SSS arrests army officer

There were strong indications yesterday that operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) may have arrested an army officer for his alleged association with the murderous Boko Haram Islamic sect.
The arrest, which was said to have taken place on Thursday, was the outcome of the raid on a residential duplex in Jikwoyi area of Abuja.  Although the identity of the officer could not be established last night, he was however said to have been arrested in a posh home in Jikwoyi, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Military authorities declined yesterday to discuss the reported arrest.
Instructively, troops of the Nigerian army are currently conducting operations in the north eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, to  flush out the Boko Haram insurgents whose blood-thirsty members have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent citizens.
At a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, which was addressed by the Chief of Civil/Military Affairs, Major General Mobolaji Koleosho on behalf of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika, to mark  the commencement of the ‘2013 Army Week’, inquiries about the reported arrest were not attended to by the military authorities. Reporters were requested to restrict their questions to the ‘Army Week’ alone. Even a few that defied the directive and sought clarifications on the alleged arrest of the army officer over terrorism, the latest operations in the troubled northern states and in Mali, were politely turned down.
Major General Kolosho instructed specifically that any matter outside the ‘Army Week’ should be reserved for the monthly briefing of the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier Attahiru Ibrahim, who was also present at the briefing but equally refused to answer questions outside the forthcoming event. It was, however, gathered that operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in two unmarked vehicles, zoomed into a residential duplex believed to be owned by a soldier at Jikwoyi Phase Four and whisked away the officer. A senior officer at the SSS head office behind the Millennium Park on Aso Drive confirmed yesterday to Saturday Newswatch that the service had been talking to a soldier, but failed to say precisely what allegations the army officer is facing.
The Director of Media and Publicity for the SSS, Mrs. Marilyn Ogar, could not be reached for her comments. Her regular mobile phone number was switched off for a better part of the period Saturday Newswatch reporter tried to contact her.  But when our reporter eventually got her at about 2:40pm yesterday, Ogar said she had not been briefed on the operation. “I do not know anything about that operation,” she said, and switched off her mobile phone again in a manner that suggested that she was avoiding being ‘disturbed’ by newshounds over the matter.  Meanwhile, the identity of the arrested officer, the brief of the security operatives and the crime the officer is suspected to have committed were still unclear as at press time last night.  Also, inquires made at the office of the FCT Director of the State Security Services (SSS), Mr. LittleJohn Okojie, did not yield results.
mydailynewswatch