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By Emmanuel Adeleke
Tukur Mamu, the media consultant to popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, has been reportedly arrested in Cairo, Egypt.
Mamu, who is at the forefront of negotiations for the release of the Kaduna train captives, was arrested and detained by the International Police (INTERPOL) at Cairo airport, while awaiting a connecting flight to Saudi Arabia, for lesser hajj.
Mamu, who is the publisher of Desert Herald, was arrested few days after the All Progressives Congress (APC) vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, visited the him and Gumi in Kaduna State.
Confirming the arrest, the management of Desert Herald Newspaper, said Mamu was arrested on Tuesday, adding that the arrest was an attempt to intimidate its publisher.
A statement on Wednesday by the medium’s Head, Special Projects, Ibrahim Mada, accused the Federal Government of contriving the arrest, deportation of Mamu from Egypt to Nigeria.
“His patriotic mission to ensure the safety of the hapless passengers made him a target of blackmail by unscrupulous elements in the government who are hell bent in punishing him for this noble but dangerous sacrifice for the fatherland. Such threats and intimidations have forced him to reveal on a number of times that his life was under serious threat.
“Due to numerous threats to his life and conspiracy from the side of security agents to frame him, he withdrew from the said negotiations but from his latest sojourn, it appears that those who are desperately praying for his head are still hell-bent in carrying out their odious dastardly plans.
“But it is our fervent hope that the evil machination of these desperate elements will be nixed by the fact that Allah is always by the side of the oppressed. This evil machination like the ones before it, shall also come to pass,” the statement read in part.