A Federal Lawmaker Runs Boko Haram!

Phone analysis of a captured member of the sect indicts a member of the National Assembly. 

A serving member of the National Assembly runs the activities of the Boko Haram sect, the group’s spokesman, Ali Konduga, currently in the custody of the State Security Service has said. Konduga, widely known in the media as Usman Al-Zawahiri, is a former political thug operating under a group widely known as ECOMOG and arrested on November 3, at Gwange area, Maiduguri, Borno State by a joint security operation.

His arrest came days before the deadly coordinated attacks on Borno and Yobe state that claimed over 150 lives during the recent sallah weekend. The SSS said Konduga’s arrest confirms its position that some of the Boko Haram extremists have political patronage and sponsorship.

In a statement by the spokesperson of the service, Marilyn Ogar, the suspect admitted that the pseudo name was given to him by the said politician to portray him as an extremist as well as conceal his true identity. The statement also said the suspect confessed that the serving lawmaker took over the running of the sect after his initial sponsor (name also withheld) died in a motor accident while bringing a part payment of N5 million to him.

The suspect also admitted that he was behind the threat text messages sent to the judges of the Election Petition Tribunal in Maiduguri, Governor Sule Lamido, Governor Babangida Aliyu, Dalhatu Tafida, former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Justice Sabo Adamu, Chairman of Borno State Election Petition Tribunal. "Most of the threat messages he sent to Justice Sabo Adamu were scripted and relayed to him by the National Assembly member," said the statement. "Meanwhile, analysis of Al-Zawahiri's phone has confirmed constant communication between him and the legislator."

The Boko Haram sect, whose leader was allegedly killed by the police in 1999, abhors westernisation and is campaigning for the Islamisation of Nigeria. The sect has been the major source of internal security breach in Nigeria over the past two years.

It has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks on police, community leaders, churches and prisons, and recently, the bombing of the United Nation’s office in Abuja and the Sallah weekend attacks Borno and Yobe state that left about 150 dead.