A former governor of Yobe State who is currently representing Yobe-East Senatorial District at the Senate, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, on Saturday said the Boko Haram insurgent group was formed in Egypt decades ago contrary to the belief that it started in Nigeria around 2009.

Ibrahim told journalists in Abuja that the ideological movement, which is strictly anti-Western education, had also been in existence in the northern part of the country since the 1970s after the killing of the sect’s spiritual leader in Egypt by President Gammal Abdel Naseer.

The senator said members of the sect from Egypt first landed in Minna, the Niger State capital, before moving to Kano, Yobe and finally settled in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, between 2001 and 2002.

He, however, said the fundamentalists did not start as a full blown militant cum terrorist sect against the country.

Ibrahim explained that Boko Haram militants were different from political thugs who were used by some politicians to form the group, adding that insurgents were against democracy being western idea and by extension, politics.

He said, “The History of Boko Haram dates back to 10, 15, and even 20 years or more ago. This thing didn’t start six years ago as largely claimed. It started earlier.

Read More: punchng