 |
| Former President Olusegun Obasanjo |
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Thursday paid a secret visit to the family of the founder of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf, in Maiduguri, Borno State, THISDAY can report.
The Boko Haram leader was reportedly killed in the 2009 uprising by policemen after soldiers had arrested him and handed him over.His death is long believed to be responsible for the spate of attacks on the police by members of the group, which culminated in the bombing of Police Headquarters in Abuja last June.
Yusuf’s septuagenarian father-in-law, Baba Fugu Mohammed, was also said to have been killed by the law enforcement agents during the uprising after he voluntarily turned himself in when he was declared wanted.
THISDAY confirmed from military sources that Obasanjo arrived the Air Force base in Maiduguri 11.40am Thursday aboard a private aircraft painted white and was received by Deputy Governor, Zanna Umar Musatapha. He was said to have headed straight for the Railway Quarters, which used to house the sect’s headquarters before it was demolished.
He spent one and a half hours in a closed door meeting with family members before departing the city at 2pm. Obasanjo, who speaks Hausa, reportedly pleaded with the family to “forgive and forget the past” and allow him to mediate in the crisis. Yusuf’s brother-in-law, Babakura Fugu, was said to have received Obasanjo well and thanked him for the private visit.
“Since 2009, this is the first time any high-profile figure would be commiserating with the family. We are happy with the visit,” Fugu said, according to sources, who also quoted him as saying between 30 and 40 per cent of the sect’s members “are scattered all over neighbouring countries, specifically Chad, Niger and Cameroon”.
Boko Haram group had stated as part of the conditions for peace the trial of officers who killed their leader. Six police officers are currently facing trial over the extra-judicial murder. On Wednesday, Obasanjo had made a similar trip to the troubled city of Jos, Plateau State, where a sectarian violence has claimed the lives of over 100 persons in the last three weeks following a dispute over a praying ground.
The peace-broking meeting which held at the Green House, Jos, THISDAY gathered, involved some eminent religious and ethnic representatives who lamented the monumental losses their people had incurred from the protracted crisis.
It was learnt that invitations were quietly sent out to those concerned to attend the brief meeting.
It was learnt that invitations were quietly sent out to those concerned to attend the brief meeting.
An insider, however, revealed that no top government was at the meeting. But he added that the mission might be a personal initiative of the former president in seeking a lasting solution to the bloodbath in some of the Northern states. Meanwhile, a Maiduguri high court yesterday summoned the Comptroller of Prison in Borno State, Usman Maina Kaina, to appear before it to explain how suspected members of Boko Haram sect escaped from prison custody.
The court, it was gathered, believes that the suspects were evacuated with a truck from the maximum prison by military men to an unknown destination. The missing men, 24 in number, were among 76 suspects who had been facing trial at the court since September 2009 after they were arrested for the uprising in the state.
It was, however, learnt that some of the escapees were later re-arrested by men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF).
THISDAY also gathered that two of the suspected Boko Haram men on trial, Umaru Hamisu and Ibrahim Adamu Ali, have died in prison custody since last year and their names have been struck off the charge sheet.
THISDAY also gathered that two of the suspected Boko Haram men on trial, Umaru Hamisu and Ibrahim Adamu Ali, have died in prison custody since last year and their names have been struck off the charge sheet.
At the continuation of hearing in the case Thursday, less than 30 of the suspects currently on bail appeared before the court. One of the counsels to the accused persons, Damong Ayuba, told the court that one of his clients, Bashir Mohammed, who had earlier been granted bail, had been re-arrested by the JTF and taken to an unknown destination, adding that all efforts to trace his whereabouts had proved abortive.
The presiding judge at the Maiduguri High Court II, Justice Wakil Alkali Gana, decried the situation, saying nobody has the right to take away somebody who is currently facing trial in a law court. The judge ordered the prison comptroller to appear before him at the adjourned date of November 19, 2011 to explain the whereabouts of the suspects.
The suspects were arrested in 2009 after a violent attack which led to the death of thousands and destruction of property. The suspects were charged for the killing of 21 policemen, other security agents, innocent citizens and setting ablaze police stations, government buildings, churches and police barracks, among others.
They were also charged for various offences which comprise arson, murder and public disturbances, among others under section 90, 97, 221, 337, 336 and 103 of the Penal Code.
SOURCE: ThisDay Newspaper, 16 September 2011. http://www.thisdaylive.com
No comments:
Post a Comment