Nigeria arrests Boko Haram suspect No. 26 from 100 most-wanted list

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Nigerian authorities on Sunday arrested a suspected Boko Haram militant who was No. 26 on a recently distributed 100 most-wanted list.

Col. Sani Usman, a spokesman for the Nigerian army, said in a statement that Danladi Abdullahi was arrested in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Nigeria's Borno state.

"Although he is still being investigated, it has been positively established that he is suspect No. 26 on the list of the declared suspected Boko Haram terrorists issued by the Nigerian army last month," Xinhua news agency quoted Usman as saying.

Abdullahi's detention comes after Nigerian authorities last week said they apprehended two other suspected militants named on the list.

Ishaku Wardifen, a Cameroonian national, was arrested at a military checkpoint Nov. 9 in the town of Maliha, in northwestern Nigeria's Adamawa state. One day prior, police arrested Chindo Bello as he attempted to board a flight in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

"Following the release of the poster containing photographs of 100 suspected Boko Haram terrorists, security agencies and the public have intensified search for them," Vanguard quoted Usman as saying Sunday.

Nigeria-based terrorist group Boko Haram has since 2009 killed some 17,000 people in a campaign of suicide bombings, mass kidnappings, executions and raids on remote bases and villages in a bid to form an Islamic government in the region. It has conducted a majority of its attacks in Nigeria, particularly in the country's northeastern Borno state, but it has also killed scores in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The Nigerian military late last month said it killed 30 Boko Haram fighters and rescued 338 hostages, including 138 women and 192 children, during an operation in the Sambisa Forest, in Borno state.

The operation came less than a week after suicide bombings on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 killed 61 people at mosques in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, and in Maiduguri -- and one day after the Nigerian military unveiled a new task force specifically placed in Borno state to combat Boko Haram.

Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, chief of staff of the Nigerian army, spoke to the special unit, known as 29 Task Force Brigade, saying they must "maintain the momentum to achieve" a deadline set by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to defeat the terrorist group by December.