ISWAP founder’s son, Mahmud, surrenders in Maiduguri

The eldest son of Mamman Nur, founder of the Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP), Mahmud Mamman Nur Albarnawy, has surrendered to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Maiduguri.

Mahmud, 22, surrendered to the NSCDC on Sunday and has been handed over to Bulunkutu rehabilitation facility for further documentation and custody.

This was made known on Tuesday by Zagazola Makama, Lake Chad Basin counterterrorism and insurgency expert, in a post on his X handle.

The security expert wrote Mahmud confessed to having taken part in attacks in Bama, Banki, Gwoza and several other places as a middle rank fighter under the Boko Haram group.

Makama said intelligence sources told him that Mahmud was confirmed to be the senior son of the late ISWAP founder after undergoing profiling at the Command Headquarters of NSCDC in Maiduguri.

The security expert said that men of the command had facilitated his surrendering through his uncle in Gamborun Ngala after receiving information that he was willing to formally surrender to the Nigerian government.

Makama further disclosed that a reliable agent was sent to convey him to Maiduguri.

“Mahmud was later debriefed and profiled by an intelligence officer of the command where he confessed to having sneaked out of the Ali Ngulde camp in Mandara Mountain, Gwoza LGA, into Maiduguri and stayed for about a month at Gwange in the city capital before relocating to Gamboru Ngala without any alarm or distress signs from communities.

“During his stay in Gamboru Ngala, some of his late father’s loyalists were persuading him to return to the Lake Chad general area to pay allegiance to ISWAP but he refused, citing the betrayal and eventual execution of his late father,” he added.