VANGUARD
October 1, 2011
Planned independence day bombings: Military authorities arrest 950 n Chadians, Nigeriens, Sudanese
AGAINST the backdrop of plans by the Boko Haram sect to hit some government’s targets (national assets) on or before today (October 1, 2011), military authorities in Abuja who got cracking following the groups’ threat to dent the nation’s 51st anniversary celebrations, have arrested about 950 suspects made up mostly of foreign nationals from Niger, Chad and Sudan.
The suspects Saturday Vanguard gathered, were arrested in the dead of the night (between 2am and 4am) at several entry points into the federal capital city including Suleija, Zuba and Mararaba by Military Intelligence and Military Police operatives of the three battalions that make up the Guards Brigade in conjunction with soldiers of the Army Headquarters Garrison Abuja.
Saturday Vanguard was told that the arrest of the suspects who obviously had sinister motives for wanting to flood the country, was made possible due to the discovery that many of these nations’ who hitherto entered the country from across the borders in large numbers using trailers and trucks as mode of transport, re-strategized and resorted to using taxis and kabukabu with a view to beating security checkpoints.
Several dangerous weapons including AK 47 rifles, pump Action guns and dangerous/poisonous arrows were said to have been recovered from some of the arrested suspects who could not tell security agents what they were coming to the FCT to do.
A source said, “From the look of things, it appears these people were on an invasion mission because there is no other explanation why so many Nigeriens, Chadians and Sudanese would head for the nation’s capital at this particular time with bows and arrows, guns and other dangerous weapons”.
Meanwhile Saturday Vanguard can report that the truth behind some of the mysterious and relentless mode of bombings and gun attacks on innocent Nigerians by the Boko Haram sect which for many months defied understanding by security agencies in the country, was becoming clearer as the military task force in Borno is said to have apprehended several members of the sect particularly the ‘strike force’ department of the group in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The Military Task Force was however shocked to discover that many of the suspects arrested following intelligence findings and confessions by fellow members of the sect included Igbo youths, retired and serving soldiers, retired and serving policemen and as well as Immigration personnel whose roles included paving the way for foreign recruits of the sect to come into the country for which they have benefitted to the tune of millions of naira from the sect.
The Task Force also discovered that the leadership of the Boko Haram sect had been playing a fast one on security agencies by using some of these Igbo youths who are the least group of persons to be suspected because they or their kilt and kin resident and doing business in Maiduguri and other northern states like Bauchi, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna states, have suffered a lot during the attacks and bombings.
So while the Army and other security agencies were gunning for stock of the Hausa/Fulani tribe as suspects, the sect was actually discovered to be using Igbo youths many of whom were born and bred in the North, in these areas to perpetuate the dastardly act for sums of money ranging from N300, 000 to N500, 000 depending on the success of the blast, the destruction caused, and the impact such attack must have had on the nation’s mass media.
It was further gathered that most of the bombs used for that attacks which are assembled locally, were also done by experts some of who are either retired military or retired police personnel, who arm those that are sent out to detonate the bombs and kill innocent citizens while most of the assassination of either politicians, religious leaders or influential persons that may have spoken out and condemned the perpetrators of the menace are usually carried out by trained snipers from either the military or the police.
As a result of the suspected involvement of retired military personnel, who could be members of Boko Haram Vanguard learnt that the Army authorities are now working or taking a second look at the possibility that the bombing of the Army barracks mammy markets in Bauchi this year and Abuja last year, may have recorded success because of the input of these ex-officers.
Consequently, there are indications that new intelligence screening measures would be put in place by the Army authorities to try and fish out personnel in the system who may be sympathetic to the course of Boko Haram and may still abound in the force to prevent further danger to not only the military itself but to Nigerians as a whole.
Saturday Vanguard also learnt that the difficulty in security agencies being able to trace the hideouts and arrest the leaders of the Boko Haram sect, was due to the fact that prompt information detailing the plans of security agencies always gets to them from their informants within the security apparatus whenever their (Boko Haram) camps were to be raided.
On the involvement of politicians, some elders of the area and other influential Nigerians from the North, Saturday Vanguard was told that judging from the amount of money said to be involved as benefits when these murderous attacks are carried out, the finances are definitely coming from rich people who will soon be unraveled by the Task Force.
Asked what role some suspected officials of the Immigration service would have played to be involved, Saturday Vanguard was told that the involvement of citizens from Niger, Chad and Sudan, in the activities of Boko Haram may have been facilitated by the Immigration officials who allow them into the country unchallenged after inducement. They also open the borders for these foreigners to escape when security agencies are in pursuit of them for the various atrocities against the nation.
Consequently, we learnt that the successful detonation of the twin bombs at the Police Force headquarters in Abuja on the 16th of June this year, followed accurate information passed by ex-policemen who are members of the group, to the bomber on the timing and movement of the IGP and how to beat the security at the entrance into the Police headquarters by staying at a strategic position and speeding through, moments after the IGP would have entered force headquarters.
It would be recalled that the Interim Report on the Police Headquarters bombing showed that the car carrying the bombs, captured by the CCTV recording, was stationed opposite the Total Filling Station, near force headquarters and sped through few minutes after the IG entered and made for the IG’s parking lot before ASP Nangor Damtip and other officers accosted him and forced him to move to the general car park where the bombs exploded and the ASP, father of 10 children, who later took charge of the vehicle, was blown to pieces.
