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Nigeria security services foil Boko Haram terror plot to attack Lagos
Nigeria’s security services have foiled an imminent terrorist attack and have arrested and charged 45 suspects over an alleged Boko Haram plot to attack the country’s financial hub, Lagos, sources told reporters.
“About 60 suspects were picked up from different locations in Lagos by the Department of State Services acting on intelligence information that they were planning to attack Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi” said one source, referring to an upscale area of Lagos.
Both sources, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said some of the suspects were released after preliminary investigations, while 45 others were taken to a magistrate’s court.
“They were arraigned on holding charges. The state prosecutor urged the court to remand them in prison pending further investigation and their eventual arraignment before a high court,” said a source.
Any attack on Lagos, which drives Nigeria’s economy and is seen by many as a gateway to West Africa, would likely send shock waves throughout the region.
Lagos State Information Commissioner Steve Ayorinde on Saturday called for the public’s help in ensuring the safety of the megacity’s 20 million-strong population.
“Our appeal goes to every school, housing estates, religious houses, markets and shopping complexes, hotels and restaurants and sporting arenas to take issues of security and personal safety more seriously these days and to work with the security agencies in promptly reporting any persons with suspicious activities or unusual gatherings that may compromise security,” he said.
The al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram, wants to carve out a hard-line Islamic state in Nigeria’s northeast.
Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has been attacked several times – while Lagos was attacked last June.
The car bombing, near fuel depots and the city’s main port, was claimed by Boko Haram’s shadowy leader, Abubakar Shekau. In one propaganda video, Shekau threatened to hit Nigeria’s oil-producing south.
Security analysts said at the time the Lagos bombing was likely to have been carried out by a small group of Boko Haram sympathizers, with no direct link to the group’s high command.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in May on a promise of crushing Boko Haram, has given his military commanders until the end of the year to bring the disturbances to a close. That has led to a slew of announcements, particularly from the military, about progress in the counterinsurgency.
But at the same time suicide attacks and bombings against “soft” civilian targets have continued.
Source: AFP