Maiduguri, Nigeria - Fourteen investigators who arrived Maiduguri from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Nigeria Police headquarters in Abuja to probe the recent crisis in parts of the north have interrogated suspected members of the Boko Haram sect who are in custody at the state police headquarters, security sources told our correspondent yesterday.
The investigators, led by a commissioner of police, Adeola Adeniyi, recorded statements of the over 40 suspects.
The detectives have also visited some areas that were most affected during four day crisis that erupted in parts of Borno State, leading to the death of over 700 people including policemen and soldiers.
The team which came to Maiduguri on Sunday was said to have visited the destroyed Ibn thaimiya, which used to be the residence of the late leader of the sect, Malam Mohammed Yusuf which also served as enclave of the sect at Unguwar Doki near the railway terminus in Maiduguri on a fact finding mission.
Sources also said the team also visited the Maiduguri new prisons and numerous police stations and other public buildings that were destroyed during the crisis spread across Gamboru, old Maiduguri, Low cost, Kasuwan Shanu, Abbaganaram, Galadima among other parts of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Local Government Area.
It was gathered that the team is likely to visit Potiskum in Yobe State and parts of Bauchi where similar crisis involving the sect members and security men took place and will likely re-interrogate suspects in police custody. It was not clear if the team is visiting Kano or whether a different team would be deployed by the force headquarters.
President Umaru Yar'adua had ordered a comprehensive probe into the crisis which began in Bauchi on Saturday 25th July, 2009 and spread to Borno, Yobe and Kano the following day. The crisis lasted four days in parts of Borno during which soldiers battled the sect members.