Police arrest wanted Boko Haram commander in Ondo

Military authorities say one of the wanted members of the Boko Haram group has been captured by the police in Ondo State.

The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Sani Kukasheka announced the arrest in a statement in Maiduguri.

According to Brigadier Kusheka,the arrested man, named Idris Ibrahim Babawo is  a top Boko Haram commander and  identified as number 165 in the Boko Haram wanted list.

Babawo, 42, who also goes by the name Idiko or Nagada had since been handed over to the military.

“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.

“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, the epicentre of the bloody campaign.