Following revelations that he was one of the sponsors of the dreaded Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram, Senator Ali Ndume has been arrested by the State Security Services.
He was fingered alongside former Nigeria’s ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe, the late Amb. Sa’idu Pindar by a spokesman of the sect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga (aka Usman Al-Zawahiri) who was paraded by the SSS in Abuja on Monday as being...
sponsors of the violent sect. The PDP senator from Borno State was picked up even before the suspect was paraded and made to speak to journalists at the SSS headquarters.
The suspect, who spoke through an interpreter, confessed to having been a member of the sect after graduating as a student of the late leader of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf. He also admitted being the mastermind behind the threat messages to the judges of the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State.
According to him, the group was totally against the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and former governor Ali Modu Sherrif, and wanted to ensure that the tribunal remove the present government in the state. He said the sect had problems with the government which always made promises and policy statements without fulfilling them.
Ali Sanda Konduga claimed the late Pindar had informed them that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was behind ex-governor Sherrif, and encouraged them to send a threat text messages to him and other Northern politicians including Senator Sanusi Daggash, who he claimed worked against the victory of the PDP in the state during the governorship election.
He claimed Senator Ndume had provided the numbers to which the text messages were sent but after his acceptance to be on a committee set up by the administration, the sect members began to question his loyalty and had to confront the lawmaker.
The suspect further explained that the sect had been in good terms with the former governor who appointed one of their members, Buju Foi, as commissioner for religious affairs until he was sacked and killed under questionable circumstance.
The spokesperson, who claimed he had been suspended by the sect on the suspicion that he was a government informant, disclosed that the sect had only one spokesperson before the death of their leader, pointing out that on regrouping they decided on three persons to coordinate the affairs of the sect.
The SSS deputy director in charge of public relations, Ms. Marily Ogar, had told journalists that the suspect was arrested through a joint security operation on November 3, 2011, at Gwange area, Maiduguri... This is indeed a positive development, but Nigerians are anxiously waiting for more revelations on this thorny issue.
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