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| Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.) |
Barely three weeks after the sect carried out a car bomb attack on a motor park in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja, killing over 75 persons, the sect attacked the same vicinity again with another car bomb, which claimed about 30 lives on Thursday evening.
They also said the increased attacks on Abuja were aimed at making a global statement and discrediting the Federal Government, which is billed to host the World Economic Forum on Africa, in Abuja from May 7 to May 9, 2014.
Though the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, didn’t mention the World Economic Forum in his 28-minute video message some weeks ago, he boasted that the insurgents were in Abuja, and were ready to carry out more attacks while claiming responsibility for the April 14 Nyanya blast.
A former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.), while decrying the attacks, told one of our correspondents, that Abuja was under siege by Boko Haram and warned that they were likely to carry out more attacks on the nation’s capital.
He added that terrorists had infiltrated Abuja and every other part of the country.
Akinrinade, who was the Chief of Army Staff from October 1979 to April 1980 before his elevation to the office of the CDS, also decried the lack of adequate intelligence gathering by security agencies. He said the situation had made the creation of state police a necessity.
He said, “I will not be surprised if Boko Haram carried out more attacks on Abuja. What is the guarantee that all the people (terrorists) who bombed Nyanya died in the blast?
“They will return and reinvent it. Those saying such are right; that is what to expect.”
He added, “When you have a cell of terrorists — who we call urban guerrillas and five of them are operating in a community, it is not a very simple thing to find out.
“State Police is the beginning of intelligence. It is about people who go to drink in bars at night and those who go to night clubs. That is the beginning of intelligence. We don’t have that. They’ll recruit a man from Sokoto and send him to the Kaduna Police School. Immediately he finishes, they post him to Mushin where there is violence. How useful will he be?”
He said Sambisa forest, which is widely believed to be a major base of Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State should be invaded.
Akinrinade said, “I cannot really think of why security forces have difficulty in locating the site called Sambisa forest, however large it may be. I do not believe it is impossible for security forces to run over the place and find out what exactly is going on or happening there. I can’t believe that.”
Similarly, a former Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Brig. Gen. Williams Obene (retd.), said the second attack on Nyanya was expected because the sect was out to discredit the Nigerian government ahead of the World Economic Forum.
He said, “The World Economic Forum summit that is going to hold in Abuja has attracted terrorists. Their aim is to discredit Nigeria, portraying it as unsafe to host the summit. Therefore, they are likely to continue attacking Abuja. I think they would still carry out more attacks, especially, on soft targets in and around Abuja in order to create fear and doubts about the ability of Nigeria to host the summit.
“It’s very likely that the insurgents will attack the Abuja city centre, unless security agents are on top of their game. The populace should also be security conscious wherever they are.”
Obene, who is a counter-terrorism expert, said the sect might not be able to penetrate high-value targets in Abuja, so they would go for soft targets like shopping complexes and market places, where there is likely to be mass murder.
Obene said, “The way international terrorism is now, you can’t say distance will make certain places immune to attacks; that is self-delusion. We must all know that Nigeria is at war with terrorism, whether that war has been officially declared by government or not.
“It’s an asymmetric war, where there are no boundaries or specific location of the enemy. The enemy is everywhere, anybody can be a suspect. It is the entire nation that is at war. The insurgents can attack anywhere in the country.”
Also, former Aide-de-Camp to former Head State, Gen Sani Abacha, Maj.-Gen, Abdulmalik Jubril (retd.), described the bomb blasts at Nyanya, Abuja as a very painful development.
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