‘We met at scene of Apo killings’, says Boko Haram suspect

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

A suspected member of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Adamu told a panel of the National Human Rights Commission,NHRC on Tuesday that members of the insurgent group were meeting regularly at a building located in Apo area of Abuja where about eight squatters were killed in September during a raid by a combined team of State Security Services and military men.

Officials of the security agencies had claimed that the squatters were killed because they are members of Boko Haram.

But some survivors of the raid had denied the charge as they insisted that the deceased were squatters who were engaged in various menial jobs during the day and usually sleep at the uncompleted building at night.

But Adamu told the NHRC on Tuesday that members of sect were meeting on a regular basis at the uncompleted building before the incident.

Adamu who made the revelation when a panel of NHRC led by the executive secretary, Professor Ben Angwe, visited the uncompleted building also revealed that the group had planned to attack some government institutions he did not name before they were arrested.

“We meet between 8:00pm and 11:00pm, local time, daily,” the Boko Haram suspect who spoke in Hausa said.

He listed one Suleman, who is at large, is the leader of the sect in Abuja and that they met three times a week to plan how to defend their religion before they were arrested.

According to him, he was recruited into the sect by the Suleiman.

He also claimed that the Boko Haram leader who is at large at a time show him a bag containing three AK-47 guns they were to use for an attack.

After examining the site, Angwe told journalists that the commission would conclude the public hearing by the end of the month and its findings would be made public by February.

“We will continue the public hearing at our headquarters where more testimonies will be taken,” Professor Angwe said.

NHRC launched a probe into the incident following controversies over the true identity of the victims.