DHQ confirms Shekau dead, search for Chibok girls ongoing
Posted by admin | 10 years ago | 2,825 times
Military arrests 50 fleeing terrorists, 135 surrender
LEADER of the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has been confirmed killed by the Nigerian military in an exchange that also claimed the lives of about 135 other sect members.
The DDI further disclosed that “a total of 135 terrorists Wednesday evening surrendered along with equipment to troops around Biu local council. A group of 88 submitted themselves at Mairiga/Bun-Yadi while another group of 45 terrorists were taken in around Mubi-Michika. They are all being interrogated and processed in conformity with the dictates of standard best practices.”
Nevertheless, he said the online report on Tuesday that the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped 164 days ago were returned was false, but that “every effort on ground to recover the girls is ongoing, and when the results are out, all Nigerians will see it.”
Meanwhile, no fewer than 50 fleeing Boko Haram terrorists were arrested on Tuesday by the military at a checkpoint in Biu, Borno State, while attempting to escape as part of “livestock” being conveyed in a lorry from Maiduguri to Gombe State by an unidentified trader.
Biu is south of Sambisa Forest and 187 kilometres south of the state capital. Military sources said yesterday in Maiduguri that the arrested terror suspects hid in the truck and were heading to Gombe when they were intercepted by the local vigilance youths and were eventually apprehended.
“The suspects used goats and sheep piled on the upper panel of the lorry and hid under the lower space to escape from the Sambisa Forest training camp and hideouts, before these vigilante youths intercepted the truck for checking that Tuesday night,” the military source explained.
At a news briefing yesterday evening in Abuja, the Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said that while the video of the bloody encounter rolled, air and land forces were deployed to handle the terrorists who made frantic attempts to enter Konduga, a community around Maiduguri.
“Several of the terrorists, including some of their commanders, lost their lives in the encounters which lasted about five hours each. The troops captured some of the terrorists and their equipment,” he said.
“In the course of those encounters, one Mohammed Bashir, who has been acting or posing on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group, died.”
Olukolade noted that the terrorists made about four attempts between September 12 and 17 to breach the security and enter Konduga to perpetrate their atrocities but were overpowered, as “Nigerian troops have been conducting coordinated air and land operations in furtherance of efforts at containing the terrorists in the North East part of the country.
“On restoring normalcy after the encounter, inhabitants of the community who were victims of terrorists activities corroborated information on the identity of Bashir Mohammed alias Abubakar Shekau, alias Abacha Abdullahi Geidam, alias Damasack, among others.”
According to the source, the 50 arrested members are currently in the custody of the Nigerian Army and might be detained for further investigation. A member of the vigilance group, Yakubu Musa, disclosed that the terror suspects were of ages between 18 and 25.
“They also confessed to being fighters of the Islamist sect and were all on the run following the reported killing of their leader, Abubakar Shekau, during confrontation with the military at Konduga last week,” Musa said.
He disclosed that the suspects, who pleaded for mercy, also promised to cooperate with security operatives on useful information about the whereabouts of other sect members on the run, as well as those keeping custody of the Chibok girls.
“Most of the suspects were fluent in Kanuri and Hausa languages while they were being questioned on their mission in the lorry to Gombe,” Musa said, adding that they also confessed to have fought at Bama and Konduga, where they were overwhelmed by the military.
Source: The Guadian News
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