Sept. 18, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO, September 17, (THEWILL) – The Borno youth vigilante group, popularly known as Civilian JTF, on Tuesday, effected the arrest of 18 members of Boko Haram in five villages in Konduga Local Government Area of the State where scores of residents were slain recently in mosques and their homes in an apparent retaliatory attack by the insurgents.
A source disclosed that the manhunt for the insurgents by the Civilian JTF, which had been on for some days, eventually paid off on Tuesday after three days of “search and hunt” in the five villages between Monday and Tuesday.
A Civilian JTF member, Ibrahim Yakub, said the three-day “search and hunt” of the fleeing insurgents in Konduga town and other neighbouring villages of the council eventually yielded expected results.
Konduga , located 40 kilometres east of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital was were 55 people were killed in August by the gunmen.
Describing the operations that led to the arrest of the fleeing gunmen, another Civilian JTF member , Abubakar Goni Adam, said that the 18 Boko Haram members were pursued to Konduga and communities bordering the Sambisa Games Reserves Forest.
“The fleeing Boko Haram sect members had been hiding in the Forest , but with the destruction of their training camps and hideouts by Special Operational Forces of Nigerian Army in June, the sect members fled to towns and villages bordering the Forest.
Our members had to intervene and assisted in tracking down these people who attacked and killed in affected areas of the state. With the assistance of soldiers and the police, we are able to arrest 19 suspects along with some rifles and ammunitions in Konduga and other communities bordering the Forest at the weekend,” Adam said.
The arrested insurgents were brought to Maiduguri with their hands to their back and were handed over to soldiers of 7 Division of Nigerian Army on Tuesday.
However, there was no official confirmation of the arrest when filing this report.
No official confirmation could be gotten from either the military or the police authorities.
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