One of the houses (arrowed) where some suspected Boko Haram members were
arrested by soldiers and men of the State Security Service at Aromire
Street, Ijora, Lagos... on Thursday
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 www.punchng.com
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