Boko Haram kills Qaqa’s father, friend in Maiduguri

•FG detains 5 with Al-Qaeda links over German kidnap

Written by James Bwala, Maiduguri with Agency ReportWednesday, 28 March 2012

DEPUTY Comptroller Abdullahi Jimoh Bello and father of former spokesman of the Boko Haram sect, Abul Dardaa or Qaqa,

who had been in detention since February following his arrest by the State Security Service (SSS) in Kaduna was killed by unknown gunmen in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Monday.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that DC Bello was killed at about 7.00 p.m. alongside his friend while waiting for the evening prayer time in front of his house at Bayan Quarters in Maiduguri.

It was also learnt that the gunmen had been trailing him since the arrest of his son in February, a situation which made him relocate to Abuja for a while.

According to reports, the killing of Abul Qaqa’s father may not be unconnected with the revelations he (Abul Qaqa) has been giving the security agencies with regard to operations of the sect since his arrest.

Although the Joint Task Force on Operation Restore Order in Borno State could not confirm the incident at the time of filing this report, spokesman for the JTF, Lieutenant-Colonel Shamsu Musa told Nigerian Tribune that he
would call to confirm the incident.

Meanwhile, the JTF in Borno has called on the people of the state not to panic when they see massive movement of troops as the JTF is conducting search to restore order in flash points of the state like Abaganaram, Jajeri and
Budun wards of the metropolis.

In a related development, the Nigerian authorities have detained five men, including a Mauritanian, believed to have link to Al-Qaeda’s north African branch over the January kidnapping of a German, two security sources said on Tuesday.

Four of the suspects were arrested in a raid on a store in the northern city of Kano owned by the Mauritanian last week, while the fifth was held in a separate raid, the sources said.

“Guns and a laptop were recovered in the store and the documents found in the computer, including an AQIM operation manual, showed that the suspects are linked to AQIM and were involved in the kidnap of the German engineer in January,” one of the sources said in describing the store raid.

AQIM is the abbreviation for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the extremist group’s North African arm.

German engineer, Edgar Raupach, was kidnapped on the outskirts of Kano in January.

AQIM said last week it was holding the German and that it wanted to swap him for a jailed Muslim woman, a private news agency in Mauritania said.

Nigerian authorities have come under intense pressure over the kidnapping as well as violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram.

It also faced criticism after a failed bid to rescue an Italian and a British hostage earlier this month. The hostages were killed by their captors before they could be rescued in a joint operation with British security forces, authorities said.

SOURCE: The Tribune, 28 March 2012. http://tribune.com.ng/index.php