ICC Note: A man who was allegedly connected to the Boko Haram abduction of the Chibok girls has been arrested. Babuji Ya’ari stands accused of being “heavily involved” in the Chibok abduction last year according to Nigeria’s Defense Ministry. Ya’ari’s arrest has led to police detaining others involved with the abduction. Ya’ari is also alleged to have been behind several attacks on the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. More than 200 of the 276 kidnapped Chibok girls, most of them Christians, remain captives of Boko Haram.
By Michelle Faul
6/30/15, Lagos, Nigeria (AP) – Nigerian troops have arrested a businessman accused of “participating actively” in Boko Haram’s mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok last year, Nigeria’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade said Babuji Ya’ari headed a “terrorists’ intelligence cell” for the Islamic extremists while masquerading as a member of the self-defense Youth Vigilante Group. That confirms suspicions that the vigilantes have been infiltrated by Boko Haram. Soldiers have told the AP that some of their comrades also belong to Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremist group.
“The arrest of the businessman … has also yielded some vital information and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’ intelligence cell who are women,” Olukolade said in a statement Tuesday night. He did not say when the arrests were made or how many people were arrested.
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