The
Department of State Services, (DSS), has announced the arrest of a
university lecturer, Dr. Muhammad Nazeef Yunus, who allegedly acts as
Recruitment Co-ordinator of the Boko Haram sect and four other members
as they were plotting to launch violent attacks in Igalaland, Kogi
State.
Meanwhile – Zaria city which has not been known as an Islamist
stronghold but revelations that a French engineer was kept hostage there
by militants before dramatically escaping have shocked locals.
Francis
Collomp managed to flee on Saturday while his captors were praying,
walking four to five kilometres (2.5 to three miles) before flagging
down a motorcycle that took him to a nearby police station.
Police
said the 63-year-old, who was abducted at gunpoint in Katsina State
last December, had been held for nine months in the city of Kano then
brought to Zaria, 163 km away by road to the southwest, two months ago.
“We
find it quite frightening that a high-profile hostage like this could
be brought into this area and kept for two months without anyone ever
knowing,” said Sadiq Mahmud, who lives in the quiet Danmagaji
neighbourhood of Zaria.
Student Bello Lemu, 28, described the news
as a “rude shock” and expressed concern that the historic city had
apparently been infiltrated by an active cell of militants from the
banned group Ansaru.
“I still find it hard to believe we have Islamist insurgents around us. It is worrisome,” he told AFP.
Zaria,
which is home to some 400,000 people and predominantly Muslim,
developed as a city in the 15th century and is one of the oldest in
northern Nigeria, priding itself on a reputation as a centre for Islamic
and Western scholarship.
In the fortified old part of the city,
traditional mud houses and mazes of alleyways can still be seen,
contrasting with the more modern suburbs beyond.
Religious
violence between Muslims and minority Christians in the city has
occasionally flared but not to the same extent or intensity as elsewhere
in the north, where emergency rule has been imposed in three states.
In
June last year, bomb blasts ripped through two churches, killing
several worshippers and injuring many others in attacks claimed by the
banned Islamist group Boko Haram, of which Ansaru is an offshoot.
Three
months later, Nigerian troops raided what they said was a Boko Haram
hideout in the Gaskiya area of the city. Two militant fighters were
killed in a gun battle while arms and explosives were later recovered.
Danmagaji is about six kilometres from Gaskiya and on the northern fringes of the city.
Collomp’s
account of his escape, as revealed by police and the former hostage’s
brother in France, suggests that he was held outside Zaria itself.
“No-one
in this area saw the Frenchman on the day he escaped. We have been
asking ourselves if anyone saw him and the answer has always been,
‘No’,” said Mahmud outside his furniture shop.
One reason could be
that the residential neighbourhood, home to civil servants and business
people, is always deserted at night and locals stay indoors, he added.
Muntari
Kwarbai, who also lives in the area, added: “If he (Collomp) trekked
four kilometres to get a motorcycle, it means he was kept in another
area and he only trekked to this neighbourhood where motorcycles are
easy to find.”
Police in Kaduna state have begun an investigation
to track down the location where Collomp was held in both Zaria and the
city of Kano.
“We are working on the information the French
hostage could supply us to locate where he was held in both Zaria and
Kano to get to his kidnappers,” Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu
Lawan told AFP.
But he refused to go into details, saying to do so could compromise their efforts.
Culled from Vanguard
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