ABUJA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two Boko Haram fighters have been arrested in Nigeria following an investigation on their hideouts and a raid by the police, authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
Eight of the suspects participated in the 2014 abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls of Chibok town in the country's northeastern state of Borno, the police said.
The suspects include three top commanders of the Boko Haram, two logistic suppliers and 17 fighters.
They were arrested during various operations by a special police team deployed in the northeast region for the past two weeks.
All the suspects had confessed to committing heinous crimes as Boko Haram fighters, including invasion of some towns and planning over 50 suicide attacks in the northeast region, according to Damian Chukwu, spokesman for the police in Borno.
The suspects also carried out various attacks on security agencies and civilians in Nigeria, Chukwu said.
One of the suspects told investigators that he used to convey female and male suicide bombers from Sambisa forest to different locations in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and Adamawa, also in the northeast, to carry out the attack, the police spokesman said.
Boko Haram has been blamed for the death of more than 20,000 people and displacement of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since 2009.
