Arrested Boko Haram Leader, Habib Bama Dead

Felix Nnamdi / Abuja

Hopes of possible unraveling of the faces behind the dreaded Boko Haram sect with Thursday’s arrest of one of the leaders of the sect, Habib Bama, after a gun duel with operatives of the Joint Task Force that left him ‘fatally wounded’ in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital may have been dashed as the man is reportedly dead.

Unconfirmed reports which filtered into the Federal capital city this evening indicate that Habib Bama died this afternoon in Damaturu as a result of injuries sustained in the gun duel.

NAN had reported that the wanted man ‘was fatally wounded’, which means death was inevitable.

Attempts to get confirmation from the State Security Services, SSS, proved abortive as the Spokesperson to the security agency, Ms. Marilyn Ogar in a telephone interview stated that the reports making the round about Bama’s death did not emanate from the SSS.

“I just read the report of Habib Bama’s death on an Online publication minutes ago. It did not emanate from us, it may have been from the Joint Task Force who arrested him after he sustained injuries in yesterday’s (Thursday) operation. The information about his death did not emanate from us and I can’t confirm its authenticity”.

Bama had been on the wanted list for months and had been fingered by security agencies as the mastermind of series of bombings carried out in the Federal Capital Territory and environs.
Bama, a dismissed Army Private, allegedly coordinated bombings in Mogadishu Barracks, the Police Headquarters, the UN Building, St Theresa’s Catholic Church at Madalla and many other attacks in Jos.

The JTF, comprising the State Security Service, SSS, the military and the police, stormed Bama’s operational base in Damaturu, and engaged him and his foot soldiers in a gun duel where he was fatally wounded.

He was said to have died in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital as a result of serious injuries suffered from the gun shoot out he had with men of the Joint Task Team, JTF.