Security Operatives Foil Planned Attack In Kaduna, Arrest Five Boko Haram Suspects

The Joint Security Forces has arrested five suspected members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect in Kaduna State. A top security source, who confirmed the arrest on Thursday in Kaduna, said the operation was facilitated by the Department of State Services, DSS, in collaboration with the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force in what was considered a pre-emptive operation launched to abort a planned attack on a police station at Kwanan Dangora, Kaduna State. “During the early hours of Wednesday, 19th February, 2014, while assigned members of the Boko Haram sect were on their way to actualise the planned attacks, they were arrested by the joint security forces”, said the source, who asked not to be named as he was not permitted to speak officially on the matter. He gave the names of the arrested members of the sects as 28-year old Bashir Ali, who was considered the kingpin of the group; Abdullahi Adam, 21, Adamu Abdullahi, 29, Abubakar Abdullahi, 32 and Mohammed Umar, 32. “Some of the weapons we recovered from the suspects includes seven primed Improvised Explosives Devices, one General Purpose Machine Gun, three AK 47 Riffles,five fully charged magazines, 66 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunitions and a jerry can of petrol among other things”, the source disclosed. Mr. Ali, leader of the foiled attack, who spoke briefly, said he was initiated as a member of the Islamist sect by one Lawal, presently at large. “Lawal gave us a car and N17,000 at Karfi near Kano to attack the Kwanan Dangora police station on Tuesday and deposit all the weapons that will (sic) have been stolen from the police station to a hide-out in Kunkumi, Kaduna State”. According to him, he was recruited about 14 months ago by Lawal, who he claimed to have met in a commercial vehicle in Bauchi. Giving an insight into the modus operandi of the terrorist group, Ali stressed that all the attacks carried out since the death of Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, has nothing to do with Islam. “We are on a revenge operation against our members that were killed by soldiers in Bauchi five years ago. Boko Haram is split into two. There are the group (sic) that kill people randomly and those that are on a revenge mission of specific targets. All these activities has nothing to do with Islam and I must say that I regret my membership in the group”, Ali said.