Juliana Francis
One of the top Boko
Haram Commanders, Umar Abdulmalik, arrested two weeks ago, has revealed how his
gang caused mayhem in different parts of Nigeria, using police and military
uniforms.
This was even as he
disclosed that his first contact with Boko Haram was through an Islamic cleric,
fondly called Mallam Mustapha.
He was arrested in Lagos
State by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response
Team, IRT.
Abdulmalik and his gang
members were alleged to be responsible for several bombing incidents, bank
robberies and killings within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Owo
in Ondo State and Lokoja, Kogi State.
In 2014, Abdulmalik led his
gang to attack and break into Kotonkarife Prison in Kogi State, where 200
inmates allegedly escaped.
The prison break occurred on November 2, and an inmate
was shot dead in the attack. Most of the inmates that escaped were those on
awaiting trial for robbery. It was also gathered that among those that escaped,
12 returned to complete their jail term. At least 45 inmates were later
recaptured.
Back then, many theorized that the prison break was
orchestrated by Boko Haram insurgents, who came to free their imprisoned
members. Abdulmalik’s present confessions’ has validated that theory.
Indeed, it was during the prison break that security
agents shot and injured Abdulmalik in his left eye.
Speaking while in the
custody of IRT, Abdulmalik said: “Zeeidi brought some guns and suggested we
should attack Kotonkarife Prison in Kogi State. We attacked the prison just to
free our members. The attack on the prison was successful; we freed a lot of
our members. We then went ahead to attack some banks in Okene. We emptied their
vaults.”
How I became a Boko Haram member
Abdulmalik, 30, from Okene
in Kogi State, was alleged to have killed over 200 persons before his arrest.
He disclosed that an Islamic cleric, Mustapha, initiated him into Boko Haram.
He recalled: “Mustapha
came to Okene with his teachings in 2009. He built a mosque and urged residents
to shun western education. He said that it was a sin against Allah. He urged us
to accept Islamic education, which he said was the only education accepted by
Allah. I attended several of Mallam Mustapha’s teachings. He urged his
followers to disregard Nigeria, and waged war against her, as her system of
government was not in line with the dictate of Allah. He said that the Nigerian
system of government ought to be in an Islamic fashion.”
Abudulmalik disclosed
that he joined some of Mustapha’s followers and destroyed their school
certificates. He and others then accepted to wage war against Nigeria.
The Boko Commander
narrated: “I joined one of the Boko Haram cells in Okene headed by Zeeidi. We
carried out several bombings within Kaduna and Kano states. We also bombed Abuja.
Zeeidi provided the bombs. My job was to take these bombs to our target
locations. After a while, the Department of State Security (DSS) infiltrated
our cell. They arrested members of our group. Mustapha was arrested and his mosque
demolished. Zeeidi also brought the idea of bank robbery. He said that the
robbery was to source money in order to continue with the Jihad.”
Abudulmalik continued: “We
moved to Owo and attacked some of the banks there with dynamites. We carted
away large sums of money. We used some of the money to buy advance explosives.
We also bought materials for producing none-metallic bombs, which could beat
metal detectors.
“A lot of our members
and Zeeidi were arrested after those bank robberies and attack on the prison. I
moved to Abuja with the bombs we produced, where I formed a new cell in 2014. We
carried out several bombings, including bombing of Banex Plaza, Yanya and Kueje
areas of Abuja. Our gang was smashed and five of our members arrested. The
police recovered our bombs and materials used in bomb making. I escaped, fled
to Kano, where I went underground for two years. I later returned to Abuja and
formed a new gang. We then went into full robbery operation.”
The police said: “The
IRT, led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr. Abba Kyari, generated
new intelligence, which aided in the arrest of Abdulamilk. Seven policemen and
a civilian were attacked and killed in July, 2018, at a police post on the
Galadima Roundabout, Abuja. Operatives of IRT launched investigations into these
killings. Five months into the investigations, the IRT made a breakthrough. The
operatives arrested a member of the gang identified as Lukman Abdulmalik alias
Lampard, through a tip-off in Ondo State. He confessed to have taken part in
the killing of the seven policemen. Lampard went on to identify Abdulmalik as
the leader of his gang. He said that Abdulmalik instructed them to always kill
policemen whenever the opportunity arises and take their rifles.”
