BY JIDE AJANI, EMMA UJAH, TAYE OBATERU, TONY EDIKE & NDAHI MARAMA
LAGOS—MORE facts emerged yesterday, regarding the condition of acclaimed spokesman for the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, Abul Qaqa, after his arrest at about 4 am on Wednesday.

He is said to be providing ‘very useful and verifiable information’ to the men of the State Security Services, SSS.

Vanguard gathered that the arrest was actually effected  in Kaduna and not Maiduguri as was widely reported.

Also, information made available to Vanguard, yesterday, by very authoritative sources privy to the on-going interrogation of Qaqa, suggests that the terror suspect has owned up to being the one with the name Abul Qaqa.

“He owned up yesterday afternoon,” according to the security source, “ It  should be said that he  buckled under intense interrogation.”

In a related development, Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, threatened to quash all the four-count criminal charge preferred against Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume by the Federal Government, following his alleged convivial relationship with Boko Haram.

Ndume, who is representing Borno South Senatorial District was on December 12, 2011, docked before the High Court on allegation that he violated Sections 7(1) (b) and 3(b) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011, by not only disclosing classified information to the terrorist group, but also furnishing them with phone numbers of top government officials, including that of the Attorney General of the Federation.

Meanwhile, tragedy struck when a family of six died in an auto crash while fleeing from Boko Haram induced terror, just as it was  also confirmed that six other persons lost their lives in multiple bomb explosions in Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital.

Spokesman buckles under interrogation

When Vanguard asked the security source whether the notorious interrogation technique known as water-boarding- a technique roundly condemned by a section of security experts in the Western World was being employed, the source emphatically said “No!”

However, the source was able to explain that one of the discoveries during interrogation was that Qaqa operated under many aliases.

He has also been confirmed to have been an Igbira from Kogi State as against the earlier rumoured origin of Igala.from the same state.

In fact, Vanguard discovered that the arrest of Qaqa “was the culmination of months’  streneous efforts by men of the SSS.

Said the source: “We had been on his trail for some months now. He fled from Yobe where he is believed to own a house to Maiduguri, and then Potiskum, Kano before finally hiding in an aunt’s residence in Kaduna. The aunt did not want to give him up but for another male member of the household, who did not know the value of the suspect in their house. It was while the said aunt was playing footsy that the male resident of the house prevailed on her to own up”.

Vanguard was told that the ‘aunt’ was also arrested along with Qaqa on Wednesday.

While the intelligence and eventual arrest was carried out by armed men of the SSS, Vanguard was reliably informed that the military was called in for back up. According to the source, “this was meant to avert another Kabir Sokoto-style mess of last month.”

As learnt, the confusion over Qaqa’s arrest stemmed from the decision of the SSS top echelon to be careful and be sure of his identity before announcing his arrest to avoid a situation where the man in custody could turn out to be someone else other than the spokesman.

An elated team at the “Yellow House” is said to be working hard at arresting all the masterminds of the sect that has spread pain and sorrow  to many parts of Northern Nigeria in the last three years.

It was learnt that the security agency would make its latest arrests public after it has satisfied itself of the appropriateness of such a move.

Six die in maiduguri

In Maiduguri, six persons were killed early yesterday in Shehuri North Area of the Metropolis.

The deaths occurred in the area where 11 alleged Boko Haram members were reportedly killed over the weekend by members of the Joint Task Force, JTF.
A statement by  JTF Public Relations Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, said the six persons might have been slaughtered by people suspected to be fellow sect members as a result of a division among them.

In a related development, six explosions rocked Maiduguri early  yesterday. The JTF said. the bombs were Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs.  It said that some of the unexploded IEDs were defused by the JTF.

Meantime, the Borno State Police Command has debunked media reports that a ‘Soldier and policemen were killed in fresh Borno attacks.”

Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Samuel Tizhe, said  on January 30, 2012 at about 1930 hours, three unknown gunmen attacked the house of one Abubakar Gaji of Old Gomari Airport few metres away from the mini- Airforce Barracks in Maiduguri and shot two people.

Tizhe said the gunmen snatched a Honda Accord car with number plate AR 428 MAG, and on their way out of the area, shot dead a man in mufti alleged to be military personnel who lived in the mini Air Force barracks.

He urged citizenry to be security conscious and report any untoward happenings through JTF Hotlines:(07085464012, 08154429346, and 08064174066.)

Army vows to restore normalcy

Meanwhile, the General Officer Commanding (GOC)  83 Division, Major General Adamu Buba Marwa has vowed that the Nigerian Army would restore normalcy to the North-East zone of the country which has been plagued by  Boko Haram and other insurgencies in recent times.

General Marwa said the division would no longer condone acts of criminality in its operational area, adding that “those who think they can come out to challenge the division will be decisively dealt with.”

In a statement  in Jos by Assistant Director of Army Public Relations, Lt. Col. Andrew Idachaba, the army chief, who has relocated the division’s tactical headquarters to Gombe warned “all criminal elements of whatever shade to embrace peace.”

The statement also quoted the Chief of Training and Operations of the army, Major General Lawrence Ngubane, who went round the division with the GOC as warning those bent on fomenting trouble to be prepared to “face the might of the Nigerian Army.”

Ngubane decried “the activities of these unscrupulous elements who parade themselves as religious extremists indulging in wanton destruction of lives and property” adding, “enough is enough”.

He expressed satisfaction with the performance of officers and soldiers deployed to the area as a quick response group force, urging them to maintain a high level of alertness at all times “so as not to be taken unawares by any criminal group.”