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Lagos — Nigerian troops have arrested a businessman accused of “participating actively” in Boko Haram’s mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the north-eastern town of Chibok last year, Nigeria’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Major General Chris Olukolade said Babuji Ya’ari headed a “terrorists’ intelligence cell” for the Islamic extremists while masquerading as a member of the self-defence Youth Vigilante Group. That confirms suspicions that the vigilantes have been infiltrated by Boko Haram.

Soldiers have said that some of their comrades also belong to Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic extremist group.“The arrest of the businessman . . . has also yielded some vital information and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’ intelligence cell who are women,” Olukolade said in a statement on Tuesday night. He did not say when the arrests were made or how many people were arrested.

He alleged that Ya’ari has since 2011 co-ordinated several deadly attacks on the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, and spearheaded the May 2014 assassination of the emir of Gwoza, a religious and traditional ruler who was targeted for speaking out against Boko Haram’s extremism.

One arrested woman, Hafsat Bako, confessed to co-ordinating the payroll for operatives paid a minimum of 10 000 naira (about $50) a job, the defence ministry statement said.

Boko Haram was responsible for the April 2014 kidnapping of 273 girls from a boarding school in Chibok. Dozens escaped but 219 schoolgirls remain missing. The mass abduction sparked international outrage and demands for the girls’ release under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

The extremists last year took control of a large swath of north-eastern Nigeria where they declared an Islamic caliphate. This year, they became the West African franchise of the Islamic State group.

As their attacks spread across borders, a multinational army from Nigeria and neighbouring countries mobilised and this year drove Boko Haram out of towns. Suicide bomb and attacks on villages continue. — AFP