The family of a Nigerian Islamic
studies lecturer accused of being
a Boko Haram leader has told the
BBC that his arrest was a "set
up".
They said it was outrageous to
suggest he belonged to the militants
behind the insurgency in northern
Nigeria.
Muhammad Nazeef Yunus was
paraded before journalists this week,
accused of recruiting militants in the
central Kogi state where he lectures.
"In his research thesis, he
condemned Boko Haram," his
brother told the BBC.
The Boko Haram leaders preach
against Western education
Boko Haram's insurgency, which
began in earnest in 2010, has
centred in the largely Muslim north-
east of Nigeria, where three states
have been under emergency rule
since May as the security forces try
to crush the militants.
The group, which is opposed to
Western education, wants to impose
strict Islamic law in northern
Nigeria.
Several thousand people have been
killed in the past three years.
'Critical of authorities'
Mr Nazeef, who is an assistant
lecturer in Arabic and Islamic
Studies at Kogi State University,
was paraded along with four other
suspects accused by the secret police
of plotting to launch attacks in
Igalaland, Kogi state.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid in Jos, the
capital of Plateau state where the
lecturer and his family live, says Mr
Nazeef was arrested on 29 October,
a few days after publicly criticising
the Nigerian authorities.
In a sermon at a mosque in Jos he
had said the way heads of security
agencies were appointed was a
concern, suggesting they were biased
against Muslims, our reporter says.
"Certainly, this is a set up," the
lecturer's wife, Sa'adatu Shu'aibu,
told the BBC Hausa Service about
the arrest.
"[Everybody] knows that Nazeef
Yunus is not a member of Boko
Haram. People are witnesses to his
preaching and I also listen to
recordings of the preaching and I
never heard him preach violence,"
she said.
His brother, Hadi Yunus, agreed that
Mr Nazeef, who is also the director
of a secondary school in Jos which
follows an Islamic and Western
curriculum, often lectured against
the ideologies of Boko Haram.
One of the suspects arrested along
with Mr Nazeef said he was
recruited in May after he lost his job
and was paid ($315, £195) a month
by the group.
Along with the other young men
paraded before journalists in the
capital, Abuja, he alleged that he had
been indoctrinated by Mr Nazeef,
the alleged leader of the cell in Kogi
state.
"I was shocked when the other
suspects insisted that I was a
member and the one that recruited
them into the sect. I have never
been a member of Boko Haram for
one minute in my life, I even
preach against them," he said.
Boko Haram, which along with its
offshoot Ansaru, was last week
blacklisted as a terrorist organisation
by the US.
On Wednesday, MPs in Nigeria's
lower house of parliament
unanimously backed extending the
state of emergency in the north-east
for a further six months following a
closed-door briefing by security
chiefs.
The upper house had already given
its consent after President Goodluck
Jonathan's extension request earlier
this month.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25051886
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