The Boko Haram suspect who was arrested at National Airport Management Authority (NAMA) annex in Lagos yesterday, confessed last night that he was sent along with other Boko Haram members to Lagos to bomb various parts of the city.
The physically challenged 22-year-old suspect who was caught with canisters around his neck, in his confession, told security operatives that his two other colleagues were assigned the task of bombing Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), as well as the densely populated Lagos Island and Apapa areas of the megacity.
A Security source, who spoke exclusively to THISDAY, said the suspect (name withheld) had confessed that he alongside several others were recruited from Niger Republic and were trained extensively before their deployment.
The suspect said the plot to bomb Lagos would not be simultaneously done, a clear deviation from the planned simultaneous attacks last year March, when the sect tried to bomb various designated places across the state at the same time.
According to him, the attempt by the
physically-challenged suspect was the first attempt to bomb Lagos after the twin bomb blasts in Apapa two months ago that claimed no fewer than five persons including the suicide bomber.
A security official, who spoke to THISDAY on the strict condition of anonymity, said the attempt would have been successful but for the inability of the explosives to detonate when they were supposed to.
He said: “He was caught because when he tried to set off the explosives, there was a hitch. He ran back to an obscure place to check it out and fix it.
His suspicious movement and the frustration evident on his face aroused the suspicion of security operatives attached to NAMA.”
Also speaking, another source from the state security department said already, investigations had kicked off in full gear to round up other suspects who were said to have been deployed to wreak havoc in the state.
The suspect was arrested at the NAMA annex facility, known as CENTREX, about 300 meters from the international terminal of the airport, opposite the airport cathedral.
THISDAY learnt that the suspect was making frantic phone calls, and looked frustrated and restless. His mannerism and slovenly conduct aroused the suspicion of security personnel who were watching him and subsequently arrested him.
He was taken to the MMIA police station at Beesam junction. Shortly after his arrest, the police had initially pleaded for more time to undertake the investigation to confirm the identity and mission of the suspect.
The police also said that the suspected explosive device found on the suspect would be examined and confirmed later, adding that it would be hasty to describe it as an explosive.
A police officer, however, described the device found on the suspect as locally made explosives.
Reacting to the incident, the General Manager, Public Affairs of NAMA, Supo Atobatele, said the suspect was within the vicinity of the airport making phone calls along the Airport Road when the agency’s security personnel accosted him.
He said his incoherent explanation aroused further suspicion, especially with the suspicious looking canisters on his person.
“The attention of NAMA has been drawn to insinuations that a suspected suicide bomber was arrested at one of the agency’s facilities at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Monday.
“The basic truth however is that the said suspect was on the ground making phone calls along the Airport Road close to CENTREX, an annex office of NAMA when the agency’s security personnel accosted him.
“His incoherent explanation exposed him to the security personnel who later found on him some devices suspected to be explosives. He was subsequently handed over to the Airport Police Command for further investigation.
“The Managing Director, Ibrahim Abdulsalam, in reaction, commended the security personnel for their vigilance and prompt arrest of the suspect,” Atobatele said in a statement.
The suspect who wore brown shorts and a white T-shirt was prevented from speaking to reporters about his mission to the airport.
But another policeman told THISDAY that the suspect was not willing to talk initially, having concealed his age but later said that his father was from Kano while his mother was from Cameroon and that he lived in Nasarawa quarters in Kano.
Yet, another senior security official with one of the aviation agencies told THISDAY that enquiries had revealed that the suspect was from Niger Republic, arrived Lagos on Sunday
and was asking people for the location of the airport before he was arrested.
The official alleged that the suspect was on a mission and was sent by somebody, dismissing the initial statement from the police that he was a lunatic.
“I don’t think that the suspect is a lunatic. If the police say that he is a lunatic let them prove that he is one.
“From my own assessment, the suspect was on a mission; he was sent by somebody, but the police have not given us more information.
