Nigeria praises Sudan’s cooperation in arresting Nyanya bombing suspect
May 16, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Nigerian government has praised cooperation of Sudanese authorities in the arrest of one of the suspects in the bombing of a bus station in the Nigerian capital, Abuja last April.
Sudan’s ambassador to Abuja, Tag Al-Sir Mahjoub, said in statements to the official news agency SUNA the Nigerian foreign minister, Aminu Bashir Wali, expressed gratitude to the Sudanese government for facilitating arrest of the suspect named Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche.
Interpol’s Nigeria National Bureau had on Monday placed Ogwuche, who was declared wanted in connection with the bus station bombing, on Interpol international red alert.
Mahjoub, who met with the Nigerian foreign minister on Thursday, added that the latter asked him to convey his government’s gratitude to Khartoum, stressing that national security challenges facing both nations require close cooperation and mutual support.
On Wednesday, Interpol announced that it arrested Ogwuche, who is believed to be the co-mastermind behind Nyanya bomb blast.
The director-general of the Nigerian National Orientation Agency, Mike Omeri, said Ogwuche was arrested in Sudan and Nigeria’s security operatives are in negotiation to extradite him back to the country.
Ogwuche, a student of Arabic at the International University of Africa, Khartoum, is a British-born Nigerian who was a former serviceman with the Nigerian army. He is known to have deserted the army in 2006.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful”, has waged a five-year campaign of bombings, massacres and abductions that has killed thousands in its drive to impose an Islamic state on Africa’s most populous nation.
(ST)