45 in Custody over Boko Haram Plot in Lagos

Nigeria’s secret police have arrested and charged 45 suspects over an alleged Boko Haram plot to attack the country’s financial hub, Lagos, sources with knowledge of the matter told AFP on Sunday.
“About 60 suspects were picked up from different locations in Lagos by the Department of State  Services acting on intelligence information they were planning to attack Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi last month,” 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 court on Friday.

“They were arraigned on holding charges. The DSS urged

the court to remand them in prison pending further

investigation and their eventual arraignment before a high

court,” said a source.

Dolphin Estate is a gated community on the Ikoyi island,

which is home to wealthy Nigerians as well as expatriate

workers, many of them in the oil and gas industry.

Any attack on Lagos, which drives Nigeria’s economy and

is seen by many foreign governments as a gateway to

West Africa, would likely send shockwaves through both.

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 both the government and security

agencies in promptly reporting any persons with

suspicious activities or unusual gatherings that may

compromise security,” he said.

“Care must also be taken in how domestic servants and

house aides are also employed,” he added in a statement.

Boko Haram, which wants to carve out a hardline Islamic

state in Nigeria’s northeast, has threatened to move south

to spread its six-year-old insurgency in the country.

The capital, Abuja, has been hit several times, most

recently on October 2 when three suicide bombers killed

18 in two satellite towns — while Lagos was attacked last

June.

The car bombing, near fuel depots and the city’s main

port, killed at least four and although denied by the

authorities, 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 sympathisers, with no direct link to the group’s

high command.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in

May on a promise of crushing Boko Haram, has given his

military commanders until the end of the year to bring the

insurgency to a close.

That has led to a slew of announcements, particularly

from the military, about progress in the counter-

insurgency.

But at the same time suicide attacks and bombings against

“soft” civilian targets have continued. Nearly 170 people

have been killed this month and more than 1,420 since

Buhari came to power, according to an AFP tally.

At least 58 people were killed on Friday in blasts at two

mosques in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, and the

capital of neighbouring Adamawa state, Yola.

On Sunday, four suicide bombers attempting to blow up a

military checkpoint in Maiduguri were killed when their

car exploded, local vigilantes, assisting the military in the

fight against Boko Haram told AFP.

“Around 1:30 pm, a Golf car carrying four people

exploded just before the Jimtilo military checkout, on the

outskirts of Maiduguri,” vigilante Baba Kura said.

“We mobilised to the scene along with military personnel

and we discovered the explosion was caused by

explosives and the car was engulfed in flames,”

Another vigilante Umar Sani gave a similar account of the

incident.

“A car exploded just befoe reaching a military checkpoint.

All the four occupants of the car died from the explosion,”


45 in Custody over Boko Haram Plot in Lagos