BY TAYE OBATERU, BEN AGANDE, IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI / NDAHI MARAMA
MAIDUGURI– Three members of the Joint Military Task Force deployed to Borno to contain the activities of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram were yesterday, injured in a bomb attack by the sect even as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, also yesterday, remanded in custody, one of the police officers who allegedly shot the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf, in 2009.

Meantime, Vanguard investigations have revealed that the fear of a possible reprisal attack against them or members of their families has kept members of the House of Representatives from discussing the growing menace of the Boko Haram sect.

Confirming the bomb attack which injured three JTF members yesterday, the spokesman of the Force, Colonel Victor Ebhaleme said the bomb was targeted at the JTF patrol vehicle.

He said three members of the JTF comprising a soldier and two policemen were injured when the bomb exploded at about 7:40 pm when it hit the vehicle. He said no life was lost, adding that those injured were rushed to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).

The JTF spokesman stated that some arrests have been made and that investigations were on to apprehend those behind the act.

Court remands Cop in prison

Meanwhile, Justice Donatus Okorowo of Federal High Court Abuja has ordered that Sergeant Adamu Gado, one of the police officers facing trial for alleged extra-judicial murder of Boko Haram leader, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf, in 2009 should remain in Kuje Prison pending the hearing and determination of a bail application he filed before the High Court yesterday.

The order was made on a day four other indicted police officers-  CSP J. B Abang, ACP Akeera, CSP Mohammed Ahmadu and ACP Mada Buba, took turns to plead not guilty to an  amended 2-count criminal charge that was preferred against them by the federal government.

Though the trial judge remanded Gado in prison, he however allowed the four other accused persons to go home on the basis of some bail conditions he said they had, ab-initio, fulfilled before the court. He added that they should be closely monitored by all the relevant security agencies with a view to ensuring their availability for trial.

Bail Condition

Spirited efforts by journalists to ascertain the said bail conditions proved abortive, as both counsel in the matter and the court clerks, blatantly refused to divulge the terms, which they claimed were handed to the four accused persons on April 23.

However, a source who spoke to Vanguard on grounds of anonymity, said the court had ordered the accused persons to surrender all their travelling documents to the court registry, as well as, produce 2 sureties each, who it said must not only be resident within the jurisdiction of the high court, but should also sign an undertaking that they would not abscond from trial.

He said the sureties were equally ordered to tender their recent passport photographs, title deeds of their landed properties and depose to an affidavit of means.

It would be recalled that Yusuf, his father-in-law Baa Fugu and an alleged financier of the group, Buji Foi, were on July 30, 2009, murdered inside a police station in Maiduguri, shortly after they were captured alive and handed over to the police command by team of military personnel drafted to the state to quell crisis that bedevilled the town two years ago.

Bomb scare in NYSC Camp

In a related development, anxiety again gripped many residents of Jos, the Plateau State capital yesterday following the arrest of a suspected member of the Boko Haram sect at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Bukuru.

However, the suspect turned out to be a lunatic who carried empty cans in a polythene bag into the temporary camp at Zang Commercial College, arousing suspicion.

The suspect was said to have been seen at a section of the camp carrying the black bag and behaving in a suspicious manner which aroused the suspicion of some youth corps members in the camp who raised an alarm after he could not give plausible explanation for his mission there.

The alarm created pandemonium and word soon spread over the state capital that a suspected Boko Haram member had been arrested with bomb at the NYSC camp.

Parents rushed to schools to pick their children and businesses around the camp closed for fear of possible explosion.
The timely arrival of men of the Special Task Force (STF) maintaining security in the state saved the suspect from being lynched and it was upon interrogation by the security agencies that he was pronounced a lunatic.

Spokesman of the STF, Captain Charles Ekeocha told journalists that men of the task force discovered that the suspect was a lunatic and that no explosive was found on him contrary to wide speculations.

Fear of attack scares members from discussing Boko Haram

The fear of a possible reprisal attack against them or members of their families has kept members of the House of Representatives from discussing the growing menace of the Boko Haram sect which has been engaged in violent confrontations with security forces in Borno and other northern states of the federation, Vanguard investigations have revealed.

A cross section of members of the House of Representatives who spoke with Vanguard admitted that though the Boko Haram threat is a source of worry and concern to them, they are reluctant to raise the issue because of fear of attacks on them or members of their families.

And to underscore the fear, almost all members who spoke with our correspondent did so on the condition that they would not be quoted.

A member from Borno state who claimed he had lost some constituents and relatives to Boko Haram attacks said the threat posed by the sect is greater than as it is being reported in the media.

“Look the issue is more serious than it is being reported. For those of us who know and have felt their viciousness, there is a serious problem ahead except the issue is nipped in the bud. All hands must be on deck to arrest this matter.

“For those of us in the state, we know that many of the leaders and commanders of the Sect were trained in Somalia, Yemen and other crisis-prone parts of the world. They only use our vulnerable children as cannon fodders for the nefarious acts. It is not about Islam as a religion but the advancement of terrorism agenda of International Terrorists”, the member who declined to be named said.

He added: “Remember, an Ambassadorial nominee once told the senate committee on foreign affairs that Somalia, Yemen and even Afghanistan are training grounds for the Boko Haram operatives.

This is a lead that I expected our security agencies to follow up and carry out discreet intelligence to get to the root of the matter. They have to really think out of the box”.

Another member from Bauchi state who spoke with Vanguard insisted that ‘some of us cannot get involved in any open debate about Boko Haram because we would be putting our lives and those of our children at risk.

“Don’t forget that these people killed the brother of the former governor of Borno state and very prominent indigenes who were protected by the state. The legislator is the most vulnerable politician in this country so we are just being cautious. That does not mean that we are not cooperating with security agencies by providing information if we have on the sect” he said.

Vanguard further gathered that the House leadership is also concerned that allowing an open debate on the Boko Haram threat could divide the House along religious lines, thereby playing into the hands of the sect.

“I understand that some members from other parts of the country have approached the speaker that they want to bring up the matter but he cautioned that the timing is not correct. I think he is just being cautious so that the matter does not get out of hand”, a member who is privy to the discussion told Vanguard.