How we arrested 37 Boko Haram suspects in 15 months -GOC

* Sect kills 22 in Borno

The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Maj.-Gen. Isidore Edet, yesterday, revealed that the Nigerian Army arrested 37 Boko Haram suspects in Lagos and Ogun states, within 15 months.

This was even as about 22 people were reported to have been killed by suspected Boko Haram fighters during separate attacks on some communities in Borno State between Monday and Tuesday.

Shedding further light on the arrest of the 37 suspects, Edet said that the suspects were arrested under his watch and in different parts of the two states.

According to him, the suspects were escaping from the North Eastern part of the Country and were apprehended between August 2015 and October 2016 within the two states.

Edet spoke after handing over to Major General Ebenezer Oyefolu, who was appointed as the new General Officer Commanding 81 Division.

Aside from the Nigerian Army, several other Boko Haram suspects had been arrested in different parts of Lagos by the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services (DSS) and local vigilante groups. The suspects are, however, usually handed over to the DSS.

In 2015, the doubt on whether Boko Haram members had infiltrated Lagos and Ogun states was erased, after DSS in October 2015, arrested 45 suspected Boko Haram members in connection with a foiled attack on Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos.

The DSS said the insurgents planned to attack Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi in September. Although 60 people were arrested, 15 were later released after preliminary investigations. The DSS charged the suspects to a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Isolo.

Not too long ago, the DSS disclosed that it arrested some suspected terrorists in various places in and around Lagos including Kara, Isheri Berger area; Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Alimosho area; Ijora Badia, Apapa area and Ebute-Meta in Lagos Mainland Local Government Area.
Earlier in the year, two suspected members of Boko Haram were also arrested in the metropolis.
The suspects were apprehended during an operation carried out by men and officers of the Operation Mesa, a joint security outfit comprising members of the armed forces and those of the DSS.
The raid took place at the Ijora 7-Up area of Lagos, after a tip-off. The suspects, a Chadian, identified as Aminu, and a Northerner, whose identity could not be ascertained as at then, were arrested after soldiers ransacked a building in the area.
Aminu was said to have concealed some devices suspected to be explosives in boxes, which were stacked in the ceiling of the house. Also recovered alongside the suspected explosives were two AK47 rifles.
In July, six suspected members of the Boko Haram sect were arrested by a Civilian Joint Task Force at different locations in Lagos.
The suspects, who all confessed to be indigenes of Borno State, said they fled Bama, Baga and Konduga local government council areas of Borno State, following the offensive of military operatives against insurgents in the state.
They gave their identities as Ibrahim Ali, Abubakar Ahmed, Babagana Blam Ali, Goigoi Kamsalem, Ibrahim Mohammed and Adams.
Head of the Civilian Joint Task Force, the Mai- Kanuribe of Lagos and Seriki Hausawa of Ijora Kingdom, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed, said that Ibrahim Ali and Babagana Blam Ali, who hail from Bama and Konduga local government areas respectively, were arrested at Isheri-Ojodu Berger, while Goigoi Kamsalem, Ibrahim Mohammed both from Bama and Abubakar Ahmed of Baga council areas, were apprehended at a hideout in Victoria Island.
The sixth suspect, Adam, according to him, was arrested close to a church in Festac Town. Mustapha hinted that his group was spread across 57 local government areas in Lagos and Ogun states and had been in operation since five years, with the aim of nipping activities of Boko Haram sect in both states in the bud.
According to him, his group had made several arrests in the past, with the suspects handed over to DSS and the police, with some transferred to Maiduguri, Bornu State. saying that a patrol van was donated to his group by the Mustapha said the arrests were made based on intelligence gathering.

Presenting his scored card yesterday, Edet said: “As Boko Haram is being defeated, the terrorists run to other parts of the country. From the period I took over in August 2015 till date, we arrested 37 Boko Haram suspects. We will continue to arrest them and hand them over to the appropriate authorities.”

He said that the interaction which he had had with other commanders indicates that members of the insurgents are also being arrested in other part of the country where they are seeking refuge.

Three years ago, 42 suspected members of Boko Haram who were arrested in Lagos were paraded by   81 Division of the Nigerian Army in Lagos. 

Edet added: “Although most of the suspects spoke in Hausa language, a few who managed to communicate in pidgin, confessed that they had been involved in terrorist activities in the past.”

Edet said his most challenging moment as GOC 81 Division was the abduction of three of his operatives by militants in Ijagemo Area of Lagos.

He said: “I had to work round-the-clock to secure their release. On pipeline vandals at Arepo area of Ikorodu, the Army worked collaboratively and cooperatively with other security agencies to rout the vandals from the area.”

The new kid in the block, Oyefolu, said he would key into the successes of Edet to move the Division forward.

Until his appointment, Oyefolu was the Deputy Director at Defence Intelligence Agency, Abuja.

On the 22 people that were killed by suspected Boko Haram members in Borno State, New Telegraph learnt that the attacks happened between Monday and Tuesday. 

A vigilante source said the communities affected are Dasa and Duwabayi in Monguno Local Government. 

One Gava, who spoke for the local vigilante in Borno State, said: "We received the sad information from our colleagues operating in Monguno, who said on Monday gunmen attacked Dasa, a village about 3km away from Monguno during which they killed nine persons. On Tuesday night, again, the gunmen went to attack Duwabayi, another village not far away from Dasa, where they killed 13 persons – making it a total of 22 dead casualties. The gunmen who stormed the villages in large numbers ensured that they burnt down every building in the two villages."

The Nigerian Army is yet to confirm or debunk the alleged attack on two communities in Borno State.