The Nigerian government on Tuesday announced that it has arrested a recruiter for the Islamic State in northwest state of Kano following a tip off, as well as seven alleged members of the Boko Haram offshoot Ansaru.
Spokesperson for the Department of State Service (DSS) Tony Opuiyo, who disclosed this in a statement said the arrest of the suspect, Abdussalam Enesi Yunusa was sequel to available intelligence which indicated his terrorist antecedents and covert drive to indoctrinate and recruit susceptible youths in the country.
The announcement comes nearly a year after the leader of Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, Abubakar Shekau, pledged allegiance to IS leader in Syria and Iraq, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Yunusa had completed arrangements to embark on a journey to join an IS terrorist training camp in Libya, with other Nigerians whom he recruited for the ‘Islamic State’ prior to his arrest, the secret police official added.
The secret police said he told them two other Nigerians were already undergoing training in the north African country, which has slid into bloodshed since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
At least two others, including one from Niger, were “ISIS agents operating in Nigeria and the West African sub-region”, funded by an IS “media expert” using international money transfers.
Four others were arrested in Kano on January 22 “while migrating to Libya, with their immediate families, including infants, in a bid to join ISIS”, the DSS said.
Two students were arrested a week later, also in Kano, on suspicion of plotting “coordinated lone wolf attacks” on crowded civilian targets in Nigeria, it added.
The Nigerian recruiter is an undergraduate student of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, where he was studying for a degree in Information and Media Technology, Opuiyo said.
The spokesperson said Yunusa was subsequently radicalized and became a member of an extremist cell, comprising of one Ibrahim and Abubakar Ligali, whom he revealed are currently undergoing terrorist training in Libya.
