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, told The
PUNCH on Sunday that 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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