Lagos:
Nigeria's military has bust a terrorist intelligence cell and arrested a businessman who "actively participated" in the April abductions of more than 200 schoolgirls, a statement said.
It was unclear if his arrest might help in rescuing at least 219 girls who remain captive. Boko Haram Islamic extremists are threatening to sell the girls into marriage and slavery if Nigeria's government does not exchange them for detained insurgents.
Defence Ministry spokesman Maj Gen Chris Olukolade said in a statement yesterday that businessman Babuji Ya'ari belonged to a vigilante group fighting Boko Haram and used that membership as cover "while remaining an active terrorist."
He said information yielded by Ya'ari's detention has led to the arrests of two women: Haj Kaka, who he said was a spy who also procured arms for the extremists, and Hafsat Bako, described as a paymaster. Bako told soldiers that operatives are paid a minimum of 10,000 naira (about $60) depending on the task, the statement said.
Olukolade's statement accused Ya'ari of "spearheading" last month's assassination of the emir of Gwoza, the head of a royal family in northeast Borno state, and of coordinating attacks that have killed hundreds in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, the birthplace of Boko Haram.
"Babuji has been coordinating several deadly attacks in Maiduguri since 2011, including the daring attacks on customs and military locations as well as the planting of IEDs in several locations," the statement said.
In the past week, Boko Haram has been blamed for a massive explosion at the biggest mall in Abuja, the capital in central Nigeria, that killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens; the bombing at a medical school in northern Kano city that killed at least eight people; an attack at a military camp that survivors said killed at least 51 soldiers; and various village attacks in the northeast including one Sunday in which fighters sprayed gunfire at worshippers in four churches just miles from the town where the schoolgirls were abducted.
At least 30 people died in that last attack.
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday condemned the church attacks, noting that "no true Muslim will resort to the mindless killing of innocent people." He commiserated with those who lost loved ones.