Police arrest Boko Haram commander in Ondo

-Police capture wanted Boko Haram member in Ondo State.

-He has since been handed over to the military authorities.

Officers of the Ondo State Police Command have effected the arrest of a high-value target in the on going war against the Boko Haram terrorists.

The arrested suspects have already been handed over to the military.

This disclosure was made in a statement released by the  Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Sani Kukasheka in Maiduguri.

According to the spokesman, Idris Ibrahim Babawo, a top Boko Haram commander, is identified as number 156 in the Boko Haram wanted list.

Babawo, aged 42, also goes by the name Idoko or Nagada, and was captured while trying to escape arrest.

“The Ondo State Command of the Nigeria Police on Sept. 24 at about 2: 00 p.m., arrested a wanted Boko Haram terrorist, Idris Ibrahim Babawo, believed to be number 156 on the wanted Boko Haram terrorists list.

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“He was handed over to the 32 Brigade, 2 Division, Nigerian Army at about 2:00 p.m. on Sept. 25 by the Ondo State Police Command.”

Kukasheka said that preliminary investigations showed that the terrorist hailed from Chinade village in the Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

He said that Babawo escaped from the North-East because of what he described as sustained military onslaught on the jihadists.

Boko Haram staged a bloody insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009 in a bid to establish an Islamic Caliphate.

But the military has decimated the group, forcing the insurgents to resort to attacking mainly soft targets in parts of northern Nigeria.

At least 2.7 million people have been displaced by the insurgency, especially in Borno and Adamawa States, where the group seems to have a stronghold.

(NAN)