KANO (Nigeria), July 7: A prominent Muslim scholar has been arrested in northern Nigeria’s Borno State for allegedly leading a ‘Taliban’ group, his aides said on Friday.
“Muhammad Yusuf was picked up in the early hours of Thursday in his residence in the northern city of Maiduguri by the State Security Service (SSS) and taken to an unknown destination,” Awwal Buba told AFP by telephone.
He was accused of leading a militant group that called itself the Taliban, after the outlawed militia that formerly ruled Afghanistan, he said.
“Six SSS operatives came to his house in the early hours of yesterday and whisked him away and we are yet to find out where they took him to,” he added.
Yusuf was arrested for a similar reason in 2004 after the group launched a short-lived but bloody rebellion against the government.
