Nigerian troops have arrested a “high-profile” member of the Islamist group Boko Haram during a raid in the northern city of Kano Tuesday, a military spokesman said.
Nigerian troops have arrested a “high-profile” member of the Islamist group Boko Haram during a raid in the northern city of Kano Tuesday, a military spokesman said.
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“We picked the suspect in his hideout around 6:00 am without any resistance,” Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi of the special joint task force (JTF) deployed in the city told AFP.
Ikedichi said the suspect was arrested in Darmanawa, a district of Nigeria’s second largest city believed to harbour several Islamists.
“He has been on our wanted list of high-profile members of Boko Haram terrorists,” he said, refusing to disclose his identity so as not to jeopardise the investigation.
Nigerian troops have stepped up their crackdown on suspected Boko Haram members in recent months.
The sect has been blamed for scores of targeted attacks mainly in northern Nigeria that have killed more than 1,000 people since mid-2009.
Boko Haram claimed January 20 attacks in Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, when coordinated bombings and shootings left at least 185 dead, the extremists’ deadliest attack yet.
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