- Police: We’re studying claim *Malala in Nigeria, seeks freedom for Chibok girls
- APC calls for international inquiry to unravel terror sponsors
He also said his terror group was behind another blast at a shopping mall in Abuja on the same day which killed 22 persons, including the Managing Editor (North) of New Telegraph, Mr. Suleiman Bisalla.
The mystery blasts in Lagos killed five persons and the suicide bomber was said to be dressed in hijab, apparently to conceal the identity of the terrorist.
However, since the incident, there have been attempts by government and security agencies to cover explosions in Lagos.
The police had attributed the blasts to a gas cylinder and a fuel tanker. The Lagos State government also said the explosion was from a gas canister, apparently to prevent public panic.
But a few weeks after the incident, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) along with security chiefs met with chief executives of oil companies on the need for them to raise the level of security awareness among their staff.
New Telegraph gathered that since the explosions, several arrests had been made by the police, the Department of State Security (DSS) and army in Lagos. A source said: “Security has been beefed up in Lagos State.
The searchlight is now on foreigners and commercial bike riders. We know that Boko Haram uses them for their attacks. The police have also started raiding of black spots. Presently the Nigerian Immigration Service is deporting these foreigners’ en mass without questions.” However, the Agence France Presse (AFP), which obtained the Shekau’s video in which he linked Boko Haram to the Lagos explosions, had in a report last week, and said the incident had the imprimatur of a terrorist attack.
The report, quoting weapon experts and witnesses had alleged an attempt to cover up the source of the attack so as not to create panic in Lagos, the economic artery of Nigeria.
If Shekau’s claim is true, it would be the first terrorist attack on Lagos and a sign that Boko Haram, whose activities have been largely confined to the North, has turned its attention to the South- West.
But in a swift reaction to Shekau’s claim, the police said they would do a forensic analysis of the video to determine its authenticity before they could comment on it. Shekau, in the video, said: “A bomb went off in Lagos.
I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it.” The two blasts, which happened minutes apart, were almost certainly caused by bombs, three senior security sources and the manager of a major container company told Reuters.
One was most likely the work of a female suicide bomber, they said. Authorities said the blasts on Creek Road were an accident caused by a gas canister, but the security sources told Reuters that was a cover-up meant to avoid panic in Lagos.
“You said it was a fire incident. Well, if you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah,” Shekau said in the video, which according to AFP shows him next to at least 10 gunmen in front of two armoured personnel carriers and two pickup trucks.
Security sources said the incident might have been the work of a group or individual inspired by Boko Haram. Shekau has been known to claim attacks suspected to be the work of another Islamist group or a criminal gang.
Shekau, in the video, however, mixed up the name of Fashola, taunting Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, as if he were the Lagos State governor.
But reacting to Shekau’s claim, Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said an Information Technology test and forensic analysis would be carried out to determine the authenticity of the video.
He, however, refused to comment on the allegation that the Lagos explosions were cause by bombs.
He said: “We’re studying the video. After we study the video, our approach will first be to conduct a thorough forensic analysis of the picture/video to authenticate the veracity of the video. It’s only after then, that we’ll then be able to know what to do.
Anybody can produce a picture or video and post it. IT and forensic analysis will determine the truth.
I’m not saying more than that!” Meanwhile, Pakistani rights activist and girls’ education advocate, Malala Yousafzai, has arrived in Nigeria to join in the campaign for speedy rescue of over 200 schoolchildren kidnapped by Boko Haram from Chibok, Borno State in April.
Malala, a lucky survivor of a near-fatal Taliban shooting, told about 15 parents of the abducted school girls and key arrowheads of BringBackOurGirls campaigners in Abuja that she would speak up for the girls’ freedom.
“I can see those girls as my sisters … and I’m going to speak up for them until they are released. I am going to participate actively in the ‘BringBackOurGirls’ campaign to make sure that they return safely and they continue their education,” she said.
From Malala’s programme schedule obtained by New Telegraph, she will be meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan today and is expected to put girlchild education in Nigeria and the Chibok girls’ abduction on the frontburner.
At the event, Malala who turned 17 yesterday, told the parents of the Chibok girls that she could feel their pains.
“We all don’t know what kind of conditions they will be in. It is a very sad moment. We pledge solidarity with you. We are with you in your campaign #Bring- BackOurGirls; bring back our daughters.
“Life is precious. You have been great parents for taking this step to speak up for your daughters and speak up for their right to education.
“Thanks for your courage. You are great parents. Their lives are precious.
I am going to take your message and deliver to the president tomorrow (today).
Hopefully, the government will listen to your voices,” she added. Google Vice-President and co-founder of Malala Fund, Megan Smith, who also spoke at the event, told New Telegraph yesterday in that the biggest challenge to girls in many countries is education.
According to Smith, “Malala’s mission here has to do with girls’ education; her whole mission in the world.” Clarifying there was no conflict of their core mission with BringBack- OurGirls campaigners, she said: “The girls were stolen from school where they were trying to get education.
She feels strongly about that. She really believes in education. “I feel very strongly about this too and agree with her. Our girls and boys need education for the future of our world.
Young people and old people need opportunity and education is the best way to lift the society.” Also yesterday, one of the parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls Shettima A. Haruna, said that seven parents of the abductees had died.
Speaking through an interpreter at the #Bring- BackOur Girls campaign group 75th sitting in Abuja, Shettima whose daughter, Margaret, was among the over 200 abducted girls, added that since the abduction, about three Chibok neighboring communities had witnessed various attacks that had forced many residents to relocate from the areas.
In another development, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for an international inquiry into the activities of Boko Haram in order to unravel its modus operandi and sponsors as well as any individual or group that may have links with the insurgents.
This, according to the party, will end, once and for all, the debate over who is behind the insurgency and also to facilitate efforts to tackle it.
APC in a statement in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the inquiry should include intelligence experts from the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada, as well as representatives of the United Nations and Cameroun, Chad and Niger.
It also said that representatives of the Nigerian military and other security agencies, especially the police and DSS, governments of the states worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, including Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Jigawa, the Federal Capital Territory as other critical stakeholders should be represented on the panel.
APC said major political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must be represented on the panel of inquiry, whose findings must be made public and those found to have any links with the insurgents be made to face the full wrath of the law.
‘’We hope the PDP-led Federal Government, which has led the incessant but baseless campaign to point accusing fingers at the opposition, especially our party the APC, will give its total support to the immediate constitution of this international panel of inquiry.
“We have no doubt that the international community will give its unalloyed support to this inquiry, in view of the trans-national nature of the insurgency and the threat posed by terrorism to global peace and security,’’ the party said
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