Six suspected Boko Haram members, including a senior leader, were arrested after a local vigilante group found them in Lagos, Nigeria.
They were rounded up in various parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, after leaving Maiduguri in Borno State, headquarters of the militant Islamist movement that has terrorized Nigeria since 2009. Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed, leader of the Lagos Civilian Joint Task Force, said that the suspects were turned over Monday to Nigeria’s Department of State Services after their capture Friday. He added that the alleged Boko Haram members were found in different places around Lagos, looking unkempt and showing signs of starvation.
Of his vigilante group, Mohammed said, “We are from Borno, where these terrorists come from. And we know their communities. Our people back home do monitor them, and once they leave Maiduguri, we will be alerted so that we can be on the lookout. Once they arrive in any community in Lagos, our members are always on the ground to fish them out based on intelligence reports.”
He said that one suspect, known as Adam, was captured several weeks ago while living in a 40-foot container in a church.
“Adam is one of the top most wanted Boko Haram members on the wanted list of the military. We got [an] intelligence report that Adam was hiding inside an abandoned 40-feet container in church premises. It was the security man attached to the church that hid him inside the container…The pastor of the church was embarrassed to see us, but by the time we explained our mission to him, he, in company with others, gave us the go-ahead and by the time we broke open the padlock, Adam was hiding in the far corner of the container,” Mohammed said.
The group of six fled to Lagos to avoid arrest in Borno. Their identities allegedly match those on a list, distributed by the military, of Nigeria’s 100 most wanted terrorists, the Nigerian newspaper the Guardian said.
