By Sesan Olufowobi and Eniola Akinkuotu
(NIGERIA) Leader of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram,
Abubakar Shekau, has claimed responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a
fuel depot in Apapa, Lagos.
Shekau, according to Agence-France Presse reports, made the
claim in a new video sent to the French news agency.
Also, the Lagos State Council of Arewa Chiefs on Saturday
confirmed that the June 25 blasts at Apapa were indeed bomb attacks
masterminded by Boko Haram.
The Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos State and chairman of the
council, Alhaji Sani Kabir, said the police had confirmed that the Apapa
explosions were actually bomb blasts and that 7,000 northerners had been
arrested by the police in Lagos over the incident.
The Shekau video has since been posted on the internet. In
the video, Shekau, standing next to at least 10 gunmen in front of two Armoured
Personnel Carriers and two pick-up trucks, said, “A bomb went off in Lagos. I
ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it.”
Two blasts, minutes apart, had rocked Apapa, where Nigeria’s
main sea ports are located, on the night of June 25.
While the Lagos State Government and the police had said the
incident was a mere explosion caused by a gas cylinder at a nearby depot, there
had been speculations that a female suicide bomber had detonated an Improvised
Explosive Device.
“The two blasts last month in Apapa were almost certainly
caused by bombs,” Reuters quoted three senior security sources and the manager of
a major container company to have said.
Reacting to the Shekau claim, the Force Police Public
Relations Officer, ACP Frank Mba, said the police had been studying the video
and that they would wait for the conclusion of investigation into the video
before making any pronouncement.
Mba said, “We are studying the video. Our approach is to
first conduct a thorough IT and forensic analysis of the video in order to
establish its authenticity or otherwise. It is only after the investigation
that we will be in a position to make an evidence-based stand.”
When the blasts occurred, the Lagos State Police Public
Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, had said they were an accident caused by a gas
canister, but security sources had told Reuters that it was a cover-up meant to
avoid panic in Lagos.
Apparently reacting to the police claim then, Shekau, in his
latest video, said, “You said it was a fire incident. Well, if you hide it from
people you can’t hide it from Allah.”
“The target of the Lagos bombs was a fuel depot. Had it gone
up, it could have caused a massive chain explosion and disrupted Nigeria’s
mostly imported fuel supply,” Reuters reports said on Sunday.
Attempts to get the reaction of the Lagos State Government
on Sunday failed as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lateef
Ibirogba, did not pick calls to his mobile phone. He also did not respond to
text messages sent to his phone on the matter.
Shekau is in the habit of releasing video clips to claim
responsibility for attacks by Boko Haram. He has also been known to claim
attacks suspected to be the work of other criminal gangs.
A major flaw in the new video however is that Shekau wrongly
identified the Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole as the governor of Lagos
State.
The leader of the Hausa community in Lagos at the briefing
on Saturday warned all Hausa people in the state to be law-abiding and not to
do anything that would strain the relationship the Hausas and Yoruba had
enjoyed in the state.
Kabir said the council had met with several monarchs and
local government authorities on the issue.
He urged his members to stop sleeping in mosques, abandoned
buildings and under the bridges as the security situation in the country had
become volatile. Kabir said any of his members accused of terrorism by security
agencies would be immediately handed over to the police and would not be
shielded.
He also advised all northerners in the state to register
with the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency so that the government could
have their data. When asked if it was only northerners that were involved in
terrorism in Lagos, he said “Just like you rightly observed two weeks ago,
security agencies, particularly the police, under the leadership of the CP,
invited us for an interactive session. Actually, we raised the same question to
the police why they are only inviting people from the North.
“Prior to the meeting, there had been indiscriminate arrest
of northerners. At the last count it was more than 7,000. It was as a result of
the incessant arrest that we leaders of Arewa demanded an explanation for the
arrest of northerners.
“Security agencies got information from within the community
that we have influx of people coming from the North. But what is important is
that after the meeting with security agencies, in order to prevent further
stigmatisation of the Northern community, we met with council of obas, baales,
LCDA and we let them know it was not a northern problem alone but a general
problem.”
He urged the Federal Government to negotiate with terrorists
as military approach alone could not solve terrorism. About a year ago, a
suspected Boko Haram member from Chad was arrested by security agencies in
Lagos.
During a military raid on March 21, 2013, soldiers ransacked
a building on Aromire Street in Ijora, where one of the arrested persons,
Ibrahim Musa, was occupying five rooms.
A bomb kept in a cooler and hidden inside the ceiling of one
of the rooms in Musa’s apartment was recovered by the soldiers. Other items
found were AK-47 rifles, cartridges and daggers.
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