By MOLLY KILETE, ABUJA

•Suspect: ‘It takes me just 2 minutes to slaughter human being’

The Chief butcher of Balmo Forest in Bauchi State, Zach­ariah Mohamadu (aka Ardo), arrested by the police on July 15, said yesterday it took him just two minutes to slaughter a human being. The suspect disclosed this to journalists in Abuja.

Mohamadu, aged 30, who hails from Darazo Local Government Area of the state, however, said he had slaughtered only five persons. The chief butcher said he had been a staunch member of Boko Haram for over two years.

He operated with four other pro­fessional butchers, Garba, Hassan, Muhammadu and Isawa, to carry out the crime. He said the four colleagues would just tie the victims very well and prepare them for the slab. He said it is only after they have finished tying the victims that he would be called to perform his duty of slaughtering them even without remorse.

Speaking through an interpreter, the suspect said: “My real name is Zacha­riah Mohamadu, but I am popularly known as Ardo in the Boko Haram sect. I am 30 years old and I am an indigene of Kaimari in Darazo Local Government Area. I have been a mem­ber of the terrorists group for the past two years and I started working with them at Daura in Bauchi State.

“I belong to a group of five butch­ers, Garba, Hassan, Mohammadu, Isawa and myself making a total of five butchers that operated at Balmo Forest. Out of the five, my duty is to slaughter while the remaining four had to tie the victims with rope and make them ready for me to kill. I have slaughtered only five people and it takes only two minutes to slaughter a human being,” he said.

Parading the suspect at one of its detention facilities before newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba (an As­sistant Commissioner), said the police decided to parade the suspect, who was arrested at Balmo Forest  before newsmen to debunk the rumour that he (Mohamadu) had escaped from police custody.

Faulting a recent report over Mo­hamadu’s whereabouts, Mba appealed to the media to always verify their claims with the police “to avoid pub­lishing stories that are clearly false and are clearly subjective”.

He told reporters shortly after parad­ing the suspect, that “you will recall that on July 15, the police command did issue a press statement over the arrest of a high profile terrorist by the name, Zachariah Mohamadu. The sus­pect was arrested by policemen on the fringes of the Balm Forest and since he was taken into custody, investigations gathered through revelations by the suspect have clearly shown that he is an active participant in so many terror­ist operations.

He said, “his area of speciality is butchering of human beings and he indeed said it during your interaction with him. He has participated in so many high profile attacks including an attack on a Customs checkpoint that led to the loss of lives of some of our colleagues in the Customs.

“But surprisingly, for the past few days, there had been rumours sug­gesting that this suspect had actually escaped from custody and it is primar­ily in response to that, that we decided to bring him out to interact with you in the best culture of transparency of policing operations.

“You have seen it for yourself, you have interacted with him, and I think there is no gainsaying now that the suspect that is being alleged to have escaped, is clearly within our facility.

“And we want to seize this opportu­nity to appeal to our colleagues in the mainstream media to exercise restraint in their reportage. Knowing the very nature of terrorism and that an aver­age terrorist, his target of attacks are boarderless, we need to work together. We have seen the media attacked, law enforcement agencies attacked, the military attacked, we have seen govern­ment facilities attacked, and conse­quently, I think it is important for us to work together.

“Our doors are open and we are ready to take questions and journal­ists are advised to reach out to us  at all times. We run an open door policy and we will take questions rather than people publishing stories that are clearly false and are clearly subjec­tive,” Mba said.


Source: Sun