A very notorious member of the Boko Haram terrorist sect and mastermind of the bombing of the UN building in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, has been arrested.

The Department of State Security (DSS) said it arrested Khalid AL-Barnawi, who goes by the alias Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Mallam Dauda, Alhaji Tanimu.

Tony Opuiyo‎, spokesman of the DSS, confirmed that Khalid AL-Barnawi was apprehended on April 1 in Lokoja, Kogi State, while hiding under a false cover.

The DSS said AL-BARNAWI was a founding member of the Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid Da’wah Wa’l-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jama’at Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS). 

Khalid AL-BARNAWI is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East, the DSS said.

He is believed to have been involved in many terrorist attacks in states of the federation including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and Abuja. 

“This resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this Country,” the DSS said noting that the suspect is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja on 26th August, 2011, the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar RAUPACH in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jama’are, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.

According to the DSS, he would soon be charged to court to face his charges after investigation is completed.