Following a failed negotiation between Borno state’s hunters recruited by the state to fight alongside the military, the terrorist group broke the truce by kidnapping the head of the hunter who brokered the negotiation
Head hunter Abdulkareem Umar aka Baba, Maigiwa may have been held hostage by a Boko Haram factional leader, Modu Sulum.
Maigiwa once assisted Bauchi under then Governor Isa Yuguda to end the Boko Haram activities in the state in 2009.
In Borno, Maigiwa is believed to be in charge of over 5,000 hunters and vigilantes, launching offensive on the insurgents alongside with the military.
Maigiwa initiated a truce negotiation with one of the factional leaders after which a meeting was agreed following advance talks between them.
“Modu Sulum had promised to lay down his arms along with hundreds of his fighters and accept meaningful reintegration,” a source was quoted as saying by The Nation.
“ The terrorists were asking the government to give immunity to him and his members to return into the society and cohabit peacefully, provide them with houses and other basic livelihood support, which the leader of the hunter promised to facilitate.
“Modu Sulum equally requested the negotiators to come along with15 bicycles tubes and many others items to facilitate the negotiation process at the insurgents camp along the Borzoggo triangle
But while the process of the negotiation was taken place on July 4th, the terrorist leader changed his mind.
He took Baba Maigiwa along with two other hunters (name withheld), into hostage. Since then, we have not heard from Baba Maigiwa.”
The government he worked for has no official statement over the missing hunters’ commander as at the time of filling this report.