Nigeria has raised the alarm that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has resorted to financial inducements to recruit vulnerable Nigerians, particularly foreign students into the international terrorist network.
The Minister of Information and Culture,
Lai Mohammed, on Monday made the warning through a statement,
urging parents and guardians to always monitor the activities of their
children and wards so that they would not be lured with money into
the terrorist organisation currently engaged in a fierce battle with
Iraq and international coalition for the control of Mosul.
Mohammed cited the recent recruitment
into ISIS of 27 medical students of the University of Medical Sciences
and Technology (UMST) in Sudan as an example of the new ploy by the
organisation to recruit more members.
According to him, a report received by the Nigerian
intelligence community, established that 22 of the 27 students who
travelled to Syria to join ISIS, are Britons.
‘’According to the report, the students were recruited by one
Mohammed Fakhri Al-khabbas, a former UMST student from Middlesborough,
in the United Kingdom. Many of the students are children of reputable
doctors in the UK. Their social media accounts also revealed them as
praising jihadists and championing ISIS’ cause,’’ he said.
Subsequently, Mohammed appealed to schools across the country to be wary
of the ISIS recruitment strategy by enlightening their students.
The minister also asked parents whose children are studying in foreign schools to begin to pay more attention to their activities.
The first time government raised the red
flag about the attempt of ISIS to influence Nigerian youth was last
year, when it warned of the existence of a newly-launched mobile
application developed by the group solely for extremist ideology to
gullible children.
Mohammed said ISIS designed the mobile
application tagged: ‘Huroof’ (Arabic alphabet or letter ) to teach
children the Arabic alphabets with the aid of guns, military tanks and
cannons.
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