Army Arrests 486 Suspected Insurgents In Abia

The 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army stationed in Asa, Ukwa West local government area of Abia State, Sunday arrested 486 suspected Boko Haram insurgents who were on their way to Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
The military operatives also impounded 33 Hummer buses which were conveying them while two of the buses with their occupants escaped arrest.
The Army authorities, which revealed the arrest yesterday, said that the suspects and the 18-seater buses were subsequently detained at the military base.
According to the commander of the Battalion, Lt. Col. Rashed Omolori, who confirmed the arrest, eight of the suspects were girls who were all said to be travelling to Port Harcourt from some northern states.
The commissioner for information and strategy, Dr Eze Chikamnayo, briefed newsmen at the military base in the company of the Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Rasheed Omolori, who confirmed the arrest.
Omolori, who declined further comments on the arrest, said that the report had been forwarded to the Army Headquarters, Abuja.
The commissioner said that the suspects were moving in a motorcade of 35 Hummer buses when they were intercepted, adding that two buses escaped arrest.
The registration numbers of some of the buses impounded included: Jigawa RNG 98XA, Osun RLG 176XA, Kano AF 411 DAL, Lagos BDG 487 XK, Abuja EP 86 ABC, and Bauchi ZAK 48 XA.
Omolori said that the motorcade was intercepted around 2am between Arungwa Junction on the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway and Imo Gate, the Abia/Rivers boundary.
He explained that preliminary investigations by the army showed that the suspects, aged from 16 years and above, came from Kano, Taraba and Jigawa.
Chikamnayo, however, said that further investigation would help to unravel the true mission of the suspects who, he said, claimed to be travelling to Port Harcourt ‘’to look for work”.
The commissioner said that their movement was suspicious: he wondered how the long motorcade travelled the long distance from the north to the east before being apprehended and how all of them were going to look for work at the same time.