I went to see him and the young man spoke both in English and in Hausa. The police said they should be given time to investigate the suspected devices, so let me give them time,” the official said.
Source:
ThisDay Newspaper
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has expressed fear that Nigeria’s economy may be at risk going by the stigmatisation the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, has put on the country. It also said that the current international isolation and unwarranted discrimination against the Nigerians travelling abroad might impact the economy of the country negatively.
The LCCI in a statement yesterday by the President, Alhaji Remi Bello, urged the business community to support the current efforts by governments aimed at controlling the spread of the deadly disease in the country. “There is currently the risk of international
isolation, stigmatisation and unwarranted discriminatory practices against the citizens travelling
outside our shores. This has grave consequences for the economy and the citizens,” Bello said. The chamber
has commended the governments on the measures taken so far to contain the spread of the disease.
Although it regretted the outbreak of EVD in the country, saying the incident was avoidable but for the failure of the country's system which could not stop the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, the carrier of the virus, from gaining entry into the country.
"Nevertheless, we note with satisfaction the measures taken so far by the federal and state governments to contain the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease in the
country,” the chamber stated.
Bello, therefore, appealed to the private sector and the citizenry to also, in demonstration of their support for nationwide initiatives being undertaking to curb the spread of the disease, comply with protective measures as advised by the health authorities.
“We urge the business community and the entire citizenry to support the current efforts at containment of the disease. Given the way it came to Nigeria, current scope of the spread and the containment strategies, we are confident that before long, the situation would be fully brought under control.
“We urge all citizens to comply with protective measures as advised by the health authorities with regard to body contacts, general hygiene and making prompt reports of suspected cases,” he said. According to him, as the containment measures progress, the imperative of discretion in information management needs to be underscored just as care should be taken not to escalate the Ebola crisis beyond the reality of its occurrence. He noted that the Ebola hype had created a disproportionate panic, anxiety and scare, projecting the country as endemic Ebola zone.
Reports are emerging of the rescue by Chadian troops of some 85 Nigerian villagers abducted earlier this week by suspected Boko Haram militants.
A Nigerian security official told AFP that they had intercepted a convoy of buses transporting gunmen and the villagers in a routine security check.
Neither the Nigerian or Chadian militaries have confirmed the reports.
Boko Haram is accused of kidnapping hundreds of people in the north-east of Nigeria, and neighbouring Cameroon.
The group, which wants to create an Islamic state in the region, sparked international outcry when they abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in April in Nigeria's remote down of Chibok in Borno state.
Speedboat Escape
Dozens of men, women and children were seized from the remote fishing village of Doron Bag by boat across Lake Chad on Sunday.
Eyewitnesses said 26 people were killed in the raid.
A senior Nigerian security official told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Saturday that 85 people abducted in the attack were had been found by Chadian troops.
Nigeria imposed a state of emergency in Borno state last year to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency
"The convoy being led by six Boko Haram gunmen was stopped on the Chadian part of the border along Lake Chad for routine checks and the huge number of people in the convoy raised suspicion," the unnamed official said.
The six suspects were giving conflicting information on the hostages and their destination, he added.
Another official with the National Human Rights Commission in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, said some militants had escaped on speedboats when they saw the convoy being stopped.
He said the rescued villagers, totalling 65 men and 22 women, were still in Chadian custody but that 30 people were still being held by the militants.
News of the raid on Doron Bag took days to emerge, due to the remote region's poor communication links.
The militants burned down some of the houses in the village, and took mainly women and some boys and girls, a village elder told the BBC.
Other survivors said young men were also taken possibly to be turned into Boko Haram fighters.
A state of emergency was declared in Borno and two other north-eastern states last year to help the military crush the insurgency but the militants have stepped up attacks since then.
The schoolgirls abducted in April are thought to be held in the vast Sambisa forest, along Nigeria's border with Cameroon.
The group has also carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations, including that of moderate Muslim leaders opposed to its ideology.
