The Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday said a joint operational team had arrested fifteen suspected Boko Haram members and suspected kidnapper, including a ‘medic,’ one Yusuf Salisu.

The DSS, in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Peter Afunanya, said until his arrest at Sabon Birni Village, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State on November 9, Salisu operated a medicine store, which he noted, served as treatment centre for criminal suspects and their victims.

It added that the suspect had links with thirteen high-profile commanders of Boko Haram, who had remained on the wanted list of the state.

According to Afunanya, the joint DSS and military team had effected the arrests of the suspected criminals in Kano, Kogi, Plateau and other states.

The DSS also disclosed that among those apprehended was one Umar Nuhu, who was a member of the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), suspected to have carried out violent attacks on military bases in the North-East.

While maintaining that the feat signified a major breakthrough in its ongoing tactical operations, the services spokesman vowed that action would be intensified towards ridding the country of violent extremism.

He gave further insight into the various arrests; “On November 7, 2018, at Mararaban-Jos, also in Igabi Local Government Area, another notorious kidnapper, Muhammad Musa (aka Zara), was arrested while perfecting plans to kidnap a lawmaker and a prominent personality in Kaduna and Kano states respectively.

•Sourced from a New Telegraph report