Kano Moves To Free Boko Haram Suspects In Abia

The Kano State govern
ment, has set up a committee to look into the case of the 486 persons arrested in Abia state last week. The men were travelling  in over 33 Hiace Hummer buses at about 2am, along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, last Sunday.
The committee, headed by the Commissioner for Special Duties, General Idris Bello Dambazau (rtd), will among other things find out whether Kano citizens were among the arrested persons.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Abubakar Damburan Nuhu,  who disclosed this last Friday,  said the committee is mandated to see to the release of Kano citizens among them. Government will not allow for any form of maltreatment to its citizens.”
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has praised the professional and patriotic action of the Nigerian military over the arrest of 486 suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.
CAN urged authorities not to feel intimidated or blackmailed from taking any move within the law to stop and question any person or group of persons.
In a statement in Abuja, Saturday CAN’s National General Secretary, Dr Musa Asake, also called on security agencies to ignore the submissions of Ja’amatu Nasril Islam (JNI) and go ahead with the investigation of the suspects.
He said the claim by JNI that the arrested persons are innocent and that they were going about their normal businesses when a wanted terror suspects was found among them, is hasty and preposterous. He described the claim as misleading and a mischievous attempt to cover up.
Asake said: “ CAN is not against Muslims because we are working together to build the Nigeria of our dream. However, of recent CAN has noted the deliberate policy of Ja’amatu Nasril Islam (JNI) and some unabashed sympathies for Boko Haram, to give inaccurate report on matters they know little or nothing about, especially when Muslims are at the receiving end. As the umbrella body of Christian faithful in Nigeria, CAN will not play the ostrich when the evil prospects of Islamic terrorism spreading to Southern Nigeria is being explored by Boko Haram.
“We condemn this bellicose attitude of the JNI each time matters of national security involving Muslims are being handled by security agencies on account of their misdeeds. We hate to believe that JNI has a hand in some of this security threats to the nation. Or how else can we explain a situation where it is squealing while investigation which has even revealed that a suspected top commander of Boko Haram was among the 486 suspects arrested, is yet to be concluded?” , he said.
The CAN scribe warned that threat by Boko Haram to export its cruelty to the Southern part of Nigeria must not be underestimated, and appealed to the security agencies to take appropriate initiatives by acting rather than reacting to events. The most wanted terrorist among them perhaps is the ‘trade’ branch of the JNI”.

National Chairman, APGA Board of Trustees, Chief Martins Agbaso (right) exchanging pleasantries with his campaign team in Owerri recently. Photo: NAN