JTF arrests doctor, lawyer over alleged link with Boko Haram

MILITARY authorities have arrested a medical doctor and a lawyer for their alleged link with the Boko Haram insurgent group.
The doctor was said to be aboard a pick-up van plying one of the routes in Borno State with some suspected Boko Haram insurgents when he was nabbed.

He and other occupants of the vehicle reportedly fled and abandoned the vehicle at a military checkpoint mounted by members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) when soldiers accosted them, the Nigerian Tribune gathered.

Military source told Nigerian Tribune that when the military men eventually searched the vehicle, cache of arms and ammunition were found concealed in strategic places in the van.

It was gathered that the doctor surfaced later to retrieve his laptop and other documents which he abandoned in the van while fleeing the scene and was arrested.

Under interrogation, he was said to have revealed his identity as a medical practitioner working with one of the affiliates of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

When asked if he realised the implications of the persons he was travelling with and the arms and ammunition stocked in the vehicle, the doctor reportedly claimed to be working in line with a WHO mandate.

It was gathered that the military later stormed one of the Boko Haram training camps located in the heart of Sambisa Forest in Borno State and discovered an abandoned make shift clinic, where injured members of the sect were treated.