The police source
further said that Lampard took IRT operatives to the gang’s hideout in Abuja,
where four gang members were arrested.
The members are; Abubakar
Bello Sidi, Yusuf Abdulazeez alias, Fine Boy, Suleiman Zakariya and Haruna
Lamid. While the four suspects were arrested, Abdulmalik escaped with bullet
wounds.
The operatives recovered
four AK47 rifles, six magazines, 270 rounds of AK47 ammunition and two Police
Walkie-Talkie, which belonged to the deceased policemen, from the suspects.
The police further
revealed: “Abdulmalik ran to Lagos State with his bullet wounds to the home of
his younger sister, who is a nurse. He started receiving treatments. Unknown to
him, IRT operatives in Lagos had got information that he had a sister residing
in Lagos. They trailed him to her house and met him sleeping, and arrested
him.”
Abdulmalik said: “After
I formed my new robbery gang, we robbed a woman N500, 000, which was money
she got from a contribution with some women. One of our gang members, who got
information about the money, told me about it. We robbed the woman and took the
money. We also robbed a man at Okene check point.
“We pretended to be
policemen and robbed him of N1.3m. We moved to Abuja, where we started
robbing super markets, including shopping customers at Shoprite. We killed
a policeman at Shoprite in Suleja and made away with his rifle. We
also robbed a shop along Second Gate on the Abuja-Kaduna Road.”
Dismissed policeman helps gang with information
Abdulmalik further
disclosed that most of the gang’s operations wouldn’t have been possible, if
not for information supplied by a dismissed policeman known as Apin-Iron. Iron
was dismissed from Nigeria Police for taking part in armed robbery.
Iron has two Ak-47 rifles
and a pistol, which he uses to threaten drug smugglers in Abuja, in order to
collect their drugs.
Abdulmalik recounted: “We
normally visit his place to buy and smoke drugs. We became friends with Iron. During
one of our visits, Iron told us that he knew many rich people, who we could
rob. He, however, requested that whenever we were sharing our loot after
operation, we should factor him in. He gave us information about a man; we
after the man and robbed him of N4m. We gave Iron N2.5m as his share. He also
gave us several other jobs and then I had this accident, which damaged my eye.”
Our operation in military uniform, with fraudster
Abdulmalik said that
after recuperating, he met an internet fraudster called Mustapha. Mustapha was
making a lot of money from cybercrime, but started receiving threats from some
cult members in his community.
To get the cult members
off his back, Mustapha reported them to the police. They were arrested and soon
granted bail. They came back and intensified their threat.
Abdulmalik recounted: “Mustapha
came to me; he said that he needed my men to protect him. I explained to
him, that to make that possible, he needed to buy two AK47 rifles for my men.
He bought the guns, then my men, Lampard and Abubakar, started moving around
with him on military uniforms. People thought they were soldiers. He wanted my men
to kill the cultist members and a nurse treating him. He wanted to kill the
nurse because she saw him performing a ritual in his house. He said that the
woman went to tell people that he was using charms to make money.
“I told my men not to
kill the woman or the cult boys. Mustapha became angry with me. I’m suspect he
was the person that went to inform the police about my gang.”
He continued: “After I
lost my eye, I was in the hospital for a long time. But my men were still
going for robberies. They used to bring my share to the hospital. I wasn’t with
them when they killed the seven policemen at Galadima Roundabout. I was in the
hospital. After I was discharged, I had not gone for any operation when Lampard
and Abubakar came with policemen to my house and attempted to arrest me. I
had an Ak-47 rifle; when the police came, I fired some shots which made it possible
for me to escape. The policemen returned fire and I was injured. I
managed to escape to Iyano Sango Ota Ogun State, where my sister resides. I
later learned that the police went on to arrest Fine-Boy and Suleiman. A guy
known as scorpion called and informed me. I don’t know how the police got to
know I was in my sister’s place. But they came there and arrested me.”
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