By John Bulus
In some quarters, it was perceived as the most frenzied week. It held unusual apprehension. Many watched with bated breathe. But lo, it seems to have ended without so much for the Nigerian populace about those behind the dastard acts of dreaded Boko Haram.

Anyone who keenly followed the very transient chat between the spokesperson of the State Security Service, SSS’s Deputy Director, Mrs. Marilyn Ogar and journalists on the heels of Kabiru Umar Dikko alias Sokoto re-arrest on Friday, February 10, 2012 would have understood the euphoria and the expectations of the people relayed in the Journalists’ questions to Ogar.  One of them was on the fate of Sokoto who has now been apprehended, whether he will be charged to court immediately.  While everyone had expected Ogar to reply in the affirmative, she visibly took to the contrary saying “We must ask questions believing that we have just brought him in. He has to undergo all processes – we have processes and procedures – at the end of it definitely he would be charged to court”.

For sure, Sokoto will be charged to court. But only God knows when. This is according to a source who pleaded anonymity.

For the Nigerian populace, Sokoto needs no introduction. A dossier of him according to the State Security Service, SSS shows that Kabiru was born on May 9, 1983 to the family of Umaru Jabbi of Gagi , Sokoto South Local Government Area of Sokoto State. Following the death of his father, he was adopted by his paternal uncle, Abubakar Dikko, who renamed him after himself. He completed his primary education at the Model Primary School, Gagi in 1996. He enrolled for secondary education at Ahmadu Bello Academy in 1996 only to abscond soon afterward. He, however, applied for admission as a fresh JSS 1 student at Sultan Bello Secondary School, Sokoto South LGA, from where he eventually graduated in 2003.

In 2005, he gained admission into the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Sokoto where he exhibited a high level of truancy and extremist tendencies, a situation which accounted for his poor academic performance. In mid 2007, he absconded again from the institution after refusing to re-take some papers he failed in his examination. Kabiru was instrumental in bringing the late national leader of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf, to Gagi in February, 2009 during which he was declared leader of the sect in Sokoto State.

He was arrested the first time by the police on January 13, 2012 by the Police but controversially and dramatically escaped from the Police two days after on a trip to his house at Abaji, a suburb of Abuja for a search in his house.

His escape obviously led to the sacking of the erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim by the federal Government. Also, Mr. Zakari Biu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in under whose watch Sokoto escaped has since been confined to a solitary apartment even as investigations are on going to determine his role in the escape.

Given the myriad and intensity of bombs that had gone off and are still going off, killing hundreds of innocent lives, coupled with the drama that ensued on the first arrest and subsequent escape of the Sokoto, not a few Nigerians had thought that Sokoto would spend a day in the SSS custody upon his re-arrest without naming some valuable names who may be cronies or put in another way, the financiers of  the Boko Haram. But at the moment, such is yet to known in the public domain.

Marilyn Ogar

While, the interrogation of the arrested kingpin is on going, the Sect seemed even more determined with its attacks. Only on Wednesday, an anti_bomb Police man got killed beyond recognition by a bomb dropped at a bridge in Kaduna. He had tried to defuse the bomb when it went off. Kogi state was the next to be hit by the sect in a quick succession. The members of the Sect menacingly went to the Nigerian Prisons located at Koton Karfa area of the state, shot a warder dead and freed several inmates of the prison.

Though no official link has been established as regards the role of another Boko Haram Kingpin and purported spokesman, Abu Qada who has been in police detention in the prison break, some sections of the country are still wont to finger him in as he hails from the state. Elsewhere, the bombs are still going off contrary the belief of many people that arresting the top-shots of the sect would slow the bombings.

Consequently, some quarters of the people feared a shoddy deal and doubted if the government can really get to the root of the matter. In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, almost all the military and police formations are cordoned off.  It is the same case with Embassies and Ministries in the capital city.  To some extent, it has made driving difficult as traffic jams sometimes become very serpentine. Police Headquarters and Main entrances of Government Houses across the country especially in the troubled North are marked off from vehicles and pedestrians. Generally, fear of the unknown has once again engulfed the towns and streets. But the government via its security apparatus is still working.

With the exception of the Senator Ali Ndume who was named under controversial circumstances in the Boko Haram saga and at the moment undergoing trials in the court, no other “big” name has been named with the arrest of the top shots of the sect. And Nigerians seem to be asking: Who are the Financiers of the Boko Haram?

But though the week was apparently adjudged somewhat scanty with revelations from the rearrested Boko Haram kingpin, the SSS in their investigations made some remarkable progress which many also believe will chart more ways of reaching to the peak curbing the insurgency.   For instance, not many would have known that an ex-soldier, one Shauibu Bama was also accomplice in the attack, but for the intensified investigations of the Service.

Bama, according to State Security Service, SSS has many aliases which included Habib Bama, Shuaibu Bama, and Habib Mamman.

The discovery of his involvement in the attack has indeed, given another score line to SSS and indeed all security agencies in the country that had presumably intensified efforts to halt the rising tide of insurgency in the country.

It has also confirmed the words of the President Goodluck Jonathan recently that the members of the dreaded Sect had infiltrated the security agencies in the country.

The Spokesperson of the Service, Mrs. Marilyn Ogar in a statement said: “The person whose photograph appears above is Habibu Bama. He is hereby declared wanted by the Federal Government in connection with crimes against the State”.

Continuing, she said, “Habibu Bama is an ex_soldier, Kanuri by tribe and hails from Bama, Borno State. He is also known by the following names: Habib Bama, Shuaibu Bama, and Habib Mamman.

“Members of the public with any information that could lead to his arrest are hereby implored to immediately contact the nearest Police station, Military formation or any other security agency, please.”

Bama was believed to have been named by Sokoto. He is also believed to have masterminded the attack which claimed the lives of over 40 persons including properties worth billions of Naira which went up in flames during the bombing.

Boko Haram has also been blamed for several bombing attacks and serial killings since this year. Apart from bombing the Police and United Nations Headquarters in Abuja, Gombe and Adamawa, Yobe States had early in the state witnessed unprecedented killings that even stirred up ethnic fury. This was, essentially, when the duo of Sokoto and Qada had not been taken in.

Meanwhile, with their apprehension and the launch of man haunt for Bama, many believe that there is an end in sight for the killings in the country. Also, with the cooperation of the arrested kingpins in providing useful information as acknowledged by the SSS, more significant names will feature in the near future.