The Nigerian Police has paraded eight persons suspected to have abducted 276 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, on the night of April 14, 2014.
The suspects were paraded in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
reports that the eight suspected Boko Haram terrorists were among 22 persons paraded by the police on Wednesday, July 18, 2018.
The suspected Boko Haram terrorists were reportedly arrested by operatives of the Inspector General’s Intelligence Response Team (IGP’s IRT) in Borno, Adamawa and other adjoining communities.
The suspects are alleged to have masterminded over 50 suicide bomb attacks within Maiduguri and Adamawa, reports say.
ChannelsTV reports that the suspects also launched several other attacks that lead to the deaths of thousands of Nigerians.
Outrage and protests
The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls sparked international outrage and led to street protests asking the Nigerian government to rescue them.
The calling on the government to rescue all the Chibok schoolgirls and all other Boko Haram captives.
Over 164 Chibok girls have so far returned home following negotiations between the federal government and the terrorists; with 112 still in Boko Haram custody.
The President Buhari led federal government has been in intense negotiations with factions of the Boko Haram group as it seeks to have the remaining girls freed.
Dapchi kidnap
On February 19, 2018, Boko Haram abducted 110 schoolgirls from the town of Dapchi in Yobe State.
On March 21, 2018, Boko Haram returned a chunk of the Dapchi schoolgirls; with a handful dying in the forest.
A lone Christian Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, remains in the custody of the terrorists after she refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam.
Boko Haram commenced a war against the Nigerian State in 2009. The terrorist sect has killed over 30,000 persons and displaced millions more since its bloody campaign began.
Ambushing security agents
Borno State Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu told Pulse over the phone that the arrests of the suspects who allegedly kidnapped the Chibok girls, took place between July 4 and 9, 2018.
Chukwu told the that police seized the coordinators of suicide bombings in Borno and the coordinator and participants in the Chibok abductions of 2014.
The police boss added that others also confessed to ambushing security agents and being logistics suppliers.
The suspects are helping with information that could lead to the arrests of other Boko Haram commanders, Chukwu said.
Defeat claims
Military officials in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with over 180 million people, have repeatedly claimed to have defeated Boko Haram.
Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai,declared in April that there was "no doubt Boko Haram terrorists have been defeated, they don't have the capacity".
But persistent attacks against soldiers and civilians, including brazen kidnappings of schoolgirls, suggest otherwise.
The emergence of an IS-allied faction of Boko Haram, whose strategy is to provide an alternative government for people living in the impoverished region, poses a new threat for Nigeria.
Boko Haram seeks a hardline Islamic State in northeast Nigeria and regards Borno State—the epicenter of the crisis—as its spiritual capital.