The State Safety Providers (SSS) says it has re-arrested Abdulazeez Obadaki, a commander of the Ansaru terrorist group who escaped through the 2022 Kuje Custodial Centre jailbreak and has been on the run for greater than three years.
The key police disclosed this in an announcement it shared with PREMIUM TIMES Friday night.
The SSS stated Mr Obadaki, also referred to as Bomboy, orchestrated the 7 August 2012 mass capturing at a Deeper Life Bible Church close to Okene, Kogi State, the place armed males opened hearth on worshippers throughout a service, killing at least 19 people, including the pastor.
A number of others have been injured within the assault that signalled insurgents’ enlargement from north-east to north-central and south-west Nigeria.
On the time, Boko Haram, also referred to as Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), was suspected to have carried out the assault. Six months earlier, it had claimed duty for an assault on a Kogi jail that freed greater than 100 inmates, together with Abu Bara’a, a former Boko Haram commander who co-founded Ansaru.
Abu Bara’a and his brothers-in-arms fashioned Ansaru following a 2012 schism that rocked Boko Haram over financial and doctrinal points.
Safety specialists imagine that Abu Bara, who hails from Okene, Kogi, facilitated the recruitment of many youths from the realm, making Ansaru’s affect felt within the North-central state and past. Nonetheless, specialists attributed most assaults round Kogi to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), another breakaway faction of Boko Haram.
He has now been re-arrested alongside one among his commanders, Mallam Mamuda, whose unit continues to terrorise residents of Niger and Kwara states close to the Kainji Nationwide Park. PREMIUM TIMES peofiled the 2 Ansaru leaders right here.
The re-arrest of Obadaki
The SSS stated its operatives recaptured Mr Obadaki in a “well-oiled intelligence operation” on Friday morning. It didn’t share the small print of the arrest.
The key police stated Mr Obadaki confessed to “orchestrating the Kuje Custodial centre jailbreak following his switch from Kabba Custodial Centre in June 2022.”
PREMIUM TIMES couldn’t independently confirm this declare.
Nonetheless, checks on the small print of the terrorists declared needed by the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) following the Kuje jail assault present that Mr Obadaki was 58th on the listing.
Following the Okene bloodbath, Mr Obadaki, in accordance with the SSS, was additionally linked to the violent daylight robbery of 5 business banks in Uromi, Edo State.
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The theft, staged in February 2022, claimed eight lives together with two cops, whereas 12 others have been injured.
Following his escape from Kuje jail, the SSS stated Mr Obadaki went into hiding. It stays unclear the place he hid through the three-year manhunt or whether or not officers have recognized those that aided him in attaining this.
His arrest comes about two months after the SSS arraigned 5 suspects related to the 2022 assault on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
