Shekau lied, Katsina students were abducted by bandits, not Boko Haram —Former DSS operative

A former operative of the Department of State Security (DSS) Seyi Adetayo has countered the claim by Boko Haram factional leader, Abubakar Shekau that his group kidnapped the over 500 Katsina student, from Kankara.

Gunmen on Friday had attacked and abducted no less than 500 Kankara schoolboys at Government Science Secondary School, Katsina State.

Mr Adetayo said it was bandits and not the terrorists organization that abducted the Kankara school boys.

He disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily.

Adetayo explained that the bandits had on Friday in a retaliatory attack abducted the Kankara school boys in the night after they were initially repelled.

Read also: Why we kidnapped Katsina students —Shekau

“It is important that we situate this particular incident. There was an attack by bandits in a community and some of the bandits were killed. They came back for a retaliatory attack that night and they were repelled.

“Because I heard somewhere that some people were saying they were taken in broad daylight, no, they were actually repelled. It was in the process of exiting the Kankara community, that was when they went to the school and marched those children out.

“And contrary to what Shekau was trying to portray yesterday, this is not a Boko Haram led operation, it was entirely a bandit operation.”

Adetayo explained that the relationship that exists between bandits and Boko Haram allows them to sometimes trade prominent captives.

“There is this relationship between Bandits and Boko Haram that we have seen where they carry out kidnapping and they try to trade off their captives to Boko Haram.

“We have seen that happen in Maiduguri, Yobe on several occasions where after kidnapping people for ransom and discover there are some high-profile people there, they transfer them to Boko Haram. That is some sort of agreement that they have.

“Look at the American that was kidnapped, America had to rescue him because they discovered there was a tradeoff about to happen between Bandits and Boko Haram and they knew that if they should allow that the moment these captives get into the hands of ISWAP or Boko Haram then it becomes difficult for them to rescue

“These are soldiers of fortune, they have been in this business for long. If you look at most of the commanders fighting for both Shakau’s faction and the ISWAP, they are largely soldiers of fortune. They were recruited because of their background and they are given positions of commands. Some of them fell apart, some of them decided to go on their own, we have seen a lot of in-fighting within the Boko Haram command falling out and creating their camp or move into banditry.

“For this particular situation, from what we gathered, at a point they were talking with the family of the kids, and at the same time, they were also talking to Shekau’s faction, also ISWAP. So apparently, one particular group succeeded in outbidding the other in the process of this and that is why you saw Shekau coming out yesterday with that audio to say that our brothers are the one behind it. So if you read between the lines, he is associating with the people that did it because there has been an agreement.

“And that is what makes this incident a precarious one right now,” he said.

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