigerian militant chief is ‘high on drugs’

BAUCHI: LAGOS: Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Boko Haram’s leader as an “obscenity” who is likely to be incapable of dialogue, as the government considers opening talks with the rebels over the more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.
The winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature told AFP by phone from Los Angeles that Boko Haram Chief Abubakar Shekau was “high on drugs.”
“For me, we are dealing with a sub-human species. How do you dialogue with that kind of obscenity?” she asked.
Meanwhile, villagers in an area of Nigeria where Boko Haram operates have killed and detained scores of the militants who were suspected of planning a fresh attack, the residents and a security official said.
In Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometers from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian Army is not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.
On Tuesday, after learning about an impending attack by militants, locals ambushed two trucks with gunmen, a security official said. At least 10 militants were detained, and scores were killed, the official said. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were being held.
Kalabalge trader Ajid Musa said that after residents organized the vigilante group, “it is impossible” for militants to successfully stage attacks there.
“That is why most attacks by the Boko Haram on our village continued to fail because they cannot come in here and start shooting and killing people,” he said.
Earlier this year in other parts of Borno, some rebels launched more attacks in retaliation over the vigilante groups.
Borno is one of three Nigerian states where President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency, giving the military special powers to fight the militant group, whose stronghold is in northeast Nigeria.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that his country has offered Nigeria a surveillance plane and a military team to help with the search for the missing girls.
“We have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft, a military team to embed with the Nigerian Army in their HQ and a team to work with US experts to analyze information on the girls’ location,” he said.