Arrests in the Albani murder

The SSS paraded seven persons it said were suspected Boko Haram members linked to the attack on Albani in which his wife and son were also killed at Gwargwaje area of Zaria, Kaduna State last month. SSS’s spokesperson Marilyn Ogar said those arrested had confessed to the planning and execution of the attack.Among the suspects […]

The SSS paraded seven persons it said were suspected Boko Haram members linked to the attack on Albani in which his wife and son were also killed at Gwargwaje area of Zaria, Kaduna State last month. SSS’s spokesperson Marilyn Ogar said those arrested had confessed to the planning and execution of the attack.
Among the suspects was Yakub Abdullahi, described as the mastermind of the attack and the sect’s sub-regional commander for Kaduna/Niger states. Others were Ibrahim Shuaibu, Bilyaminu Usman, Sahabi Isma’il, Umar Farouk, Yasir Ibrahim (a graduate of English Literature from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria) and Musa Abubakar. According to the SSS, Abdullahi had been actively involved in the activities of the sect since its insurrection began in Maiduguri in 2009.
The relatively quick action by the security agencies in identifying and parading the suspects followed outcry from a cross-section of the public. Although Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau claimed the sect’s responsibility for the murder, this was rejected as implausible some of the Sheikh’s students, who suspected that accepting the claim was a sure bet that it would not be properly investigated and its perpetrators could escape punishment.
Arraigning the suspects in court without undue delay will go a long way in assuaging the feelings of usually suspicious and sceptical Nigerians that the suspects are really what they are claimed to be.
Sheikh Albani was well known for his criticism of Boko Haram. By his own accounts, he had at various times counselled the group’s late leader, Mohammed Yusuf, against its doctrinal repudiation of western education. In a previous interview with Daily Trust, Albani had expressed a strong desire for Muslim youths to acquire Western education in order to be competitive in a complex and fast-changing global landscape, rejecting the core-basis of the Boko Haram ideology.
In Albani’s murder, a pattern seemed to have emerged indicating that some Muslim clerics who differ ideologically with the Boko Haram group are marked for death. Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam met a similar fate in the hands of gunmen as he led dawn prayers in Kano in 2007. Before him, Sheikh Umar Dan Mai Shiyya of Sokoto was killed in similar circumstances.  A disturbing thread that runs through these and other cases is the fact that there has been no conclusive investigation into any of the earlier two assassination, That is why this parade of Albani’s suspected killers is a remarkable and welcome break.
Importantly for the SSS, even the late Sheikh’s students have positively reacted to the arrests and parade. Dr AbdulGhaniy AbdurRafi’, one of the frontline students of Mallam Albani, said in Zaria soon after the public event that it was the opportunity they had been waiting for, namely a declaration that the Boko Haram was responsible for the murder. That clarification is vital, because confirmed so, it would mean that Albani’s movement has no link with the sect, contrary to the suspicion on which the authorities detained Albani sometime ago.
Because of the intense public interest in this case, and the ramifications it could have on previous ones, it will do well for the security agencies’ reputation not to delay arraigning the suspects in court as soon as possible.