NIGERIA/FILE: Runaway bomb suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, is recaptured by security forces

Record ID: 235488

  • Title: NIGERIA/FILE: Runaway bomb suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, is recaptured by security forces
  • Date: 12th February 2012
  • Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (FEBRUARY 10, 2012) (PART ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) BOMB SUSPECT, KABIRU SOKOTO BEING LED INTO THE HALL VARIOUS OF BOMB SUSPECT KABIRU SOKOTO JOURNALISTS (ORIGINALLY 4:3) SOKOTO LED OUT OF ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARILYN OGAR, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, SECRET SERVICE SAYING (SHOT MOVES FROM OGAR TO 4:3 FOOTAGE OF JOURNALISTS TAKING NOTES): "We have brought forward Kabiru Sokoto who was declared missing, I think that is enough. How we went about it is our own business. It's private to us, we operate under the need to know principle and so we won't begin to tell you our mode of operation." JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA6OM0DH7IU6L4B838N5VYNZ4XV
  • Story Text: Nigerian security forces recaptured on Friday (February 10, 2012) the main suspect in a deadly Christmas Day bomb attack who escaped from police custody last month.
    Nigeria's State Security Service paraded Kabiru Sokoto for the media in Nigeria's capital city Abuja.
    Marilyn Ogar, the deputy director of public relations in the State Security Service said no further information would be given on how he was recaptured.
    "We have brought forward Kabiru Sokoto who was declared missing, I think that is enough," she said.
    "How we went about it is our own business. It's private to us, we operate under the need to know principle and so we won't begin to tell you our mode of operation," she added.
    Kabiru Sokoto's escape on January 18 was described by security sources as "unusual and suspicious" and it prompted President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the chief of police and his six deputies.
    Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, which killed 37 people and wounded 57, the deadliest of a series of attacks at Christmas.
    Police arrested Sokoto on January 17 and while they were taking him from the police headquarters to his house in Abaji, just outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire and Sokoto escaped.
    He was recaptured on Friday in the eastern state of Taraba, which borders neighbouring West African country Chad.
    President Jonathan, who has been heavily criticised for failing to deal with Boko Haram's campaign of violence, will be relieved at Sokoto's recapture.
    Jonathan has said members of the sect have infiltrated the security services and he has ordered a comprehensive re-organisation of the police force.
    Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful", is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
    It killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 in the first weeks of 2012 in gun and bomb attacks, Human Rights Watch says.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register