IGP, Mohammed Abubakar

Operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State Wednesday arrested 11 suspected members of the Boko Haram sect in an overnight raid.

The suspects were arrested in the Waka-Biu region of the state.
Recovered from them were automatic weapons, ammunition and several homemade bombs.

Confirming the arrest, the spokesman of the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, listed the dangerous weapons recovered from the sect to include a sub-machine gun, seven AK-47s, 1,568 rounds of ammunition, 12 empty shells and 19 home-made bombs.

Boko Haram, whose fighters usually target members of the security forces, government offices and churches, started attacking mobile phone installations last week, saying phone companies were helping authorities to track them.

A military crackdown on the group in the North appears to have weakened their capabilities, and they have not managed a deadly large-scale strike for several months, although they are still active across the North.