Military Arrests 486 Suspected Boko Haram Members in Abia
Written by Mohammed Abubakar (Abuja), Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri), Charles Ogugbuaja (Owerri) and Gordi Udeajah (Umuahia)
Nigerian Guardian
NOT less than 486 suspected insurgents including eight females were said to have been arrested by the military personnel of the 144 battalion of the Nigerian Army with base at Asa in Ukwa West council of Abia State.
But South East governors have ruled out the possibility of terrorist group, Boko Haram, spreading to the region.
Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano disclosed the position of his colleagues from the region while speaking with State House correspondents after paying a “solidarity visit” to President Goodluck Jonathan in his office yesterday.
Abia State Information Commissioner, Chief Eze Chikamnayo, who took some reporters to the military camp yesterday to see the suspects said they were arrested around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday along Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway at Arongwa area called Imo Gate, which is a boundary between Abia and Rivers states.
He said that the suspects whose ages were from 15 years were traveling on 35 buses from undisclosed northern states to the South South. He said that they claimed to be going to search for jobs, adding that two of the buses later escaped.
The commissioner spoke in the presence of the Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Rasheed Omolori, whose only comment was that the report had already been sent to his headquarter.
It was also disclosed that somebody whose name was not made known, had come to secure the release of the suspects but was arrested and detained.
The commissioner urged members of the public to be more security conscious and report strange persons and suspects to the security agencies.
Reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer ( PPRO), Mr. Geoffery Ogbonna, said that the matter was a military one and had not been reported to the police command.
He said that when he contacted the Army Public Relations Officer in the state whose name he did not mention, he told him ( PPRO) that he was not yet aware of the matter.
And following the bomb found on the premises and inside the Living Faith Church (a.k.a Winners Chapel), Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, capital city of Imo State, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in conjunction with security chiefs yesterday launched what he called “Operation Know Your Neighbour.”
The occasion was attended by a cross section of stakeholders in the state amid heavy security.
The meeting resolved as follows:
“. Hotels in the state should install security cameras and on daily basis always forward the list of their guests to the Director of SSS.
“. Trailers bringing food items from the North would no longer be allowed to come into the state at night but only in the day, and the food items would be off-loaded at a designated place off the state capital.
“. Residents in the state must also be careful with broken bottles, cans, leather bags, parked tankers and vehicles around their homes, public places and public buildings.
“. Traditional rulers in the state were directed to summon emergency meetings of their various communities to take stock of strange faces living with them.
“. Uncompleted buildings in the cities in the state and environs without security guards will be taken over by the government because criminals use them as hideouts.
“. Lands left fallow for several years and not used for any economic or gainful purpose but taken over by criminals will be seized by the government
“. Smoking of Indian hemp was also banned.
“. A meeting of all non-indigenes in the state has also been fixed.”
Obiano’s comments came as a response to a statement credited to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State last week and improvised explosive devises (IED) believed to have been discovered in a church in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Sunday0.
Other governors who were seen included those of Abia, Chief Theordore Orji; Enugu, Sullivan Chime and Ebonyi, Martins Elechi. Okorocha of Imo State was absent.
Asked if the governors of the South East were concerned about the possibility of Boko Haram spreading to their zone, Obiano said the terrorists could not get to the area. Besides, the governor would not be drawn into the issue of the bomb incident in Owerri, until he was availed of the facts.
“No, they can’t get there; I can assure you of that. We will not allow that to happen. I can’t tell you in any material details about bombs found or not found. All I can assure you is that we are very alert in the South East and we are watching what is going on. But I can assure that Boko Haram cannot come to the South East.”
Defending the visit of the governors to the president, the Anambra chief executive said it was intended to give him moral support, and denied that it was linked to the forthcoming general elections.
His words: “The president is a human being and he is under a lot of pressure and some other people are making the work a lot more difficult for him. Instead of supporting him to steer us out of these stormy waters, they are adding kerosene to fire. So we are here to tell him that we are supporting him and that he should count on us.”
The governor said the state government was working with the World Bank to tackle the erosion ravaging some parts of the state.
“The World Bank and the state government are working on a lot of erosion sites already. They have expanded the four erosion sites they are working on currently to 12; so they are adding eight more erosion sites. I believe that this intervention which is 50/50 per cent contribution will go a long way in helping to tackle the erosion sites we have in the state.
