Nigeria military task force (JTF) on
Friday arrested a high-profile Boko Haram operational commander, along
with his wife and five children, during a raid at his residence on
Farawa Babban Layi Street in the northwest Nigerian city of Kano.
The arrested operation commander was
identified by Nigerian authorities as Suleiman Mohammed, a Yoruba tribe
member from Ogbomosho in southwest Nigeria. Sophisticated weapons were
recovered during the raid, including a rifle, 10 improvised explosive
devices (IEDs), three pistols, and 1,000 rounds of live ammunition. No
shots were fired during the raid on Mr. Mohammed’s home.
The arrests are welcome news for the government after a spate of
high-profile bombings and shootings across northern Nigeria, violence
that has claimed thousands of lives since the Islamist group Boko Haram
began its rebellion in 2009. Boko Haram, whose official name in Arabic
translates as”People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's
Teachings and Jihad,” seek to overthrow the secular Nigerian government
and replace the current Constitution with Islamic sharia law, at least
in the Muslim areas of the north. Recently, Boko Haram spokesmen have
offered to open dialogue with President Goodluck Jonathan, but Boko
Haram has shown little room for compromise regarding its main mission,
and Nigerian military operations against the group seem likely to
continue. State police commissioner Ibrahim Idris confirmed the arrest of the
sect leader, adding that “the arrest came after a tipoff by the society
agencies, through the information from the general public of suspicious
movement of the people into the sect leader house.”
“Yes, security agencies successfully arrested the top sect leader in the state, whom we’ve alleged to be the operational commander of the sect in the state. {The] investigation commences after the arrest,” Mr. Idris told reporters.
He explained that the security agencies suspect the arrested sect leader was behind a series of attacks against security forces, Christian churches, and the killing of other innocent citizens.
Police say that they have recovered more than a dozen IEDs from the premises of Bayero University since the bomb attack of April 29 at the university.
Lt. Ikedichi Iweha, the spokesman of the joint military task force (JTF), also confirmed the arrest of the sect top profile leader.
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