Boko Haram Again Threatens To Hit Lagos

Police on Wednesday said they have intelligence report pointing that the Islamist insurgents, Boko Haram militants, have perfected plans to attack Lagos any time from now.
The Islamist sect had in 2012 threatened to bomb undisclosed targets in Lagos.
US diplomats in Nigeria had in May this year claimed that “groups associated with terrorism” could be planning to attack a hotel in the financial capital, Lagos, in a travel note to their citizens warning of security risks.


Speaking on Wednesday in Lagos during the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected executive council of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), Hilda Ibifuro-Harrison, the commissioner of police, Western Port, said the police got the report recently, noting that the Western Port police have quickly moved to beef-up security at the ports following the intelligence report.

According to Ibifuro-Harrison, who was represented by the assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Selem Amachree, the seaport, which is the nation’s economic gateway, is a veritable target for any attack. She said the police will not fail to secure the seaports and environs.

“It will be economically disastrous if the insurgent group succeeds in carrying out its threat in a commercial city like Lagos that houses the two major seaports (Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports) including the numerous oil tank farms for the storage of imported refined petroleum products,” the commissioner said.

Continuing, she said, “The Nigerian police force is assuring Lagosians especially the stakeholders in the port industry and Apapa metropolis to go about their individual businesses without doubt because we have strengthened security in these areas to ensure that the port is well protected.”

Also speaking at the event, Ifeyinwa Obi, the newly inaugurated president of the association, however, challenged the Federal Government on the need to intensify efforts in the ongoing rehabilitation work on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

According to her, improving the condition of the port access road has become very imperative owing to the health and economic hazards which the bad state of the road constitutes to businesses located in Apapa especially the ports that yields billions of naira into the Federal Government’s coffers.

Boko Haram has terrorised northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches, mosques and civilians and bombing government buildings. It has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds.

only on Monday, six people, including two female suicide bombers, were confirmed dead at Maiduguri main market in Borno State after attack at the market, the police said.

This came three days after a gun and bomb assault on Kano Central Mosque killed more than 150 people in Kano.

In a similar development, on Monday suspected Boko Haram members launched a raid on Damaturu, Yobe State, opening fire on an air force jet circling their forces and dropping bombs, fleeing residents said. Residents fled or tried to hide as the attackers charged into Damaturu firing their guns and shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), the witnesses said.