Insecurity: Police on red alert in Lagos, ISWAP claims Zuma rock attack on soldiers

• Lagos boundaries ‘under serious surveillance’ over alleged impending attack
• Four informants nabbed over Kuje jailbreak, Abuja attacks
• Aare Onakakanfo: Terrorists are fast taking over Osun, Ogun forests, planning to attack Lagos
• Amotekun charges religious leaders, others on CCTV installation deadline in Ondo
• HURIWA asks Senators to impeach Buhari now, says President who failed for seven years can’t tackle insecurity in six weeks

Amid terror scare across the country, the Police Command in Lagos State has placed its operatives on red alert over ‘intercepted’ plans by gunmen to attack the commercial capital of the country.

This was contained in a statement issued, yesterday, by the Command’s spokesman, SP Benjamin Hundeyin. According to him, the Command is not unmindful of intelligence reports suggesting that Lagos could be on the radar of some persons planning attacks across the country.

“To this end, the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alabi, has placed the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the Command on high alert. Also placed on alert are all Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Tactical Commanders, in a bid to ensure that any planned attack is promptly and decisively nipped in the bud.

“The command is also working closely with other sister security agencies to ensure that no person or group of persons succeed in destabilising the peace and serenity enjoyed in Lagos,” the CP said in the statement.

Hundeyin added that in all the border towns, persons coming in and going out were under serious surveillance to ensure that there was absolutely no breach of peace in the state.

He, therefore, enjoined residents not to fear, assuring them that all human, material and operational resources had been fully and optimally deployed across the length and breadth of the state.

“Consequent upon the carefully laid down security plans and strategies, all residents of Lagos State are urged to go about their lawful duties without panic or fear.

“Lagos residents are equally enjoined to remain very vigilant and report suspicious movements and persons to security agencies,” he said.

Hundeyin had earlier stated that the police and other security agencies are prepared for any planned terrorists’ attack on Lagos. Speaking during a Twitter Space webinar, on Saturday, he said: “We are working seriously with other security agencies. The Department of State Services (DSS) keeps sending intelligence reports to us.

“All resources are available. Our equipment has been optimally deployed to ensure that we don’t have any attack in Lagos,” the police spokesman said.

Last week, security agencies got a security report that the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram planned to attack Lagos, Kaduna, Kogi, Katsina and Zamfara states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

IT emerged yesterday that ISWAP was behind the attack on a military checkpoint in Madalla area on the outskirts of Abuja. Gunmen had on Thursday night attacked soldiers of the Guards’ Brigade stationed near Zuma rock.

Muhammad Abdullahi, spokesperson to the chairman of Suleja Council in Niger State, had said the gunmen attacked in large numbers and shot sporadically. Abdullahi added that his friend, who was around the area during the attack, said the attackers killed two military operatives.

According to SITE Intelligence, an American non-governmental organisation that tracks Jihadist groups, ISWAP has drawn “closer to the Nigerian capital” with the attack on the military checkpoint.
The development is the second attack attributed to the group last month.

Earlier in July, ISWAP claimed responsibility for the attack on a correctional facility in the Kuje council area of FCT. The gunmen had attacked the correctional facility, with hundreds of prisoners — including Boko Haram suspects — said to have escaped.

According to a security source, some individuals have been apprehended for leaking information to terrorists about troops’ locations and movements in and around Abuja. Already, four informants are in the custody of a security agency.

Their arrest followed investigations into the breach of the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Kuje, on July 5.

The suspects were caught with walkie-talkies, a revolver, knives, amulets, and old Chinese-made phones that do not use data.

An intelligence officer said they are being interrogated to ascertain their ties with terrorist groups, bandits, and other elements.

“While the military has refused to provide updates on the attacks on Kuje Prison and troops at the Bwari and Zuma Rock axis, the joint security task force killed more than 70 armed criminals.”

The operative confirmed that those killed include “dangerous Kuje prison escapees and terrorists.”

MEANWHILE, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, said he has received intelligence report that terrorists have moved into forests in the Southwest states of Osun, Oyo and Ogun from where it may possibly spread to Lagos and other parts of the region

In a statement issued, yesterday, by his special assistant on media, Kehinde Aderemi, Adams said the terrorists were seen with a large cache of ammunition.

He called on Southwest governors to fortify the operations of the region’s security network, code-named Amotekun.

“Now that Abuja has seemingly lost the battle to terrorists, the Southwest region has been the next target of these destroyers of hope,” the statement reads.

The Yoruba generalissimo said the worrisome spate of insecurity in the country is something the governors, particularly in the South, must stand up to check, saying, failure to do this on time may force the nation sleepwalking into a state of collapse.

He blamed the despicable situation confronting the country on the inaction and connivance of those in authority with terrorists and undesirable elements in the polity.

In Ondo State, investors, business personalities and religious leaders have been charged by the Amotekun Corps to cooperate with the state government in the fight against insecurity by ensuring the installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) device in their various business environment and worship centres before the expiration of the deadline today.

The Corps Commander, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, made the call, at the weekend, while addressing 400 newly recruited men for the state security agency at the training ground in Owo.

He explained that the need for the installation of CCTV devices would check the activities of criminals and also help in tracking down crime perpetrators.

Adeleye, who is also the Special Adviser (Security) to the governor, dismissed the insinuation that the state wanted to clamp down on religious worship centres, saying with CCTV devices, criminals would avoid such an environment.

CIVIL rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Sunday, urged all patriotic Senators to fast-track their impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari because a failure for seven years can’t perform any miracle within the six-week ultimatum given to him by lawmakers to tackle insecurity in the country.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, also questioned military authorities on why they have failed to deploy the 12 Super Tucano fighter jets procured from the United States against terrorists despoiling the country.

The group said it is worrisome that the regime of President Buhari is allegedly sparing bandits and insurgents because of their Fulani ethnic affinity and Islamic affiliation but the bandits who have since been designated as terrorists by a Federal High Court in November 2021 are hell-bent on destabilising the country.

“Instead of launching an unprecedented offensive against terrorists and bloodsucking bandits, the Defence Headquarters came up saying over 30 terrorists in the Bwari area were killed after an attack on troops but the DHQ didn’t release any evidence of the so-called casualty recorded.

“We can only wonder whether this is audio killing because when terrorists strike, they leave unimaginable ruins. In fact, on that same day that the DHQ claimed that they killed 30 terrorists, the terrorists attacked a military formation in Zuma Rock Madala allegedly killing soldiers. Why does the military have to wait for an order to bomb terrorists?”