The Department of State Security has summoned Modu Sheriff,
the former Governor of Bornu State for interrogation over allegation levelled
against him by an Australian accusing him of being one of the sponsors of Boko
Haram in Nigeria.
The DSS revealed that it had interrogated the former Governor
on two occasions over his alleged involvement with the dreaded sect. It
however, said that investigations are on-going into various allegations made by
Stephen Davies, an Australian negotiator. It will be recalled that the
Australian negotiator named the former Governor as one of the sponsors of the
sect.
The DSS Deputy Director, Public Relations, Mrs Marilyn Ogar,
revealed this on today in Abuja while parading the co-mastermind of the Nyanya
blast, Sadiq Ogwuche, along with other suspects, Ahmed Abubakar, Muhammad
Ishaq, Yau Saidu, Anas Isah and Adamu Yusuf.
The DSS Spokeswoman dismissed as untrue allegations made by
the Australian that a former Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, was one
of the sponsors of the sect. She stated that it was: “Uncharitable for
Nigerians to reward someone who laid down his life, to associate him with the
sponsorship of the sect.”
She further stated that: “Sheriff has been invited
twice and he has been invited again (over his alleged sponsorship of Boko
Haram). Investigation is ongoing to review every aspect of Davies allegations.”
The DSS spokeswoman said contrary to claims by Davies that
the CBN official who handled the funding of Boko Haram, is an uncle to three of
those arrested in connection with the Nyanya bombings, none of the six suspects
in the agency’s custody was related to another by blood.
“In other words, none is a cousin or nephew to any other and
only two suspects namely Yau Saidu and Anas Isah have ever lived together at
the makeshift clinic called ‘Kishi Clinic’ operated by Rufai Tsiga, a
co-mastermind of the bomb blast who is still at large,” she explained.
She added that further interrogation of
suspects indicated that none lived with or has any relationship with any
staff of the CBN, noting that the clarification was necessary to correct the
erroneous impression in the media.
Ogar denied that the DSS was the source of the information
credited to Davis, describing him as “a self-styled and self-appointed
negotiator.”
Ogwuche, who was repatriated to Nigeria from Sudan, denied
being a member of Boko Haram in an interview with journalists, stressing that
he had no hand in the Nyanya bombings as he was in Sudan at the time of the
incident.
The suspect, however, admitted to have donated N30,000 to
widows of Boko Haram members through Tsiga, who had been declared wanted for
his roles in the Nyanya blast.
Asked why he deserted the Army, he stated that he did it in
order to go and study Arabic in Sudan even as he admitted receiving lectures
and taking demonstrations with a Jihadist group in Britain before he came back
to Nigeria.
He said, “I am not a member of Boko Haram and I don’t know
anything about the Nyanya blast. I deny it because I was studying in Sudan when
the incident happened.”
Saidu, a boy to the co-mastermind of the blast, however,
identified Ogwuche as a regular visitor to Tsiga ‘clinic’ where the plot to
bomb Nyanya was hatched.
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