How SSS trailed Boko Haram’s spokesman to Kaduna (The inside story)

30 special operatives of the State Security Services, SSS, were sent out of the country.
One of them led the operation that led to the eventual arrest of Abul Qaqa, the notorious spokesman for the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram.  The mission of the operatives was simple:  Acquire more knowledge in counter insurgency.  The success of the arrest of Qaqa suggests that they're doing well.


Under strict instructions not to reveal the identities of the SSS operatives  who stormed the seeming quiet abode of Qaqa's hostess, we understand that the "acquisition of the fragmented information which were integrated, evaluated, analyzed and interpreted formed the basic intelligence which led to the eventual arrest of Qaqa".
Indeed, we gathered that the arrest was actually made in Kaduna and not Maiduguri as was widely reported.
Also, from authoritative sources privy to the on-going interrogation of Qaqa, suggests that the "terror suspect owned up to being the one with the name Abul Qaqa. He owned up on Thursday afternoon".

According to the security source, "he can be said to have buckled under intense interrogation".
When we asked the security source whether the notorious interrogation technique known as water-boarding, a technique roundly condemned by a section of security experts in the Western world was being employed, the source emphatically said "NO".
However, the source was able to explain that one of the discoveries during interrogation was that Qaqa operated under many aliases.
With those aliases, "he could assume multiple identities which almost always made him elusive"
The source also made it known that Qaqa has been confirmed to be an Igbira man as against the earlier rumoured origin of Igala.

In fact, we discovered that the arrest of Qaqa "was the culmination of months' long efforts by men of the SSS. "We had been on his trail for some months now.
"He fled from Yobe where he is believed to own a house, to Maiduguri because the heat was becoming a bit unbearable for him.  This was before the declaration of emergency rule in some parts of the North.
"From Maiduguri, he moved to Potiskum; again we trailed him there.
"He again moved to Kano before finally hiding in an 'aunt's' residence in Kaduna we also learnt that when the SSS men stormed the house and requested to know the number of occupants in the house, the said 'aunt' feigned ignorance.

And whereas the filial relationship between Qaqa and the said 'aunt' could not be established, it was nonetheless "suspected that there was a strong tie between Qaqa and the woman.
"The 'aunt' did not want to give him up but for another male member of the household who did not know that Qaqa was a high-value suspect in their house.
"It was while the said 'aunt' was playing footsy that the male resident of the house prevailed on her to own up". Reports reveal that the 'aunt' was also arrested along with Qaqa on Wednesday. While the intelligence and eventual arrest was carried out by armed men of the SSS, according to reliable information, the military was called in for back up.

According to the source, "this was meant to avert another Kabir Sokoto-style mess of last month – Sokoto, a senior member of Boko Haram escaped from Police custody while in transit. Therefore, when the men began the thorough search of the house, they found Qaqa under the bed from where he was dragged out.
The time was about 4am.
He was immediately moved to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, where he is still undergoing interrogation.