ANNIVERSARY OF BOKO HARAM

Boko Haram targets NNPC pipelines, Kaduna bridge in anniversary attacks •State police headquarters also •FG orders security surveillance, as manhunt for sponsors begins 

Members of Boko Haram have put a lie to the claim by the State Security Service (SSS) that it had arrested some members of the fundamentalist group, denying that the arrested member of Kaduna State House of Assembly was of the fold. They (SSS) the group maintained, lack what it takes to check them.

Details of the planned anniversary bomb blasts being allegedly planned by members of the Boko Haram sect came out at the weekend with revelations that the sect is strategically targeting pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), among other public facilities.

In a message posted on the website, www.yusufislamicbrothers.blogspot.com on July 9, with the heading, “Our strength and support is from the people,” the group claimed they were in the good books of the ordinary people who support them to execute their agenda.

“The Nigerian state and the state security services can only bark, but cannot bite,” the statement mocked.

In another message titled, “Tissues of lies by the Nigerian government, through the State Security Service (SSS),” the sect boasted: “None of our commanders as alleged by the SSS were arrested. All our loyal commanders are at their respective positions and at work as at this moment. The SSS should release all innocent citizens they have arrested and have been parading as our members. They are not our members, including the lawmaker from the Kaduna State House of Assembly who was wrongly arrested and alleged to be our member/financier.”

In reference to reports in security quarters that members of the group are scattered in different camps, the statement boasted that they were well known by the people among whom they live.
“Let it be known that we do not live in camps, we are well known by the local people, we are supported by the local people, the locals love us, the locals support us. The locals will never betray us because they believe in our cause, SSS, we are not far away from you, if you can get us, come for us, we will not relent until we achieve our aim.”

Boko Haram, however, maintained that because the people believe in their cause, they will not betray the group.
The various measures being put up by the government, including the banning of motorcylces in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, the statement said, were not tight enough to stop them from hitting the targets of attack.

The fundamentalists disclosed that they were intent on showing up in Kaduna any time soon to hit different targets, despite efforts to cut them from tying up with other Boko Haram cells around.
Admitting that the SSS had been a problem to accomplishing some of their planned attacks, members of the group however said they would execute their agenda anyhow. They cited the success of their attacks in Bauchi so far as a measure of the damage they could do.

Said the statement: “Despite obstructions to our several operations in Kaduna by the SSS, we are still determined to be guest of the brotherhood members in Kaduna. We have proven our resolve by our two recent attacks of police stations in Bauchi State earlier in the week.

“We may be forced to liberate innocent citizens who are being detained and alleged to be our members, especially the member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly who is under custody under false allegation that he is our member/financier, a man who we do not even share the same religion, beliefs and culture with.”
They threatened: “More attacks on the way! More attacks on the way! More attacks on the way!”

It came into the open at the weekend that members of the dreaded sect are planning to celebrate the first anniversary of the death of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in a big way and that the group plans to detonate bombs in some strategic locations in, at least, five states, to commemorate the killing of Yusuf on July 31, 2010.

Sources confirmed to Sunday Tribune that pipelines of the NNPC were being targeted in specific locations, especially in places where there is likelihood of huge casualty.

Besides, Borno State, which is the headquarters of Boko Haram’s operations, other states where the sect plans to detonate bombs include Katsina, Kano,Kaduna, Yobe and Bauchi.

Other institutions said to be on target include police headquarters  in the mentioned states,  as well as the Kaduna Bridge.

Sect got Al-Qaeda training

It was gathered that the sect is also benefiting from the world wide intelligence network of the renowned terror organisation, Al-Queda, to enhance its own operations.

Sect members to infiltrate homes of rich Nigerians
Sources confirmed that the plan by the sect also included ensuring that its newly-trained operatives mixed with the high and mighty as well as the middle-class members of the society, upon which they would be encouraged to take up jobs, such as security, which could place them in strategic intelligence gathering positions.

However, it was further learnt that a sort of enlightenment campaign is to be coordinated by one of the security agencies to ensure that Nigerian don’t fall victim of the plot.

“The idea is that a number of Nigerians could fall victim of the plot through employment of security guards and persons for menial jobs. Some of such covert operatives are meant to be used to wreck havoc,” Sunday Tribune was told at the weekend.

It was also learnt that one of the targets of attacks would be pipelines that passed through the major cities in the target states such that the attackers could be guaranteed of high casualty.

“The plan is to embarrass and destabilise the government,” a source said.

Besides the police headquarters in the states and NNPC pipelines, the sect members were also said to be targeting Kaduna Bridge in Kaduna State, which is described as strategic.

There are also plans on joints where large number of people usually converge.

Revenge mission against police
The leader of the sect, Yusuf, was killed in July last year and his followers are thinking of an anniversary package for Nigeria in terms of bomb blasts.

They are said to believe that the police did them a lot of injustice by killing the sect leader and that more reactions should be coordinated against the police through attacks on their state headquarters.

Prisons are also part of the main targets, a source further said, adding that in the wake of series of attacks on the sect, many of their members were arrested and kept in prisons across the Northern states.

It was learnt that by orchestrating attacks on the prisons, some of such members could be freed.

Suspected financiers on security radar
Sources further confirmed that the current administration has decided to place some top Nigerians believed to be helping to finance the sect under close surveillance.

It was confirmed that the government had discovered some strategic mode of money transfer adopted by the group to aide its finances.

“Initially, when the sect started, it had no money;  but some top-level Nigerians started giving it support.

“Now, it is also getting support from a number of key figures in the polity. The government has ordered manhunt for all those remotedly linked to this discovery,” a source further stated.