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.
Culled from The Punch
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