By Ndahi Marama, with agency report

The Nigerian Army said, yesterday, that it had arrested five persons believed to be high-ranking Boko Haram terrorists.

Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, stated this in Maiduguri yesterday, adding that three Chadians were also arrested in Borno as part of its ongoing anti-terrorism war in the North-East.

Irabor said that the arrest of the top Boko Haram members was made in collaboration with vigilantes called Civilian JTF.

He gave the names of the suspects as Alhaji Madu, Abur Goni-Bukar, Ibrahim Ali, Ayuba Duse and Haruna Bukar.

“The suspects were arrested after numerous operations in different parts of the North East; we are investigating before taking a decision,” he said.

The army officer said troops, on January 27, arrested three suspected terrorists with bags of flour, groundnut and millet, which they were conveying to Jeram village.

He said that the suspects had N594,000 on them.

According to him, “again, on January 28, our troops at Buni Gari apprehended five suspects with a truckload of gypsum, which is one of the components for making bombs.”

He added that the suspects were under interrogation.

On the arrested foreigners, Irabor said: “On January 26, three Chadians were arrested at a checkpoint in Damasak, after a mobile phone belonging to one of them had pictures of men in both military T-shirt and mufti with GPMG, FN and AK 47 rifles.

“The Chadians are in custody, undergoing interrogation,” he said.

Irabor said that the army had also intercepted seven females from Niger Republic last month.

“On January16, troops deployed at Cham checkpoint intercepted seven female immigrants from the Republic of Niger en route Yola via Kano. Three of them were with their passports, while four had no means of identification.”

He said the immigrants were in custody undergoing interrogation and will be handed over to the Nigeria Immigration Service for further action.