Boko Haram denies Mubi killings

October 10, 2012 by Agency Reporter  

 

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Boko Haram has denied killing about 40 students in Mubi, Adamawa State, last week an online publication, Premium Times reports.

Gunmen invaded the Federal Polytechnic,Mubi and the state university located in the town and killed 40 of the students. The killings were condemned across the country.

A man, who claimed to be a senior member of the Islamic sect, told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that his group had nothing to do with the killings.

“We have no business with students or student politics. If students are our target we would have killed them randomly on sight and in their school and not sneak on them in the creeping darkness in an area occupied by both students and residents,” he said.

The man, who PREMIUM TIMES’ investigations revealed to be a member of the group, said if the sect wanted to attack educational facilities, it would have gone for structures and not students.

He said, “What would have been our target as far as I am concerned would have been the building and property of the institution, since it is owned by the government. At least, by now other students elsewhere would have been attacked if students are our concern.”

He said the mode of attack was not characteristic of the sect’s numerous attacks.

“Several statements by our spokesman and Imam in the past have made it clear who our enemies are. I don’t have to repeat it here. I don’t think anybody among us has the time to draw up a list or read it out before executing the students.”

The group’s denial throws another controversy into the likely perpetrators of the dastardly act. Some of the murdered students were shot while others were slaughtered. Security agencies are already investigating the criminal act.

The Boko Haram member, according to the report, also admitted that the Joint Task Force in the North had killed many of the sect’s members but claimed that some of those killed were innocent people having no links to the group.

He accused the JTF of hiding the casualty figure suffered by the force in various confrontations with Boko Haram.

He said, “We have killed a lot of security personnel in the North, especially in Yobe and Borno states, far more than the lies the JTF sell to you, media.

“A significant number of our brothers were killed but most of the people the JTF have killed have nothing to do with us. They are just youths in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper10 October 2012.