LAGOS, Nigeria -- Nigerian troops have arrested a businessman accused of "participating actively" in Boko Haram's mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok last year, Nigeria's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Spokesman
Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade said Babuji Ya'ari headed a "terrorists'
intelligence cell" for the Islamic extremists while masquerading as a
member of the self-defense Youth Vigilante Group. That news confirms
suspicions that the vigilantes have been infiltrated by Boko Haram.
Soldiers have told the Associated Press that some of their comrades also belong to Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremist group.
"The
arrest of the businessman... has also yielded some vital information
and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists'
intelligence cell who are women," Olukolade said in a statement Tuesday
night. He did not say when the arrests were made or how many people
were arrested.
He alleged that Ya'ari has coordinated several
deadly attacks since 2011 on the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the
birthplace of Boko Haram, and spearheaded the May 2014 assassination of
the emir of Gwoza, a religious and traditional ruler who was targeted
for speaking out against Boko Haram's extremism.
One arrested
woman, Hafsat Bako, confessed to coordinating the payroll for operatives
paid a minimum of 10,000 naira (about $50) a job, the defense ministry
statement said.
Boko Haram was responsible for the April 2014 kidnapping of 273
girls from a boarding school in Chibok. Dozens escaped but 219
schoolgirls remain missing. The mass abduction sparked international
outrage and demands for the girls' release under the Twitter hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls.
The extremists last year took control of a
large swath of northeastern Nigeria where they declared an Islamic
caliphate. This year, they said they were the West African franchise of
ISIS.
As their attacks spread across borders, a multinational army
from Nigeria and neighboring countries mobilized and this year drove
Boko Haram out of towns. Suicide bomb and attacks on villages continue.
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