Tukur Mamu, media consultant to Ahmed Gumi, the popular Islamic cleric, has been reportedly arrested in Cairo, Egypt capital.
He was also the lead negotiator between the terrorists and passengers kidnapped from the attacked Abuja-Kaduna train.
He was arrested in Egypt alongside his family members.
Mamu was said to be on his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj when he was detained at the Cairo International Airport.
Confirming the arrest, the management of the Desert Herald Newspaper, said the arrest was an attempt to intimidate its publisher.
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In a statement on Wednesday by its Head, Special Projects, Ibrahim Mada, the management 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,” the statement reads.
“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.”
Recently, Mamu pulled out of negotiations with the insurgents after he had secured the release of some passengers.
He claimed to have no government’s support, threat to life and blackmail as reasons for his withdrawal from the negotiations.