* Islamic cleric
initiates me into Boko Haram
*We operate in police,
army uniforms, move bombs to target points
Juliana Francis
One of the top Boko
Haram Commanders, Umar Abdulmalik, arrested two weeks ago, has revealed how his
gang members caused mayhem using police and military uniforms.
This was even as Abdulmalik
disclosed that his first contact with Boko Haram was through an Islamic cleric,
Mallam Mustapha.
He was arrested by operatives
of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, in
Lagos State.
Abdulmalik and his gang
members were alleged to be responsible for carrying out several bombings, bank
robberies and killings within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Owo in
Ondo State and Lokoja Kogi State.
In 2014, Abdulmalik led
Kotonkarife Prison break in Kogi State, where 200 inmates were alleged to have escaped.
The prison break occurred on November 2, and one inmate
was shot dead during the attack. Most of the inmates that escaped were those
awaiting trial for robbery and 12 inmates returned to the prison, to complete
their jail term. At least 45 inmates were later recaptured.
Back then, many speculated that the prison break was
orchestrated Boko Haram insurgent, who came to free their imprisoned members.
Indeed, it was during the prison break that security
agents shot Abdulmalik
in his eye.
Speaking in the custody
of IRT, Abdulmalik recounted: “Zeedi brought some guns and suggested we should
attack Kotonkarife Prison in Kogi State. We attacked the prison to free our
detained 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 into Okene with his teachings in 2009. He built a mosque and urged
residents to shun western education. He said that it was a sin Allah. He urged us
to accept Islamic education, which he said was the only education accepted by
Allah. I attended several 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 explained
that he joined some of Mustapha’s followers and destroyed their school
certificates. He and others accepted to wage war against the 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 was the persons providing 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 started arresting members of our group.
Mustapha was arrested his mosque demolished. Zeeidi also brought the idea of
bank robbery so that those of us who had not been arrested could have resources
to continue with the Jihad.”
Abudulmalik continued: “We
moved to Owo and also attacked some of the banks there with dynamites. We carted
away large sums of money. We used some of the money we made from those
robberies 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 armed robbery operation.”
The police said: “The
IRT, led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr. Abba Kyari, generated
new intelligence, which aided 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 were
identified as Abubakar Bello Sidi, Yusuf Abdulazeez alias, Fine Boy, Suleman
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 AK-47 ammunition and two police
Walkie-Talkie radio belonging to 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 collected N1.3m from the man. 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 aided our gang with information
Abdulmalik further
disclosed that most of the gang’s operations wouldn’t have been possible, if
not for the information supplied by a dismissed policeman known as Apin-Iron.
Apin-Iron was dismissed
for taking part in armed robbery.
Iron has two Ak-47 rifles
and a pistol, which he used to threaten drug smugglers in Abuja and collect
their drugs.
The suspect: “We
normally visit his place to buy and smoke drugs. It was from there we became
friends. During one of our visits, Iron told us that he knew many rich
people, who we could rob. He said that the only he wanted was for us to give
his share after each operation. He gave us information about a man. We robbed the
man and collected N4m from him.
“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 his crimes, but started receiving threats from some
cult members in his community.
To get the cult members
off his back, Mustapha reported the young men to the police. They were arrested
and soon granted bail. They came back, threatening him.
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 would need to buy two AK47 rifles for my
men. He bought the guns and 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
that he was the person that went to inform the police about my gang.”
He continuedContinuing,
Abdulmalik said, After I lost my eyes I was in the hospital but my
boys were still going for robbery and they were only bring money to me. I
wasn’t with them when they killed the seven policemen at Galadima roundabout. I
was in the hospital. After I was discharged I have not gone for any
robbery with them but the police later arrested Lampard and
Abubakar and they brought the policemen to my house. I had an Ak-47 rifle with
me when the police came and I fired some shots which made it easy for me to
escape but the police returned fire and I got injured. I managed to
escape to Iyano Sango Ota Ogun State, where my sister resides and I later
learned that the police went on to arrest Fine-Boy and Abubakar and Sulieman, a
guy known as scorpion called and informed me. I don’t know how the police knew
I was in my sister’s place, they found me sleeping and I was arrested.”
He stated
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