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Lagos — Nigeria’s military has raided an intelligence cell of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, detaining a top intelligence operative believed to have spearheaded the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok mid-April, Punch newspaper reported yesterday.
Businessman Babuji Ya’ari is also suspected of involvement in the assassination in May of a traditional leader, the emir of Gwoza, and in several bomb attacks in Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Borno state.
He used his position as the leader of a youth vigilance group as a cover for his terrorist activities, the army said. Security forces also arrested several suspected female members of the cell.
Boko Haram attacks have claimed thousands of lives this year alone.
The most recent of them included an assault on churches and communities near Chibok on Sunday that, according to Punch, killed 53 people.
Boko Haram also targeted a shopping centre in Abuja last week, killing more than 20 people.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday vowed to step up the fight against the insurgents.
“Renewed attacks on churches and other similar atrocities by Boko Haram are conclusive proof, if any is still needed, that its leaders and members are thoroughly misguided persons who are only using religion as a cover for their reprehensible crimes against their countrymen and women,” Jonathan said.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in a market in Nigeria’s north-eastern city of Maiduguri yesterday morning, and dozens of people are feared dead, witnesses said.
They immediately blamed Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group whose birthplace is Maiduguri and which is accused of a series of recent bomb attacks in the West African nation.
Yesterday’s explosives were hidden under a load of charcoal in a pickup van, according to witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Trader Daba Musa Yobe, who works near the popular market, said the bomb went off just after the market opened at 08.00, before most traders or customers had arrived.
Other witnesses said they saw about 50 bodies, and that five cars and some tricycle taxis were set ablaze by the explosion.
They said the toll could have been worse but fewer than normal traders and customers were around because most people stay up late to eat during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. — Al Jazeera
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