*Group collects N120m from two expatriates
*Members: We were recruited in mosques after prayers
*Professional doctors trained us in forest, says group’s
doctor
*… ‘We were trained in Libya on how to fight
government, kidnap’
 |
| Recovered packs of syringes |
Juliana Francis
On May 1, 2019, four gunmen stormed the residence of
Alhaji Musa Umar Uba, who holds the title of Magajin Garin Daura in Katsina
State and abducted him.
Three months after his abduction, he was rescued by operatives
of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in
conjunction with the Kano State Police Command.
A year after the abduction and rescue operation, IRT
Operatives, headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, have
discovered that the group behind the abduction and several other abductions and
killings in the northeast, is the dreaded Jama’atu Ansaril Muslimina fi Biladis
Sudan, otherwise
known as the Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa.
The group was said to have become a top priority in
the list of the IGP’s must-be-destroyed groups, after he received petitions
showing that members of the group had been sending emails to different
companies, threatening to kidnap their expatriates if the companies didn’t pay
them N50million every year.
The terrorist group’s move was a classical
reenactment of James Harley Chase’s novel, Want to Stay Alive?, where the main
character, Poke Toholo, believed that fear was the key that unlocks the wallets
and handbags of the rich, and worked towards actualising his beliefs.
The group was allegedly responsible for the kidnap
of two expatriates working with Triacta Nigeria Limited, a construction company.
Kyari and his men have so far arrested nine among
the members and recovered 204 rounds of AK47 live ammunition, military uniforms,
operational vehicle, drugs and foodstuffs meant to be conveyed to members
inside Birnin Gwari bush, in Kaduna State.
The nine suspects are Mustapha Aminu, 23, aka China
of Tudun Nupawa, Kaduna, Saidu Aminu, 26, aka Dawud of Tudun Nupawa, Kaduna,
Aminu Shuaibu, 33, aka Abu Mus’ab of Rigasa, Kaduna, Ishak Khalid, 30, aka
Uztaz of Maraban, Jos, Abubakar Yusuf, 24, aka AY of Rigasa, Kaduna, Awal Umar
Tela, 34, of Maraban, Jos, Abubakar Isah Muhammad, 25, aka Khalifa Abu Aisara
of Dala, Kano, Shuaibu Ahmadu, 25, Katsina and Abubakar Mustafa, 32, of
Maraban, Jos.
According to an inside source, the suspects were arrested
after weeks of unrelenting surveillances. The group was further alleged to have
been terrorising workers of Triacta Ltd, and was also responsible for attacks
on Mothercat Construction Company Limited.
The suspects were said to have been monitored, trailed
and then arrested in different hideouts in Kaduna, Zaria, Funtua, Kano and
Katsina states.
The source added: “The suspects have confessed to
the kidnapping of the two expatriates, Zaid Alas from Jordan and Isah Jabour, a
Syrian, working with Triacta Ltd at Shiroro, Niger State. The victims were
kidnapped on December 9, 2019 and the group’s leaders, Dogo Gide and Mahmud,
led the operation. The group collected N120million as ransom and each member was
given between N200, 000 to N300, 000. The suspects also confessed that their
group was responsible for attacking Mothercat Construction Company as well as the
kidnapping of Magajin Garin Daura in Katsina State. The suspects are also
assisting our operatives to track other fleeing members of the group. Among the
fleeing members are the armourers, Aliyu Sokoto and Mus’ab, who sent threat e-mails
to Triacta Ltd and were also the persons, who negotiated with the Managing Director
of the Company on how N50million would be paid to the group yearly, so that it
would stop kidnapping the company’s expatriates.”
One of the suspects, Shuaibu, said: “I’m not yet
married because I wanted to have freedom to make money. I dropped out of school
due to financial problems. I survived by doing menial jobs until I was able to
raise money to buy a Golf car. I used the car as a cab. Normally, I make as
much as N5000 a day. This is the job that I have been doing for years even as a
member of Ansarul terrorist group. It was in 2015 that I met one Mamoud in the
mosque. After prayer, we used to hangout and discuss about life. I was a member
of the Izala Muslim Movement and we normally gather for prayers and listen to
lectures from Imams. Mamoud was the one that told me about Ansarul group; he
said that I would make a lot of money if I became a member. He explained to me
that we would be fighting the cause of Allah, and that I would also have the
opportunity to travel to Libya. I was happy to join because I believed that
they were not like Boko Haram group that was killing fellow Muslims. It was the excitement of going to Libya that
convinced me to join the group. As soon as I met Maitukwane, the lead of the
group in Nigeria, he asked me to join the medical team. That was how I was
trained as a doctor in the camp. My duty was to attend to the sick and the
wounded. Yes, I know that the group used to kidnap people regularly as a way of
making money since government does not allow the group to operate freely.”
