BOKO HARAM:UNIVERSITY DON ARRESTED IN KOGI, NIGERIA

A university don Dr. Muhammad Nazeef Yunus, who allegedly acts as Recruitment Co-ordinator of the Boko Haram sect and four other members Umar Musa, Head of Operations/Instructor; Munzir Mustapha Yusuf, a.k.a Habib, Armourer/Chief courier; Ismail Abdulazeez, foot soldier and Ibrahim Isa, a.k.a ‘One in town’ another foot soldier were paraded by the operative of State Security Services in Abuja.

The Deputy Director, Public Relations, Department of State Service, Marilyn Ogar, who paraded the suspected Boko Haram members said their plot was botched when two members of the sect who were on their way to Borno State for training in weapons handling were arrested at Zuba, on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

However, Dr. Yunus, who until his arrest was a  an assistant lecturer in the Department of Islamic Studies, Kogi State University, Ayingba in Kogi State, insisted that his involvement was a frame-up. “My Islamic preaching had always been against the activities of the Boko Haram sects, but I was shocked when the other suspects insisted that I was a member and the one that recruited them into the sect. I have never been a member of Boko Haram for one minute in my life, I even preach against them,” he said.

Meanwhile, One of the suspects said he joined the group in May and was employed by the sect on a salary of N50,000 per month; while Mustapha Yusuf, who was allegedly trained at Sambisa camp in Maiduguri, Borno State said “the university lecturer appointed me as the armorer and chief courier of the group and handed two AK-47 rifles with 30 rounds of live ammunition to me for safe keeping after I returned to Kogi State shortly after military invasion of our camp in Borno State”.

 The other two foot soldiers Ismail Abdulazeez, and Ibrahim Isa, a.k.a ‘One in town’ also corroborated Munzir Mustapha claimed that Dr. Yunus indoctrinated them into the Boko Haram sect by preaching to them when they approached him to help them secure admission into the Kogi State University, Ayingba.

The SSS spokeswoman in her briefing then enjoined all Nigerians to be vigilant. She said: “We want to enjoin all Nigerians to be vigilant and continue to cooperate with security agencies through the provision of useful information of suspicious activities within their immediate environment; and she urged parents who send their children for Islamic teaching after school, to be very careful of the people they choose as their teachers and  they should take time to investigate the teachings so as to ensure that their children were not being taught what the parents did not practice.