After a gun battle with police in Kano on Saturday, a Boko Haran fighter fled to Abuja where he was arrested after a community tipped off the police.
Since the Nigerian army took over the Sambisa Forest last year, displaced terrorists have fanned out seeking refuge in states around the northeast.
The Abuja Police Command said it arrested the fleeing Boko Haram suspect, Seth Yakubu, 20, at Gwako, Gwagwalada Area Council on Sunday.
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, said the suspect was arrested after he was found in a suspicious manner in the village by the villagers who alerted the police.
“This young man Seth Yakubu from Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, yesterday at 1130 hrs at Gwako Village in Gwagwalada was found in a suspicious manner, the police were alerted and he was arrested,” he said.
Yakubu has confessed to his membership of the Boko Haram group, escaped to the village from the Sambisa forest after being dislodged by the military.
“He further stated that he left Maiduguri on Friday and arrived Gwako village on Saturday at about 10:00 p.m. to conceal his identity and seek refuge,” the police boss added.
Yakubu was the second-in-command in his unit, and was actively involved in several deadly attacks by the group.
According to Kimo, the suspect was lured to join the group in October 2016 with a promise of an automatic enlistment into the Nigerian Army.
Yakubu said that he was taken to Zaria. in Kaduna, for a military training after which he was given a substance that would change his mind.
Kaduna is home to a lot of military training institutions, including the Nigeria Defence Academy, and others.
“After giving us that thing they told us that we are not members of the Nigerian Army but we are going to help the Boko Haram to fight the Nigerian Army to convert Nigeria into an Islamic country,” he said.
The commissioner described the arrest as evidence of the viability of community policing canvassed by Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris.
He said that the suspect would be arraigned in court after completion of investigation.