BOKO HARAM COMMANDER IS MY NEPHEW- SENATOR

Senator Ahmed Zanna

The Joint Task Force, JTF, on Thursday announced the arrest of a high profile Boko Haram Commander Shuaib Mohammed Bama in Maiduguri,  who has been on the list of wanted terrorists operating between Bama and Maiduguri.

The SSS later linked Mr Bama to the house of senator Ahmed Zannaa in  Maiduguri. The Senator, representing Borno Central Senatorial district, has denied the allegation that the Boko Haram member was arrested in his house saying he only got of a text on Sunday that the SSS DG will want to see him on Monday (today). “What I am suspecting is that they want to frame me up.” he said.

He denied any link to the Boko Haram sect, saying although the suspect is his nephew,  his sister’s son, who he had long kept at arm’s length, was not arrested in his apartment but in a house belonging to a former Governor of Borno State, who is currently a Senator, Ali Modu Sheriff.

God will expose all this evil men using the lives of innocent men, women and children as pawn in their power game. Continue to read more

“He beats up my children; he abuses my friends. He came to my house, so I sent him away. That was about a year ago. And for whatever reason I don’t know, he came to my house last week and I said he should leave the house,” Mr Zanna said.

“Some time ago, he even threatened to kill his mother. So, the mother was not even feeling comfortable living with him. And he narrated that to me. That is why I also do not want him to be near me.

“I don’t know him to be a Boko Haram member. Never, never, I do not know him to be a member of Boko Haram.”

Mr Zanna said the JTF had been scheming to frame him because he has always criticized their officials who go about the state committing terrible human rights abuses in the name of hunting Boko Haram insurgents.

“This story emanating from the JTF is actually as a result of an interview which I carried out in BBC last week – asking for their withdrawal from the state because they are not working according to the rules of engagement.

“I noticed that they are just killing innocent people, killing them unnecessarily, harassing their families, extorting money. All these have been going on and I became so concerned. Particularly, the killing and burning of houses became the order of the day.

“At least, 300 houses were burnt within the last one and a half months. And it will not be an exaggeration for me to say that up to 500 people have been killed by the bullets of the JTF.

“I called for their withdrawal because even Boko Haram cannot do more than that. If they have come to protect us, they are not supposed to eliminate our young ones. Most of the people affected are young ones.

“According to the information I got yesterday, they have started even killing old men. Somebody who was about 70 years old was killed. He was sitting down, listening to a radio and a JTF man came and he said: ‘Baba come’. They just took him to a certain distance and shot him. This is the type of things happening. So, my people are helpless. This warranted me to react.”

The arrest of the suspected Boko Haram Commander is a major breakthrough for the JTF and also gives credence to recent claims by President Goodluck Jonathan that the sect has links with some government officials.