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Barely 24 hours after stating the three conditions that must be met before there could be ceasefire over Boko Haram’ hostilities, following a discussion between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the family of the late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, the brother-in-law to the late Yusuf, Babakura Baba Fugu, was yesterday shot dead in Maiduguri by a gunman suspected to be a member of ?Boko Haram.?
The sect has claimed responsibility for the killing, saying that nobody had been mandated to speak on behalf of the sect.
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?Fugu, the eldest brother -in- law to the late Yusuf, had, on Thursday, received former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, ?to commiserate with the family over the extra -judicial killing of their father.?
? Fugu, who was a secondary school teacher, ?according to eye witnesses, was shot dead at about ?1.30pm while he was chatting with a friend ?in front of his Babagana Marte residence, adjacent to the demolished building of the family in Maiduguri .?
?He was said to have been sitting with three other people and they were preparing for the Zhuhr prayer when a lone gunman wearing a brown kaftan opened fire on him.?
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Fugu, who was in his late 40s, was allegedly ?singled out among the people, even as ?the attacker fired several shots to scare away people in the area.?
? The witnesses added that the gunman, ?who came in a Peugeot salon car riddled with bullets, ?fled after the incident.?
Fugu was said to have died on the spot before help could come his way.?
? According to a family source, ?the publicity accorded Obasanjo’s visit by the media might have caused the wrath of the ?gunman.?
? Our correspondent also gathered that the family accused the media of over-publicising the visit which portrayed the family as going into negotiation with the government.?
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? The late Fugu had, on Friday, told journalists that the family had in its discussion with Obasanjo given three conditions for peace to reign in the land, claiming that the family obtained the approval of the top echelon of the sect before meeting with Obasanjo.
The deceased had listed the three conditions thus: the rebuilding of the their demolished building during the 2009 crisis, the payment of compensation to the family as ordered by the court over the extra- judicial killing of their father, and the directive that the security agencies should desist from further harassment of the sect members.?
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?But certain members of the Boko Haram sect might not have been part of the new deal and moved against Fugu.
The sect claimed responsibility for the killing in a text message sent to journalists in Maiduguri yesterday.?
The group further threatened to kill those who granted audience to Obasanjo during his visit to Maiduguri, claiming that it was not interested in any dialogue with the federal government. Nobody could speak on its ?behalf, it said.?
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? When contacted, the spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Lt- Col. Hassan Mohammad, ? said he was yet to receive a report on the killing.?
But the commissioner of police, Borno State Command, Mr Simeon Midenda, said the gunman brought a Kalashnikov rifle from inside his traditional robes and shot Fugu to death.
The late Fugu had narrated what transpired during ?the secret meeting with Obasanjo: ?“Obasanjo came to Maiduguri and met us in our house; he first of all introduced his person and he empathised with us over the loss of our loved ones.?
“Obasanjo said he came to meet us personally and hear our grievances and to take our grievances to President Goodluck Jonathan, so that there will be resolution of this issue once and for all.
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“He also said that his coming was to see how our plight and other challenges could be overcome as a means to prove that government is indeed ready for peace.”
He also narrated what the family ?told Obasanjo: “Firstly, we discussed the issue of our houses which were demolished; then the court which ruled that we be paid damages. And we also told him that security agencies must desist from any moves to harass us by even government officials.
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“Based on this agreement, Obasanjo told us that he would personally take the matter to President ?Jonathan. All of us were in the meeting, including those of Muhammad Yusuf, with our sister and mother of Fuji Foi who harped on the fact that his children should be mobilised to access education and better welfare.?
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“There will be peace if the agreement is reached. The Boko Haram members are demanding adequate compensation for those killed by security agencies and the same thing with us whose loved ones were also killed. We have faith in Obasanjo’s coming without any doubt.”
?Obasanjo had sneaked into Maiduguri, Borno State capital, on Thursday and held a secret meeting with the sect members on how to end the lingering spate of bombings in the country.
A Kaduna-based human rights activist and president of Civil Rights Congress (CRC), Mr. Shehu Sani, had reportedly facilitated the parley.
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? Sani, ?who also spoke on the meeting on Friday, ?said, ?“I reached to the families and leadership of Boko Haram and they agreed with the idea, and I chose Obasanjo because he is closer to the government. If the Boko Haram leadership did not agree, the meeting would not have been held.
“Obasanjo asked security operatives to excuse him and they were worried over his safety, but the former president assured them that nothing would happen to him. He asked them questions and they talked and I was there.”
Efforts to get a reaction from the federal government proved abortive as the special adviser to the president on the media, Dr. Reben Abati, refused to pick calls made to his phone at press time, just as he refused to reply text messages sent to him.