Nearly 500 Boko Haram suspects arrested

Some 486 suspected Boko Haram insurgents, including eight females, were arrested by soldiers of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, Asa in Ukwa West Council of the eastern Abia State, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Abia State Information Commissioner, Chief Eze Chikamnayo, who took reporters to the military camp on Monday to see the suspects, said they were arrested about 3 am along the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway at Arongwa area on the border between Abia and Rivers States.

He said the suspects, aged between 16 and 24, were travelling in 35 buses.

They reportedly claimed to have come from different parts of northern Nigeria and were searching for work in the south, but could not exactly say where they were going, the Nigerian Tribune said.

Briefing the media, the Commander of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, Asa, Lieutenant-Colonel Rasheed Omolori, said two of the 35 buses managed to escape with their occupants.

He said the incident had been reported to the Defence Headquarters in the capital, Abuja and did not give any further details.

According to Chief Eze Chikamnayo, the sheer size of the movement made it suspicious, wondering how such “a long convoy” was not intercepted before it reached Abia State. He said the army and other security agencies in the state are questioning the suspects.

In a related development, the Imo State government launched ‘Operation Know Your Neighbour,’ to secure lives and property.

It followed the aborted bombing on June 15, 2014 of Winners’ Chapel Church in Owerri, the Imo State capital by suspected Boko Haram agents.

Thisday newspaper said under the new measures, all hotels have been ordered to install security cameras and forward - on a daily basis - the list of their guests to the Director of State Security Services, SSS.

Trailers bringing foodstuff from the northern part of the country will no longer be allowed to enter the state at night.

Such food will henceforth be off-loaded at a designated site outside the state capital.

Similarly, traditional rulers have been directed to summon emergency meetings of their communities to take stock of strange people in their midst.