Kabiru Umar Sokoto, the convicted Boko Haram bomber, was hatching a plot to kidnap the children of Kashim Shettima, then-governor of Borno state, when he was arrested in January 2012, a confidential memo has revealed.
Sokoto was the mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state, which killed at least 37 people and injured 57 others.
He was initially arrested at the Borno governor’s lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, on January 14, 2012 before he escaped from police custody and was re-arrested a month later in Taraba state.
In a confidential security memo dated Thursday, June 14, 2012, that is just coming to light, Sokoto was reported to have infiltrated the Borno governor’s lodge in a plot to kidnap the children of Shettima, who had relocated them from Maiduguri, Borno state, to Abuja for safety reasons.
According to the memo, which was submitted to the presidency, Shettima — who had spent barely eight months as governor — had been warned that Boko Haram was plotting to kidnap his children for ransom.
Shettima, who is now the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), decided to relocate them — two girls and a boy — to Abuja and enrolled them at Turkish and British schools in Wuse II and Gwarimpa.
‘DISGUISED AS BORNO MAN’
