A factional leader of Boko Haram who was captured after a gun fight in Zaria last week has died of bullet wounds he sustained in the raid, the State Security Service announced in Abuja yesterday.
Abu Muhammad was arrested along with five others when soldiers and SSS men raided their hideout in Zaria last Tuesday night while the Boko Haram splinter group leaders were holding a meeting.
The SSS also yesterday gave a detailed account of the botched rescue attempt of kidnapped expatriates in Sokoto last Thursday, confirming that security men got the location of the hostages from the men arrested in Zaria.
Daily Trust reported exclusively on Friday that the Sokoto raid on Thursday was as a result of information gathered from the people arrested in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The two expatriate staff of Stabilini Visioni Construction Company, Christopher McMnus and Franco Lamolinara, were abducted in Birnin Kebbi in May 2011. They were killed by their captors on last Thursday as security forces attempted to free them.
Yesterday, Assistant Director, Public Relations Department of the SSS, Doyin Adetuberin, said Abu Mohammed was the mastermind of the abduction but that the foreigners were killed before the rescue attempt.
He said the initial investigation of the abduction led to arrests in Adamawa, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi states. Youths of between 19 and 20 years were discovered to have conducted surveillance on the foreigners before the abduction, and they were arrested, he added. They are Bashir Ibrahim (aka addua), Ibrahim A. Habibu and Gambo Maiburodi.
“Further investigations revealed that the plot was mastermined by Abu Mohammed-led faction of Boko Haram in Nigeria,” he said.
“Following a raid on Abu Mohammed’s hide out at Layin Hanwa area of Zaria on March 7 , Mohammed and 5 others were arrested while holding a Shura Council (the sect’s highest decision making body) meeting.
“In the ensuing exchange of gun fire, a soldier was killed and his throat slashed while one Service personnel was seriously injured by members of the Boko Haram sect. Abu Mohammed and the other suspected sustained various degrees of bullet wounds.”
Those arrested alongside Mohammed included Mohammed Rabi’u Adam a-k-a Dan Hajiya, Abubakar AbduRahaman Habibu, Shitu Salihu, Abubakar Umar and Ahmed Samaila.
Adetuberin said, “The SSS said preliminary interrogation of the arrested suspects revealed that the guards protecting the two foreign hostages in Sokoto had been directed to kill them in the event of any envisaged threat. The arrested suspect advised that a rescue operations be immediately initiated more so as one of them had escaped during the Zaria raid.
“Consequently, a joint security operation was launched. One of the arrested suspects, Mohammed Rabi’u Adam (aka Dan Hajiya), who killed the soldier during the Zaria raid, led the security team from Zaria about 11pm on Wednesday 7 March, 2012 to Sokoto and arrived their destination at about 0430 hours on March 8.
Prior to their arrival, the security operatives had mounted a street cordon and search operation along all routes around Mabera Estate, Sokoto to prevent any attempt by the guards to smuggle out the hostages.
“Apparently, acting on the directive of the member of the sect who escaped from Zaria, the guards murdered the hostages before the arrival of the security forces. However, the guards could not leave the building because of the heavy presence of security in the area.
“Upon arrival of security forces at the building where the hostages were being held, there was a prolonged exchange of gunfire during which 3 of the guards were killed while the wife of one of them sustained bullet wounds and was rushed to a hospital. No lives were lost on the part of the security forces though some Service personnel sustained gunshot injuries.”
“Meanwhile, Abu Mohammed died on 9 March, 2012 following severe bullet wounds sustained during the Zaria raid,” he added.
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