BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Department of State Services (DSS) has provided the rationale behind the arrest of terrorists' negotiator, Alhaji Tukur Mamu.
The terrorists’ negotiator was arrested and detained on Tuesday at Cairo International Airport, Egypt alongside his family members, enroute Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj.
Mamu, who is also the Publisher of Desert Herald Newspaper negotiated the release of Abuja-Kaduna bound train passengers that were kidnapped by terrorists.
Terrorists had on March 28th bombed the Abuja-Kaduna train, killed nine passengers and abducted about 70 others during the attack.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima had visited the publisher and Sheikh Gumi in Kaduna State, few days before the arrest.
But the DSS in a statement by its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said that Mamu was arrested on what he described as a 'person of interest'.
He stated that DSS arrested and detained Mamu upon his return to Nigeria on Wednesday. Afunanya said that Mamu needs to provide answers to critical questions bordering on security in parts of Nigeria.
The statement reads, “The Department of State Services has been inundated with enquires in respect of the arrest or otherwise of Tukur Mamu, the self-acclaimed Kaduna Train hostage negotiator."
“This is to confirm that Mamu, as a person of interest, was intercepted by Nigeria’s foreign partners at Cairo, Egypt on 6th September, 2022 while on his way to Saudi Arabia."
“He has since been returned to the country, today, 7th September 2022 and taken into the Service’s custody.
“The act followed a request by Nigeria’s Military, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community to their foreign partners to bring back Mamu to the country to answer critical questions on ongoing investigations relating to some security matters in parts of the country."
“The public may wish to note that the law will appropriately take its course.”
However, the management of the Desert Herald Newspaper blamed the arrest as an attempt to intimidate its publisher (Mamu).
The Head of Special Projects, Ibrahim Mada, in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday, accused the federal government of taunting the publisher despite his dangerous sacrifice for the country.
Mada said, “His (Mamu) patriotic mission to ensure the safety of the hapless passengers made him a target of blackmail by unscrupulous elements in the government who are hell-bent in punishing him for this noble but dangerous sacrifice for the fatherland. Such threats and intimidations have forced him to reveal on a number of times that his life was under serious threat."
“Due to numerous threats to his life and conspiracy from the side of security agents to frame him, he withdrew from the said negotiations but from his latest sojourn, it appears that those who are desperately praying for his head are still hell-bent in carrying out their odious dastardly plans."
“But it is our fervent hope that the evil machination of these desperate elements will be nixed by the fact that Allah is always by the side of the oppressed. This evil machination like the ones before it, shall also come to pass,” he concluded.
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