A suspect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, who proclaimed himself as the spokesman of the Boko Haram sect, was arrested last week. BANJI ALUKO examines the issues raised by Konduga, asking if his arrest will provide insight into the funding and ultimately put an end into the activities of the dreaded Islamic sect.

LAST Monday’s confession by Ali Umar Sauda Konduga that Senator Ali Mohammed Ndume has been one of the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect is raising many questions that are begging for answers. Definitely, so much of what Konduga said need to be examined.

One factor that appears clear from the little said by Konduga is that his dalliance with Senator Ndume was basically political. He said his group had fallen out with the Governor Ali-Modu Sheriff-led All Nigerian peoples Party (ANPP) government in the state and as a result of this, he and the estranged senator became political co-travellers since Senator Ndume had equally defected from the ANPP to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“We are against the ANPP government in Borno State. We don’t want it; we were ready to work with any political party in the state apart from the ANPP. That is why we teamed up with the PDP to flush out the ANPP,” Konduga was reported to have said.

Further confession by Konduga showed that if Senator Ndume ever had any dealings with Konduga, they were purely political. Konduga stated that Senator Ndume “scripted and relayed” to him the text messages he sent to prominent Nigerians. The prominent Nigerians, according to him, included former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Justice Sabo Adamu, judges of the Borno State Election Petition Tribunal, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Ambassador Dalhatu Tafida and Senator Sanusi Daggash, all of who he believed are stakeholders in the governorship tussle between the ANPP and PDP in Borno State.

He added that the threat messages were being sent to former President Obasanjo based on the belief that he had sympathy for the immediate past and present governors of Borno State, while same messages were sent to Senator Daggassh when it became clear to them that though he was a member of the PDP, he was allegedly sabotaging the electoral victory of the PDP in Borno State.

As for former President Obasanjo, he is widely regarded as a staunch supporter of Ali Modu Sheriff, though they had never been in the same party. Obasanjo’s friendship with Ali Modu Sheriff is said to date  back to a long time.

Another submission made by Konduga is the one made about the involvement of the late Ambassador Saidu Pindar in the activity of the Boko Haram. According to Konduga, members of the Boko Haram in Borno State were political thugs loyal to the former governor of Borno State, Sheriff, but shifted allegiance to Ambassador Pindar after they fell out with Sheriff. Konduga had stated that Ambassador Pindar died on his way to deliver to him a part payment of N5 million out of a N10 million agreed fee.

Later, members of the Boko Haram, on Thursday, denied having any link with him.

According to its spokesman, Abu Qaqa, in a telephone interview, the sect was a religious movement and as such apolitical. Qaqa said members of the Boko Haram have never fraternised with politicians in its battle to Islamize Nigeria, noting that very soon offices of major political parties like the PDP, ANPP, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), among others, at federal, state, local government and ward levels in the country would be their next targets of attack. The group also said it was shocking to read on the pages of newspaper that Senator Ndume was one of its principal sponsors.

“If we had links with them, they would not have wronged us, but because we have different ideologies and because we are a religious group doing the will of Allah, there is a big difference,” he was quoted to have said.

That the Boko Haram crisis, which has turned to a national security problem, started from Borno State is not contestable. However, the statement made by Konduga did not state how Ndume assisted in  funding the operations of Boko Haram which has extended its operation beyond Borno State to Yobe, Niger, Abuja and some other states.

Perhaps, in the open court, Nigerians would have the benefit of understanding the missing link in how siiues Borno’s local politics festered and became a national sore.

These might be the reasons many people are saying that the disclosure by the State Security Service (SSS) of constant communication between Konduga and Senator Ndume might not be considered as a leeway in the investigations into the operations of the Boko Haram. Nigerians still stand to learn many more apparently hidden facts.

Just as some people believe that what the nation gained from Konduga’s confession was only the intrigues that followed the general elections in Borno State and that the nation’s security network should not be in hurry to nail individuals because of the urgent need to find the perpetrators and sponsors of Boko Haram by the Nigerian government, there are those who insist that by the time the legal fireworks begin, more revelations are likely to roll in.

Indeed, a school of thought believed that Konduga might stand as a star witness of the security agencies  in the Ndume case. If this happens, it would then be left for the senator to extricate himself from what ever is brought against him.

For now, many Nigerians are waiting to see whether or not  this celebrated arrest would sound the death knell on Boko Haram.