MAIDUGURI: A purported spokesman of Nigeria's violent Islamist sect Boko Haram has denied he is the man authorities arrested on Wednesday, throwing into confusion the identity of the sect member the secret service has detained.
A senior source at Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) said on Wednesday it had arrested Abu Qaqa, the group's supposed spokesman, whom journalists have not seen but who has regularly telephoned local media to claim responsibility for attacks.
Yet late on Thursday, a man calling himself Abu Qaqa phoned journalists in the sect's heartland of Maiduguri to deny he was under arrest, saying another senior comrade was being held.
Some security officials suspect, in any case, that the "spokesman", whose voice is often electronically disguised on the telephone, is actually more than one person.
"The person that was arrested was Abu Dardam and not Abu Qaqa. I am Abu Qaqa, the spokesman of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad," the man told local reporters on Thursday, using Boko Haram's full, formal name.
"Abu Dardam is a senior member of our group who plays a key role on public enlightenment. The arrest of Abu Dardam is an outright deception and betrayal by government and security agents," he added.
The use of the familiar form "Abu", or "father of" in Arabic, indicates the names are pseudonyms.
The past three months have seen a surge in violence by Boko Haram, a movement loosely modelled on Afghanistan's Taliban which says it is fighting to install sharia law across Nigeria.
Bomb and gun attacks by them have killed nearly a thousand people in the past two years, Human Rights Watch says.
CONFUSION
The SSS source said Abu Qaqa was found hiding under his bed when security forces raided his dwelling in the northern city of Kaduna in the early hours of Wednesday.
The confusion over identity underscores the secretive and impenetrable nature of a movement whose bearded members rarely appear in public, and whose fighters favour night-time hit and run tactics against security forces or civilians.
The arrest of a senior Boko Haram figure would be a coup for the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, which has been criticised for failing to curb the sect's violent activities in the mainly Muslim north.
"Abu Qaqa" would often claim high profile attacks - like one in the northern city of Kano that killed 186 people - for the group and frequently justify the choice of target.
For a long time he was the closest thing the sect had to a public face, before its purported leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video debut of himself last month on YouTube.
The purported spokesman also told local press that the man arrested had been tricked because he was on the way to meet a government official for talks. No known talks have taken place between the government and Boko Haram.
"The person we have been trailing for months and now have him with us is Abu Qaqa. He did not say he is Abu Dardam," the SSS source who first revealed his arrest told Reuters on Friday, saying the SSS knew of no dialogue going on.
"We are a security agency. We don't play politics. In any case, why would someone who they claimed came for dialogue hide under the bed?"
The reported arrest came two weeks after the prime suspect in a deadly Christmas Day bombing on a church on the edge of Abuja escaped from police custody, prompting Jonathan to sack his police chief.