ALLEGED BOKO HARAM SENATOR IS DEAD
Senator Khalifa Ahmed Zanna
ALLEGED BOKO HARAM SENATOR IS DEAD
Senator Khalifa Ahmed Senator Khalifa Ahmed Zanna
The senator-elect, and Senator representing Borno state Central in the Senate, Khalifa Ahmed Zanna is dead. The senator elect died at 59 at his residence in Abuja Saturday afternoon after returning from a German Hospital where he was bedridden.
Although the family has not made any official statement on the death of the Senator, sources however said, sympathizers have been visiting the lawmaker’s house to mourn with the family.
Recall, October 2012, Senator Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno state called on the security authorities to fully investigate Senator Zanna’s possible links with Boko Haram, insisting he is a Boko Haram kingpin.
He drew attention to Zanna’s “Hajj-by-road” activities for which, he said, the legislator was suspected to have used as a façade for the importation of arms and window for the training of terrorists.
Shuaibu Mohammed Bama, called a “high profile Boko Haram commander” by the Joint Task Force (JTF), was arrested in “a serving politician’s house,” JTF announced on Friday. Following the JTF press statement, Senator Zanna told newsmen that although Bama was his nephew, the arrest did not take place in his home. “Since he was not arrested in my house, they should go and investigate his relationship with people they arrested him in their house,” he said.
But the former governor scoffed at that account. “Senator Zanna in a comic u-turn, shortly after these developments, told journalists in a face-saving interview that while he could not deny his relationship with his nephew, he disowned his house where the JTF arrested the suspect, stressing that the house belongs to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff the immediate former governor of the state.”
The former governor, who is now the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria People’s Party, noted that Zanna has had a “recent political encounter” with him, and now “appears desperate to settle scores by dragging Ali Sheriff into the controversy.”
Said Modu Sheriff: “Senator Zanna’s inconsistencies in trying to defend himself are clear indication of a sinking man’s desperate attempt to hang himself on anything available in order to save his neck. If not so, what would his nephew be doing in the so-called house of Senator Ali Sheriff, the man he said is his political rival?”
The ex-governor said Senator Zanna has “obvious involvement with Boko Haram, given his past antecedence where people finger him as illegal importer of arms via his Hajj-by-road fame.”
He said it was common knowledge in Borno state that Senator Zanna takes some hapless Nigerians on a seeming religious voyage by road only to put some of them into terrorist activity and illegal arms importation. While it is not clear if he had ever reported this information to the security agencies, the former governor said that some of the so-called “pilgrims by road” have been traced to terrorists’ camps in Afghanistan and Syria, and not Saudi Arabia, their preferred destination.
“It is very much on record that 27 of such pilgrims are still missing uptill date.”
He refuted the senator’s claims that he had parted ways with his nephew, Shuaibu Bama, saying he can “authoritatively confirm” the man was still his associate up to the time of his arrest.
He further queried why Senator Zanna never spoken against the atrocities being committed by Boko Haram, noting that instead, he has been calling for the declaration of state of emergency or the disbandment of the
Senator Khalifa Ahmed Senator Khalifa Ahmed Zanna
The senator-elect, and Senator representing Borno state Central in the Senate, Khalifa Ahmed Zanna is dead. The senator elect died at 59 at his residence in Abuja Saturday afternoon after returning from a German Hospital where he was bedridden.
Although the family has not made any official statement on the death of the Senator, sources however said, sympathizers have been visiting the lawmaker’s house to mourn with the family.
Recall, October 2012, Senator Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno state called on the security authorities to fully investigate Senator Zanna’s possible links with Boko Haram, insisting he is a Boko Haram kingpin.
He drew attention to Zanna’s “Hajj-by-road” activities for which, he said, the legislator was suspected to have used as a façade for the importation of arms and window for the training of terrorists.
Shuaibu Mohammed Bama, called a “high profile Boko Haram commander” by the Joint Task Force (JTF), was arrested in “a serving politician’s house,” JTF announced on Friday. Following the JTF press statement, Senator Zanna told newsmen that although Bama was his nephew, the arrest did not take place in his home. “Since he was not arrested in my house, they should go and investigate his relationship with people they arrested him in their house,” he said.
But the former governor scoffed at that account. “Senator Zanna in a comic u-turn, shortly after these developments, told journalists in a face-saving interview that while he could not deny his relationship with his nephew, he disowned his house where the JTF arrested the suspect, stressing that the house belongs to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff the immediate former governor of the state.”
The former governor, who is now the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria People’s Party, noted that Zanna has had a “recent political encounter” with him, and now “appears desperate to settle scores by dragging Ali Sheriff into the controversy.”
Said Modu Sheriff: “Senator Zanna’s inconsistencies in trying to defend himself are clear indication of a sinking man’s desperate attempt to hang himself on anything available in order to save his neck. If not so, what would his nephew be doing in the so-called house of Senator Ali Sheriff, the man he said is his political rival?”
The ex-governor said Senator Zanna has “obvious involvement with Boko Haram, given his past antecedence where people finger him as illegal importer of arms via his Hajj-by-road fame.”
He said it was common knowledge in Borno state that Senator Zanna takes some hapless Nigerians on a seeming religious voyage by road only to put some of them into terrorist activity and illegal arms importation. While it is not clear if he had ever reported this information to the security agencies, the former governor said that some of the so-called “pilgrims by road” have been traced to terrorists’ camps in Afghanistan and Syria, and not Saudi Arabia, their preferred destination.
“It is very much on record that 27 of such pilgrims are still missing uptill date.”
He refuted the senator’s claims that he had parted ways with his nephew, Shuaibu Bama, saying he can “authoritatively confirm” the man was still his associate up to the time of his arrest.
He further queried why Senator Zanna never spoken against the atrocities being committed by Boko Haram, noting that instead, he has been calling for the declaration of state of emergency or the disbandment of the
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