A new twist to the Boko Haram saga emerged yesterday night as an unidentified caller claiming to be the spokesman of the sect, Abul Qaqa, who was said to be in the custody of a security agency, insisted that he was not the one arrested, but rather a junior officer sent to prepare the ground for dialogue with government.
According to the sect's spokesman, who spoke with newsmen in a teleconference in Maiduguri, Abu Dardaa, another official of the sect, went to arrange a meeting with the federal government in Kaduna but that government 'cheated' and captured him.
He said: "We want to react on what security agents said in respect of the arrest of one of our own. The person that was arrested was Abu Dardaa, and not Abu Qaqa. I am Abul Qaqa, the spokesman of the Jama'atu Ahlis Sunnati Lidda'awati Wal Jihad. Abul Dardaa is the head of the Lagina (Department) of public enlightenment and not the spokesman.
"The arrest of Abu Dardaa is an outright deception and betrayal by the Nigerian government and security agents. They proclaimed dialogue and are doing the opposite.
His arrest has proven to us that they were waiting for us to avail ourselves so that they can arrest us.
"We purposely sent Abul Dardaa to Kaduna to discuss with some key government functionaries on the issue of dialogue. Indeed, he had started talking to them but, unknown to him, they directed some security agents to trail him and arrest him. This was exactly what happened."
"We initially thought that the much talked-about dialogue was true and we actually resolved that after the initial meeting with Dardaa, we would send five representatives to stand for us. Part of what we told him to discuss with the government representatives was the unconditional release of our members as pre-condition for any further discussion. I want to reiterate that we want all our members to be released for peace to return and for dialogue to hold."
However, reliable sources informed LEADERSHIP that the voice in the interview with the sect's purported spokesperson was not Abul Qaqa's.
Comments Post a comment
sss and all security agents should be wise: the arrest was the person intended. but one should have been done and what is that? they need not arrest him. all they need is to trail him. never give him the ompression that he is followed eventually he will lead sss to their depot. or better stil plant a transponder on his vehicle incase they loose sight on him. for details contact me on such advice
If really the person that was arrested by gov't wasn't Abu Qaqa,then don't they have good eye sight to differenciate b/w the person appeared in youtube and the one they have at hand?
are you kidding me....its no news that such intelligence is unaccessible.
Someone should do a story on why southern troops are stopping everyday men like my friend yesterday who has nothing to do with anything, who was taking his kids to school and was stopped by southern christian soldiers and told to lay down on ground. one of the soldiers in pigeon English said "just shoot them and take the cell phones". Later they got out of it by paying abribe. They would have been shot if his cell phone didn't ring and the other person on the phone didn't have quick thinking and persuasion skills.I can see how many men who have nothing to do with all this stuff would want to join jamatual dawa "boko haram" because no matter what if your going to be killed and die you would be better off doing it with a gun in your hand. The government better control it's troops or soon this matter will be past the point of return.They need to put a Muslim with every troop to stop the undercover ethnic cleansing that's going on. Now is the time to act while there is a chance to stop civil war or everyone will be sorry later.