The Nigerian Army said yesterday that it has arrested the mastermind of the Jos and Zaria bomb attacks that claimed scores of lives.
The Army said a security cordon was established in the general areas especially along Bauchi, Gombe and the North Eastern part of the country by troops of 3 Division and Special Task Force, as well as the Department of State Services which culminated in the successful arrest of the mastermind of the heinous terrorist acts and two of his accomplices at a checkpoint in Dadin Kowa, Gombe State.
A statement by Colonel Sani Kukasheka,acting Director Army Public Relations in Abuja on Wednesday said that , “The terrorist kingpin and his colleagues who disguised in a trailer while trying to evade checks were fished out by troops of Nigerian Army.”
The statement said that the arrested terrorists are currently being processed for further action and would soon face the full wrath of the law.
“The general public is hereby please requested to be more vigilant, security conscious and report any suspicious persons, movements, and facilities to the security agencies.
“Kindly disseminate above information to the public through your medium.”, the army urged
eanwhile, the Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist has told The Associated Press.
The activist said Boko Haram’s current offer is limited to the girls from the school in northeastern Nigeria whose mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that stretched to the White House.
The new initiative reopens an offer made last year to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to release the 219 students in exchange for 16 Boko Haram detainees, the activist said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters on this sensitive issue.
Fred Eno, who has been negotiating with Boko Haram for more than a year, told the AP that “another window of opportunity opened” in the last few days, though he could not discuss details.
He said the recent slew of Boko Haram bloodletting, some 350 people killed in the past nine days is consistent with past ratcheting up of violence as the militants seek a stronger negotiating position.
Presidential adviser Femi Adesina said on Saturday that Nigeria’s government “will not be averse” to talks with Boko Haram. “Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table,” he said.
Eno said the 5-week-old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari offers “a clean slate” to bring the militants back to negotiations that had become poisoned by the different security agencies and their advice to Jonathan.
Two months of talks last year led government representatives and Eno to travel in September to a northeastern town where the prisoner exchange was to take place, only to be stymied by the Department for State Service intelligence agency, the activist said.
At the last minute, the agency said it was holding only four of the militants sought by Boko Haram, the activist said.
It is not known how many Boko Haram suspects are detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, whose DG Buhari fired last week.
The activist said the agency continues to hold suspects illegally because it does not have enough evidence for a conviction, and any court would free them. Nigerian law requires charges be brought after 48 hours.
Eno said that as the president pursues a necessary military solution, he hopes Buhari also understands the need for negotiation.
He said the latest opportunity comes through respected Islamic scholars and Muslim elders who were ignored by Jonathan’s people but now have taken dangerous and courageous steps to engage the insurgents.
owever, yesterday President Buhari described the Nigerian Army’s inability to defeat the Boko Haram insurgents in the country as a paradox and an indication of its dwindling prowess.
The President who met with the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group yesterday in the Presidential Villa lamented that in spite of the successes recorded by the Nigerian Army in foreign missions, the country would have to rely on its neighbors for help to fight the insurgents.
Buhari, while responding to the request made by the BBOG movement led by a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, said “It is paradoxical what the Nigerian military has achieved from Burma to Zaire to Liberia to Sierra Leone to Sudan. But Nigeria has now to be helped by Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. How are the mighty fallen. We will do our best to restore the respectability of our country and its institutions.”
The President also pointed out that the reluctance of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to react to the abduction of the girls immediately it happened was unfortunate.
He also faulted the security agencies and other government functionaries for giving conflicting information. This, he said, depicted the nation in a bad light both nationally and internationally.
He said “It’s unfortunate that the security and federal government conflicting report initially presented the government and it’s agencies in a very bad light both nationally and internationally because the law enforcement agencies and the government were conflicting each other sometimes within hours or within weeks, that is not very impressive.
The BBOG movement, in its demand tagged ‘ABC of our Demand’ handed over to the President, requested that the government should spare no funds in recovering the abducted girls; apologize for the failure of governance that led to the abduction; apologize for the failure of governance that caused failure to rescue our girls for over 400 days and strategize for curbing the emergence, and growth of curious sects.
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