The alleged mastermind of the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian in Nigeria who were killed last week amid a rescue attempt has died after suffering gunshot wounds in a raid, police said yesterday.
During the Zaria raid, a soldier was killed and his throat slashed
Nigeria’s secret police announced the death in a statement that also for the first time officially described in detail the events surrounding the murder of the two hostages on March 8.
“Abu Mohammed died on March 9 following severe bullet wounds sustained during the Zaria raid,” a statement from Nigeria’s secret police said, referring to a March 7 raid that led to his capture.
It also said “investigations revealed that the plot was masterminded by the Abu Mohammed-led faction of (Islamist group) Boko Haram in Nigeria”.
The two hostages were killed in the northwestern Nigerian city of Sokoto on March 8 after being kidnapped nearly a year earlier and as a joint British and Nigerian rescue operation sought to save them.
The secret police described a series of events that led the guards of the foreigners, who were kidnapped in May 2011, to kill them “before the arrival of security forces”.
According to the statement, a raid was conducted in the northern city of Zaria on March 7 – a day before the rescue operation – leading to the arrest of Abu Mohammed and five others.
During the Zaria raid, a soldier was killed “and his throat slashed”, secret police said, while another security agent was seriously wounded. Abu Mohammed along with other suspects was also shot and wounded, it said.
“Preliminary interrogation of the arrested suspects revealed that the guards protecting the two foreign hostages in Sokoto had been directed to kill them in the event of any envisaged threat,” it said.
“The arrested suspects therefore advised that a rescue operation be immediately initiated, moreso as one of them had escaped during the Zaria raid.”
The joint operation was then launched, it said, with the suspect who killed the soldier in Zaria leading the security agents to Sokoto.