The State Security Service (SSS), said it has arrested Husseini Maitangaran, one of the top commanders of Boko Haram.
According to the SSS, the suspect was the mastermind behind several attacks carried out by the terrorist group in Kano in 2012.
The statement, signed by SSS spokesman, Tony Opuiyo, said the service arrested several other top Boko Haram terrorists, who were part of a foiled plan to disrupt the last Eid-el-Kabir celebrations between 1 and 4th September in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno states.
The SSS statement said Husseini Maitangaran was the mastermind behind the foiled attacks which was meant to have included gun attacks and bomb attacks against selected targets in identified states.
The SSS said Husseini Maitangaran had been on their wanted list since 2012 and has also been identified as the brain behind the coordinated armed attacks on the office of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone I on January 20, 2012, and other public places in Kano.
The suspect was also said to have been behind bomb attacks on worshippers at the Kano Central Mosque and another on a military formation in Yobe State, which killed over 100 people in 2015.
The SSS reports said “Under the banner of ISWA, which he belongs, Maitangaran, an Improvised Explosive Devices expert, had been prepping and priming others for the perpetration of suicide bombing attacks carried out by the group in the past within the North-East region,”
Other top commanders of Boko Haram arrested by the SSS include Abdulkadir Umar Mohammed, Muhammad Ali described as one of the conduits through which funds and other logistic materials were channeled to Boko Haram from foreign sponsors of terrorism.
Also arrested were two Boko Haram fighters – Yahaya Mohammed Abatcha and Yusuf Mohammed who the SSS described as “leading elements of a cell of the extremist group and have been hibernating and furthering the doctrines of the group.