“We are also tackling erosion from the legal point of view. Bush burning will no longer be allowed, so also is cutting roads to lay pipes to houses. These are some of the factors that lead to erosion. We want people to do the necessary things that they should do; we want people to stop termination of drainages abruptly. We are putting a law in place to ensure that anybody that violates the law will face the consequences.”
Besides, barely a week after foiling multiple attacks on Bitta and other villages in Borno State, troops of 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, have arrested 14 Boko Haram terror suspects, following “intelligence reports” from residents on the infiltration of terror suspects into the metropolis from Gwoza and Damboa that were recently attacked by insurgents.
The arrest, according to military sources in Maiduguri, was made at the weekend on Baga road when a commercial tricycle driver was stopped at a timber shed near an NNPC mega station after the alarm was raised by one of the passengers that “a Boko Haram suspect is among us in this tricycle. This man participated in the serial border attacks in Gwoza East, where many people were killed last week.”
The alarm attracted the attention of soldiers at one of the military posts who quickly intervened to investigate the alleged identification of a suspect in a tricycle heading towards the Post Office area.
The identified suspect, according to one of the passengers, disguised in a long robe and carried a black polythene bag. He allegedly confessed to the military that he was among other terror suspects that travelled to Maiduguri to collate more information about military operations and patrol in the city.
Asked to further identify the suspect, the passenger said: “This suspect among our midst in this Keke Napep was the one that killed my brother in Gwoza last week.”
After the identity of the suspect was unveiled before soldiers, the suspect said: “Don’t kill me, there are other members that participated in
Gwoza East and Damboa attacks. If you kill me today (Sunday) you will not be able to identify the hideouts of other suspects in Maiduguri.”
It was learnt that after the suspect was taken away by soldiers in their patrol vehicle to hideouts of fleeing suspects, six were arrested, while the leader of the group led the soldiers to arrest seven others in three undisclosed locations in Maiduguri.
“The insurgents are fleeing, into this city, because most of their training camps, rifles and other ammunition had been either destroyed or retrieved from the rampaging gunmen in Borno villages and towns on the fringes of Sambisa Forest. The arrested suspects, also confessed to participating in various village border attacks in Gwoza and Damboa council areas this year, including the blowing up of two bridges at Firgi and on Gwoza-Damboa road,” said a military officer that was not authorised to speak on recent arrests.
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| Guardian photo suggesting Boko Haram suspects held in custody. |
Nigerian Guardian
NOT less than 486 suspected insurgents including eight females were said to have been arrested by the military personnel of the 144 battalion of the Nigerian Army with base at Asa in Ukwa West council of Abia State.
But South East governors have ruled out the possibility of terrorist group, Boko Haram, spreading to the region.
Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano disclosed the position of his colleagues from the region while speaking with State House correspondents after paying a “solidarity visit” to President Goodluck Jonathan in his office yesterday.
Abia State Information Commissioner, Chief Eze Chikamnayo, who took some reporters to the military camp yesterday to see the suspects said they were arrested around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday along Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway at Arongwa area called Imo Gate, which is a boundary between Abia and Rivers states.
He said that the suspects whose ages were from 15 years were traveling on 35 buses from undisclosed northern states to the South South. He said that they claimed to be going to search for jobs, adding that two of the buses later escaped.
The commissioner spoke in the presence of the Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Rasheed Omolori, whose only comment was that the report had already been sent to his headquarter.
It was also disclosed that somebody whose name was not made known, had come to secure the release of the suspects but was arrested and detained.
The commissioner urged members of the public to be more security conscious and report strange persons and suspects to the security agencies.
Reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer ( PPRO), Mr. Geoffery Ogbonna, said that the matter was a military one and had not been reported to the police command.
He said that when he contacted the Army Public Relations Officer in the state whose name he did not mention, he told him ( PPRO) that he was not yet aware of the matter.
And following the bomb found on the premises and inside the Living Faith Church (a.k.a Winners Chapel), Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, capital city of Imo State, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in conjunction with security chiefs yesterday launched what he called “Operation Know Your Neighbour.”
The occasion was attended by a cross section of stakeholders in the state amid heavy security.
The meeting resolved as follows:
“. Hotels in the state should install security cameras and on daily basis always forward the list of their guests to the Director of SSS.
“. Trailers bringing food items from the North would no longer be allowed to come into the state at night but only in the day, and the food items would be off-loaded at a designated place off the state capital.
