Boko Haram: Nigeria plans electronic border monitoring

As plans are underway for joint border patrol between Nigeria and Niger republic, the Nigerian government is reported to have concluded plan for an extensive electronic monitoring of her long northern borders just as controversy rages over an alleged execution of captives by Nigerian military in the ongoing war against Boko Haram.
Muslim clerics from five countries including Nigeria have formed a new group with the objective of combating extremist Islamic ideology across the Sahel region at a recent meeting, held in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered from administration source that the electronic monitoring system is an advanced project that will take off in the new fiscal year, to monitor the borders and secure entries used by terrorists and smugglers to infiltrate from the Sahara.
It was learnt that the system will operate through the deployment of electronic surveillance points, alarms and radars to detect infiltration attempts by people and vehicles alongside the launch of intensive aerial operations along the border.
The project will include radar coverage, additional patrols, modern surveillance systems, as well as the possibility of using airborne traffic control and other measures.
The ministry of interior had earlier proposed similar border patrol plan but it was learnt that the new project is an advanced one capable of making the porous border water-tight.
Meanwhile, religious leaders from Algeria, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Nigeria, gathered this week in Algiers to create the League of the Ulemas of the Sahel, Liberte, reported on Thursday.
The newspaper reported that the initiative aims at co-ordinating the efforts of the Sahel religious scholars to support peace and eradicate extremist ideas.
“Allah encourages us to encourage peace and forbid evil, and there is nothing more blameworthy than terrorism,” Nigerian imam El-Hadj Mohamed Hossein said in Algiers.
It was gathered that Nigeria was represented by four clerics from Northern parts of the country, who were said to have decried infiltration of extremist viewpoints into Nigeria from the Sahara.
Meanwhile, controversy is raging over a video obtained by Reuters purported to show Nigerian troops shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight by the roadside in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.