Boko Haram Kingpin Engages Security Operatives In Gun Duel, Escapes Arrest In Niger

Residents of Gbaganu community, a suburb of Minna, Niger State capital city, are now living in fears as another suspected Boko Haram kingpin had an encounter with security operatives following a tip-off on Tuesday.

Recall that in 2021, Niger State government demolished a building of a suspected Boko Haram member and was arrested around the same Gbaganu area.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the Boko Haram kingpin, who is said to be from Kogi State, had moved to the area over a year ago and security intelligence had monitored him and discovered that he was piling dangerous weapons at home.

It was learnt that he bought the two-bedroom apartment from a local in the area after Kpakungu area off Minna-Bida Road in Minna.

Sources hinted that security operatives early in the morning on Tuesday moved to the area to apprehend him, but the suspected terrorist sighted them and engaged them in gun duel.

It was learnt that when he discovered that he was being overpowered by the superior firepower of the security operatives, he brought down the back fence of his building and escaped through the bush path towards the bush adjoining the forest around Bosso area of Minna.

Some of the neighbours interviewed by LEADERSHIP confirmed that since he moved to the area, he neither allowed anybody into his house nor he and members of his family visited anyone

It was further gathered that from residents in the area that even his name was not known to any of them nor any of the members of the family known to anyone.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Wasiu Abiodun, neither responded to text messages nor pick calls placed to his known phone number.

However, a security source hinted that 150 AK47 guns, 20 rocket propellers, 3,000 live ammunitions were recovered from the Boko Haram kingpin’s residence.

It was also gathered that the members of his family numbering about seven were arrested by the security operatives as they trailed him through the bush path to the adjoining forest.