Samson Folarin with agency reportsThe activities of a terrorist group, Islamic State’s West Africa Province, an affiliate of ISIS, could affect the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria, a report has claimed. Security officials were said to have described the new group as a bigger threat than Boko Haram, given its sophistication. “The weapons are being smuggled from Libya to their factions in Nigeria and Mali,” the WSJ report quoted an arms smuggler in Niger named Yusuf as saying. While quoting Nigerian and western officials, the report said ISWAP had taken control of hundreds of square miles of Nigerian territory. The WSJ report said, “His military is stretched, deployed against pirates and oil thieves in the South and having to police religiously tinged battles over farmland in central regions.

Source: Punch February 06, 2019 02:03 UTC