“. Residents in the state must also be careful with broken bottles, cans, leather bags, parked tankers and vehicles around their homes, public places and public buildings.
“. Traditional rulers in the state were directed to summon emergency meetings of their various communities to take stock of strange faces living with them.
“. Uncompleted buildings in the cities in the state and environs without security guards will be taken over by the government because criminals use them as hideouts.
“. Lands left fallow for several years and not used for any economic or gainful purpose but taken over by criminals will be seized by the government
“. Smoking of Indian hemp was also banned.
“. A meeting of all non-indigenes in the state has also been fixed.”
Obiano’s comments came as a response to a statement credited to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State last week and improvised explosive devises (IED) believed to have been discovered in a church in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Sunday0.
Other governors who were seen included those of Abia, Chief Theordore Orji; Enugu, Sullivan Chime and Ebonyi, Martins Elechi. Okorocha of Imo State was absent.
Asked if the governors of the South East were concerned about the possibility of Boko Haram spreading to their zone, Obiano said the terrorists could not get to the area. Besides, the governor would not be drawn into the issue of the bomb incident in Owerri, until he was availed of the facts.
“No, they can’t get there; I can assure you of that. We will not allow that to happen. I can’t tell you in any material details about bombs found or not found. All I can assure you is that we are very alert in the South East and we are watching what is going on. But I can assure that Boko Haram cannot come to the South East.”
Defending the visit of the governors to the president, the Anambra chief executive said it was intended to give him moral support, and denied that it was linked to the forthcoming general elections.
His words: “The president is a human being and he is under a lot of pressure and some other people are making the work a lot more difficult for him. Instead of supporting him to steer us out of these stormy waters, they are adding kerosene to fire. So we are here to tell him that we are supporting him and that he should count on us.”
The governor said the state government was working with the World Bank to tackle the erosion ravaging some parts of the state.
“The World Bank and the state government are working on a lot of erosion sites already. They have expanded the four erosion sites they are working on currently to 12; so they are adding eight more erosion sites. I believe that this intervention which is 50/50 per cent contribution will go a long way in helping to tackle the erosion sites we have in the state.
“We are also tackling erosion from the legal point of view. Bush burning will no longer be allowed, so also is cutting roads to lay pipes to houses. These are some of the factors that lead to erosion. We want people to do the necessary things that they should do; we want people to stop termination of drainages abruptly. We are putting a law in place to ensure that anybody that violates the law will face the consequences.”
Besides, barely a week after foiling multiple attacks on Bitta and other villages in Borno State, troops of 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, have arrested 14 Boko Haram terror suspects, following “intelligence reports” from residents on the infiltration of terror suspects into the metropolis from Gwoza and Damboa that were recently attacked by insurgents.
The arrest, according to military sources in Maiduguri, was made at the weekend on Baga road when a commercial tricycle driver was stopped at a timber shed near an NNPC mega station after the alarm was raised by one of the passengers that “a Boko Haram suspect is among us in this tricycle. This man participated in the serial border attacks in Gwoza East, where many people were killed last week.”
The alarm attracted the attention of soldiers at one of the military posts who quickly intervened to investigate the alleged identification of a suspect in a tricycle heading towards the Post Office area.
The identified suspect, according to one of the passengers, disguised in a long robe and carried a black polythene bag. He allegedly confessed to the military that he was among other terror suspects that travelled to Maiduguri to collate more information about military operations and patrol in the city.
Asked to further identify the suspect, the passenger said: “This suspect among our midst in this Keke Napep was the one that killed my brother in Gwoza last week.”
After the identity of the suspect was unveiled before soldiers, the suspect said: “Don’t kill me, there are other members that participated in
Gwoza East and Damboa attacks. If you kill me today (Sunday) you will not be able to identify the hideouts of other suspects in Maiduguri.”
It was learnt that after the suspect was taken away by soldiers in their patrol vehicle to hideouts of fleeing suspects, six were arrested, while the leader of the group led the soldiers to arrest seven others in three undisclosed locations in Maiduguri.
“The insurgents are fleeing, into this city, because most of their training camps, rifles and other ammunition had been either destroyed or retrieved from the rampaging gunmen in Borno villages and towns on the fringes of Sambisa Forest. The arrested suspects, also confessed to participating in various village border attacks in Gwoza and Damboa council areas this year, including the blowing up of two bridges at Firgi and on Gwoza-Damboa road,” said a military officer that was not authorised to speak on recent arrests.
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