One of the houses (arrowed) where some
suspected Boko Haram members were arrested by soldiers and men of the
State Security Service at Aromire Street, Ijora, Lagos… on Thursday
| credits: Simon Utebor
This is terrifying to know, they had better not come to Lagos o, the harm being done in the North is not enough?
Fear gripped many residents of Lagos on
Thursday when news filtered in that troops numbering about 100 stormed
terror suspects’ hideouts in Ijora, a densely populated part of the
city. The soldiers, who were assisted by men of the State Security
Service, were believed to have acted on a tip-off. They were said to
have arrived in the area around 7am in search of the suspects said to
be members of an Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram.
It was learnt that their search yielded
fruits when two persons were arrested at 24 Aromire Street and three
others at a location in an adjacent street. The soldiers then ransacked
the building at Aromire Street where one of the arrested persons,
Ibrahim Musa, occupies 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.
Musa, who a security source described as
an illegal alien from Chad, was said to be leader of the
suspects. Other items found were AK-47 rifles, cartridges and
daggers. The security source, who craved anonymity, added the raid was
as a result of an investigation which began a month ago.
He said, “Security agents got information
a month ago that there was a terrorist hideout in the Seven-Up area
of Ijora. Although we were not sure if they were Boko Haram members or
not, we did not want to take any chances so we decided to go and raid
the place.
“It was discovered that the place was
being run by a Chadian and arms were recovered during the raid,
including AK-47 riffles. Investigations are ongoing and those who are
found not culpable will be released.”
Musa’s neighbour, who craved anonymity,
told one of our correspondents that they did not suspect he was a
member of Boko Haram. He said the suspect moved into the house less
than three months ago. “Musa rented his apartment about three months
ago. However, since he moved in with his wife, who recently had a
baby and a brother, none of them had any known form of livelihood.
Musa and his brother, particularly were always going about with their
laptops and expensive phones.
“Though he (Musa) was not working, he was
usually the first to pay for anything in the house. It was when the
soldiers came that we got to know what they truly are. It was in the
course of beating him (Musa) that he told the soldiers where he hid the
bomb and guns.”
Another resident of the area, who
identified himself simply as Olu, said that when the suspects were
being taken away by the soldiers “we did not know they were living
here.” “When soldiers were taking them away, we wondered if they were
living in the neighbourhood. It was my neighbour, who told me he had
seen Musa once or twice,” he said.
Olu said when the soldiers were going,
they told them to be vigilant in the area, saying Boko Haram members had
infiltrated the area, particularly the Hausa settlement. When one of
our correspondents met the Ojora of Ijora , Oba Fatai Adeyinka, he
said he was shocked that Boko Haram members had infiltrated the area.
The spokesman for the Army 81 Division,
Colonel Kingsley Umoh, confirmed the raid but said the army had been
carrying out constant raids across the state in response to the rising
level of insecurity in the country.
Umoh said over 36 people had been
arrested recently. He however said he had yet to receive the details of
Thursday’s operation. He said, “The Nigerian Army is carrying out a
proactive approach. We are raiding every nook and cranny of the state in
order to rid it of criminal elements. We are not ignorant of the
insecurity in the country so we are carrying out preventive measures and
we want to make sure that Lagos is safe for all its inhabitants.
“The raids have been in collaboration
with sister agencies like the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps,
the SSS, the police and others. It is the OP MESA of the army that is
at the forefront of the raids and we have recorded many successes of
late as we have also arrested some soldiers who were found wanting.
“I will not be able to brief you fully about Thursday’s raid.” Lagos
State Director, SSS, Achu Olayi, also confirmed the raid but said that
it was too soon for him to say if the suspects were Boko Haram members
or not. The raid on Thursday on the predominantly Hausa
settlement came a month after the SSS uncovered a terror network
coordinated by Iranians in Lagos.
The SSS had said while parading a leader
of an Islamic sect, Abdullahi Berende, and two others that they
believed that the operators of the Iranian terror cell were
gathering information about Israelis and Americans living in Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment