by ‘Jola Sotubo

Nigerian security agents received a breakthrough in relation to the recent bombing in Nyanya, Abuja when the alleged mastermind of the attack was captured.

Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche was apprehended in Sudan after he was declared wanted by the Department of State Security Services.

Initial reports had it that he was picked up by officials of INTERPOL but sources have claimed that it was through the efforts of the Nigerian embassy in Sudan that Ogwuche was arrested.

Leadership reports:

This Wednesday in Abuja at the National Information Centre during a press briefing on the security challenges the director-general of the National Orientation Agency, Mr Mike Omeri, broke the news of Aminu Ogwuche’s arrest and said that INTERPOL facilitated his arrest.

Omeri said: “We wish to authoritatively confirm to you the interception and subsequent arrest of one of the two suspects that were declared wanted, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who we said fled to Sudan. He actually did, he fled to Sudan.

“Ogwuche had been declared wanted by the authorities in Nigeria for his involvement in the bombings in Nyanya. The efforts of INTERPOL, the Nigeria Police and Department of State Services have led to his arrest.
“At present, security authorities are working to see to his extradition to Nigeria. Once information is available on his arrival, we will let you know.”

But LEADERSHIP checks in diplomatic circles revealed otherwise. According to a highly placed diplomatic source, the suspect had been arrested long before he was declared wanted by the INTERPOL:

“Well, the good news is that the suspect, Ogwuche has been arrested in Sudan and would soon be brought back to Nigeria to face trial. But if I may let you know, Ogwuche had been arrested by the Nigerian embassy officials in Khartoum before he was even declared wanted here in Nigeria. He was picked on his way to the Egyptian embassy, possibly to get a visa and escape to that country, but he was clever by half.”

Ogwuche, according to the deputy director, public relations at the DSS, Marylyn Ogar, was arrested in 2011 when he came into Nigeria from the United Kingdom based on the information about his alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

“We carried out further investigation. We started having lots of queries and inquiries from his father, the lawyers, and especially the human rights activists saying we were depriving him of his human rights.

We had to make his father take him on bail based on the fact that when we need him, he would release him to us and, of course, when he was mentioned as one of those that had masterminded the Nyanya bombings, we went straight ahead to ask the father to release him to us. And, of course, the father couldn’t produce him.

So, based on that, we had to work with other sister agencies and we were told he’s in Sudan. He was declared wanted. Because all security forces are working as one, the police had to do what they had to do and, today, the INTERPOL came in. So we can never be overwhelmed.

On why the Nigerian embassy was silent over the arrest while the security agencies were looking for him here, the source explained: “It may have to do with diplomatic process and, as you know, with the coming in of the INTERPOL, the extradition of Ogwuche would not pose any problem to us as a nation.”

The coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mr Mike Omeri, has said that INTERPOL has issued a red alert for the arrest of the second mastermind of the Nyanya bomb blast, Rufai Abubakar Tsiga.