Boko Haram’s Doctor Arrested By JTF

A medical doctor who consults for Islamist sect Boko Haram, and at the same time a consultant with the World Health Organization (WHO) has been arrested by the Joint Task Force, JTF, in Borno State.

Sources say the arrest of the medical doctor followed a tip-off that the terrorists had a well organized mobile medical facility with which wounded insurgents are treated.

International human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, was said to have sent its officials to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the supposedly WHO consultant, laying credence to the suspected international connection of the medical doctor.

“In fact, what gave him out was his suit case containing sophisticated medical equipment with which he provided diagnostic services to the terrorists”, a source said.

“A truck suspected to be carrying insurgents and IEDS as well as other dangerous weapons was stopped at a check point but it sped off. Unknown to the truck’s driver and other occupants of the truck, there was another checkpoint which had been alerted of their coming. When the truck got to that checkpoint, the security operatives fired at it while the occupants ran into the bush.

“When the truck was searched, various types of IEDS, AK 47 rifles and other bomb-making materials were found. Also found was a suit case containing medical equipment. After some time, when the doctor felt the Special Forces had left, he came back to retrieve his suit case but was ambushed and arrested,” a Vanguard source said.

The source said further; “immediately the doctor was arrested, Amnesty International was calling the military authorities alleging that an innocent doctor has been arrested by the JTF forces and that he should be released because of his human rights, though the military authorities are not moved by their plea”.

In another development, the recent attack at Government Secondary School, near Potiskum in Yobe State during which 29 students and a teacher were killed, was the fallout of the arrest of a lawyer with alleged links with the sect, Vanguard reports.

The Lawyer who stood for the suspected Boko Haram terrorists each time they were arrested, who was also said to be an ideological/ intellectual contributor to their activities in Yobe State allegedly said, “So you have arrested me. Let me warn you that this town will know no peace until I am released”, following his arrest by JTF.

The source said that two days after, the secondary school near Potiskum was attacked and the children (students) slaughtered.

After the massacre of the children, neighbours living in the area said they heard the terrorists shouting “Allahu Akbar, yes we have taken revenge for his arrest”.

The Vanguard source said: “The most horrifying aspect of the students’ killing was that they asked the students, both boys and girls to pull off their dresses, and any student found with pubic hair on his or her private parts, was not only shot and killed, they also used axes or machetes to cut off their legs from their body”.

Both the medical doctor and the lawyer have been held in JTF custody since their arrests, and they are said to be awaiting prosecution.