FG alerts Nigerians to ISIS’ New Recruitment Strategy

The Federal Government has urged parents and guardians to monitor the
activities of their children and wards in order to prevent them from
being recruited by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which
has now resorted to targetting vulnerable individuals, including
foreign students, using financial inducements to recruit them into the
terrorist organisation.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Information
and Culture, Alhaji Lai 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 strategy being
used by the organisation to recruit more members.

The Minister, quoting a report received by the Nigerian Intelligence
Community, said 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, 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.

Alhaji Mohammed therefore appealed to Nigerians, especially those who
have children and wards in foreign academic institutions, to pay more
attention to their activities, while urging schools across the country
to enlighten their students on the new ISIS’ recruitment strategy