He further stated: “We were operating freely before
army and Police dispersed us, and then we had to go deeper into the forest. It
was only some of us who still had our families outside that were moved around
town. Three years ago, I was one of the members drafted to go to Libya and
assist in fighting against their government. It was Ahmdumahid, who was
in-charge of our own group in Kaduna that sent five of us to Libya at the same
time. On getting to Libya, I was drafted to work in their clinic. The Ansarul Group
in Libya was under serious attack from their government and a lot of them were
wounded. During my spare time, I go to the field to learn how to become a
professional sniper. We were not sent there to make money. All they did was to
give us N50, 000 every three months as allowance. We all went there with the
belief that we were fighting a good cause. We were not the only Nigerians sent
to Libya that time. Different sets came from different areas in Nigeria to
assist them. I spent about a year in Libya before I was asked to return because
our camp in Nigeria needed my skill as a doctor.”
Shuaibu, who disclosed that he never attended any
medical school, explained that he was trained by professional doctors. He said
that some of their members were professional medical doctors. These doctors
used to come from cities into the bush to attend wounded members, whenever
there was a need.
The suspect explained that people like him had to be
recruited into the group and trained to become a ‘doctor’ after some of the
group’s medical doctors expressed fear that the Nigerian government was onto
them.
He said: “That was why a few of us were drafted into
the medical unit to be trained as doctors. I don’t know the name of the doctor
that trained me. We all called him doctor. I spent about two months with him
and learnt the job. I can stitch cuts, treat deep wounds and remove bullets. To
help the wounded to recover fast, I give them tramadol injection and chloramphenicol
injection. If the matter is so bad, I call the doctor that trained me for
advice. I also attended to victims who are sick. During my spare time, I teach new
members how to become a doctor. I never knew that Police were after me despite
how careful I was. In my community, everyone knows me as a cab driver. I
received a message to go and collect money from one of our sponsors. The
message turned out to be hoax. It turned out to be trap set by the Police. I’m sorry
and will like to be given an opportunity to leave the group.”
Another member of the group, Saidu, said that he was
just 17 years old and in his final year in a government college in Kaduna State
when his father told him that he had to drop out of school.
He recalled: “My mother knew about it but was more
interested in keeping her marriage than my future. Since she did not object, I
had no choice than to abide by my father’s instruction. My father was a member
of the Ansarul group before Police arrested him. As soon as I was joined the
group in 2015, I was sent to Libya for training. I was supposed to be a field
agent, so my training was more on how to survive during a war. We were told
that if one was trained in Libya, he would experience real fighting between
government and our members. I was there for just six months before I had an
accident, leading to my two fingers being amputated. The accident happened when
I was driving our operational jeep and I drove into a ditch. They said that I
could not continue with my training. I was sent back home. Back in Nigeria, I
was told to go and learn how to sew clothes that I would be staying in town to
assist the group whenever the need arises. I had to learn how to sew clothes so
that no one would suspect that I belonged to the group. The group sends money into
my account, which I use in buying things needed by members to survive in the
bush.”
Saidu further confessed to have also participated in
some kidnap operations in the past.
His words: “I was among those that kidnapped the
foreigners at a construction site in Niger State. I came to the camp that day
and I was asked to join them since I had a bit of an experience. I don’t know
how much was collected as ransom, but at the end of the operation, I was given
N200, 000. I also participated in another kidnap operation in Zamfara State. We
blocked the highway and kidnapped several people in vehicles that we flagged
down. I was given just N50,000 in that operation because we didn’t make much
money.”
When Saidu was asked what he thinks law enforcement
agencies could do to neutralise the terrorist group, he suggested that the agencies
should concentrate on arresting leaders of terrorist groups,
He added: “We were initially told that we were fighting
against none Muslims, but I have come to realise that majority of the people we
kidnapped were actually Muslims. I have not achieved anything since I joined
the group, and the worst of it all is that I can no longer go back to school. I
will like to leave that group but if the leaders are still alive, they will
order that I be killed. If law enforcement agents can arrest all our leaders,
other members of the group will disperse. If our leaders are not arrested, then
the law enforcement people and the government are wasting their time because,
the leaders will keep going to mosques to recruit young people. The truth is
that if anyone of us is killed or dies, our leaders just go to different mosques
and recruit new people to replace those that had been killed or died.
Saidu has a younger brother in the group called
Mustapha. The boy was just 16 years old when his father asked him and Saidu to
drop out of school and join the terrorist group
He said: “I was 16 years old when my father forced
us to join the group. The group said that I was too young to go to Libya for
training. My father handed me over to one Mamoud, who taught me how to shoot
and drive the group’s operational vehicles. My job was to run errands until I had
come of age to travel abroad for further trainings. Another role I played in
the group was to buy food, and sometimes I watch over victims that were
kidnapped. When I joined the group, I was told that we were fighting against the
Nigerian government. They made us to believe that when we take over Nigeria,
our families would become millionaires and own houses in Abuja. I was placed on
N100, 000 monthly allowance and asked to stay in town in order to be running
errands. It was also my responsibility to collect arms from our members in
Sokoto and take them to those in the bush. We don’t pay those that supply the
arms because everybody is working towards winning the war. Sometimes, however,
the group gives the suppliers money as gifts.
“Last year, when Police arrested my father, I swore
that I would renounce my membership of the group because I knew that Police
were looking for me. After some months, I became broke, so returned to the
group. I wish that my father had not withdrawn me from school. I had always
dreamed of becoming a doctor. I still love to return to school if I’m given the
opportunity. I do not know how Police will end the activities of the group
because our members are everywhere!”
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