150 Died in Baga Attacks, Not 2,000 - Military

You will recall that the Nigerian offline and online media were awash of a certain news springing out of Baga a town in the northern part of Nigeria currently under Boko Haram attack that over 2,000 civilians were massacred by the deadly extremist cell.

Upon the release of the news, the whole country went haywire screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs, Nigerian twitter armies were also not left out of the frenzy as they took to twitter to express their minds on the news and same goes for the Nigerian local news media. Long story short, everyone wanted to feed on the carcass of the news but believe me, yours faithfully didn't even bulge at the news because I know my country and their media style - there's always a second version!

So the Nigerian Defence Authorities through the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade has finally released the second version of last week's new this morning. The Major General claimed that only 150 people lost their lives in the insurgents' attack on Baga contrary to previous news that the civilian casualties were 2,000.

He went further to say how can a town that has been largely deserted have up to 2,000 residents in it. According to him, Baga has been under attack for some months and residents already fled the town and a majority of the 150 that died in the latest attack on the town last week were arms bearing insurgents.

Furthermore he said the news media and internet news scavengers like yours faithfully should stop exaggerating numbers and report the news exactly as it is.

Should we believe the Major General version of the news or not? After all, only a few of us knows the way to Baga town.

EXTREMISTS ARE HIJACKING ISLAM

We have been told many times that Islam is a religion of Peace and Mercy. We have seen mosques and we know how purity, humility and sense of devotion to Allah goes into the Muslim's prayer session.

Islam is the second most populous religion in the world and have hundreds of millions of followers worldwide. A Muslim's life is characterized generally by humility, patience, attention to worship hours and evident faith in the Islamic religion.

But it is evident that some minority blood thirsty and murderous mad men in Islam called Extremists and Fanatics are hiding under the cover of Islam by carrying out mass murders and heinous crimes against humanity under the pretext of serving the divine will of Allah through Jihad.

ISLAM: Religion or Terrorist Organisation

This is a very sensitive issue to talk about but I will nonetheless say it the way I have it on my heart. I and a senior colleague was following up on the Charlie Hebdo massacre which happened in Paris two days ago and suddenly my colleague screamed out aloud saying "what shall we do about this ISLAM!!!!??"

I was taken aback by the scream and pondered for a while on what he meant by those words. Then it occurred to me that the man I hear screaming at moment was not my colleague that I normally know but a man full of depression, fear, fury and anguish at the unbridled manner with which extremists go about cutting off innocent souls all in the name of JIHAD, Defense of the Prophet and a Sacred Heavenly Duty to Allah