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Nigeria’s former military President Ibrahim Babangida has denied claims that he was one of the powerful northern Muslims behind the Islamist militant sect Boko Haram.
Gen Babangida was reacting to claims made by Sheikh Sani Haliru, a suspected Boko Haram jihadist, who is currently on the run in Niger Republic.
Boko Haram is waging a terror campaign in Nigeria, which has killed over 1,000 people in the past year.
Sheikh Haliru had granted an interview posted on social media claiming, among other things, that he had renounced violence and that he was only a foot soldier for Gen Babangida, whom he named as a major sponsor of the terrorist sect.
Gen Babangida dismissed Sheikh Haliru’s claims as “the effusions of a deluded mind”.
A statement issued by the former president's spokesman, Mr Kassim Afegbua, read in part: "We have every cause to believe that the interview was carefully scripted to convey the message intended and not one conducted under a question– and–answer basis. The responses of the said Sani Haliru attest to this fact. From that premise therefore, it will be safe to conclude that the interview was structured by certain agents of government to satisfy pre-determined position."
On more than one occasion, the State Security Service (SSS) has admitted in public statements knowledge of involvement of “prominent Nigerians” in the large-scale bloodshed posing serious threats to the country’s existence.
SSS, however, has not made public the names of any suspects, instead hinting at unleashing shocking and substantial information harvested by forensic experts from “revealing call logs”.
Sheikh Haliru, who has travelled over the years to Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Egypt and his native Niger Republic, claimed that he received training in Libya and Pakistan as an attack strategist.
RSS