By Adesina Soyooye
Three people have put a lie to the alarm raised by Alhaji Tukur Mamu, the self-appointed negotiator for unfortunate victims of the Abuja-Kaduna bound Train to the effect that a terrorist Commander had finalized plans to marry one of the victims, a Christian girl named Azurfa Lois John.
Those who put a lie to Mamu’s alarm are the victim, Miss John, the terrorist Commander, and Professor Usman Yusuf, the Secretary to the seven-man team put together by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Leo Irabor, to secure the release of the hostages.
Recall that on August 20, Mamu raised an alarm informing the Federal Government and the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, that the young lady was about to be married off to a Terrorist Commander who had fallen in love with her, and sworn not to release her. Mamu urged them to hurry and get the lady released else she would suffer the fate of Leah Sharibu.
Leah is the Christian student abducted along with her colleagues from their school hostel. But while the others were released, Leah was kept back because she, allegedly, refused to denounce her Christian faith. She has since been married to one of the Terrorist Commanders and has, allegedly, given birth to two babies.
Said Mamu on Miss John: “This is to alert the Federal Government and, especially, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, that I can confirm, through credible information at my disposal that if urgent action is not taken immediately to secure the release of the youngest victim of the Train attack, a 21-year old Azurfa Lois John, tye abductors as they have done in the case of Leah Sharibu, are planning to marry her any moment from now.”
But the alarm has turned out to be false. Considering what has been exposed now of Mamu’s relationship with the terrorists, he, most likely, raised the alarm to stampede both the FG and CAN, into paying the sum of N100m, the sum allegedly paid on behalf of each released victim, to secure Miss John’s freedom.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Hausa Service on Sunday, Professor Usman said the Terrorist Commander told his team, during negotiations to set the captives free, that he had neither approached Miss John, nor expressed any interest in her.
Usman, also, quoted Miss John as telling the team that the Terrorist Commander never came near her, or approached her in anyway.
Mamu, the Publisher of the Kaduna-based Desert Herald, and Media Consultant to controversial Islamic Scholar, Sheik Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, for months, acted as the negotiator between the families of the victims and the terrorists who were being released in batches, allegedly after a payment of N100m each.
However, a few weeks ago, Mamu was exposed as an alleged big scam, a terrorist enabler, who had been working with terrorists.
He was arrested at the Cairo International Airport, Egypt, by the INTERPOL, on his way, with his two wives, to Saudi Arabia, ostensibly, for the lesser Hajj, on the prompting of Nigeria’s Security Agencies. He was immediately put on the next available flight back to NIgeria.
Mamu arrived into the waiting hands of the Operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, who took him into custody.
With a search warrant, the DSS searched both his house and office, and discovered not a few things which exposed Mamu as an alleged Terrorist enabler.
The DSS, has since revealed that his aborted trip to Saudi Arabia was to meet a number of Terrorist Commanders.
Still in the custody of the DSS, Mamu has been exposed both by the Service and Professor Usman as the main obstacle to the release of the victims. He was, also, allegedly, the receiver of the ransom monies which he allegedly took to the terrorists, with his commission intact.
According to Usman in an earlier statement, Mamu was the one who pushed the terrorists into taking ransom money.
