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Nigeria: Country Not Under Al-Qaeda Threat - IG
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This Day (Lagos)
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Onwuka Nzeshi
Abuja
The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro yesterday asked Nigerians to disregard recent media reports on the purported threats by the extremist Islamic group, Al-Qaeda to attack Nigeria.
Okiro said that while it was true that the Nigeria Police Force recently formed an Anti-terrorism Squad and conducted both local and international training for its officers, the squad is yet to be deployed for specific duties in the various commands.
According to Okiro, the creation of the Nigeria Police Anti-terrorism Squad was borne out of the need to safeguard our environment against terrorism.
He said that even though the nation has not experienced any terrorist attack "we don't have to wait until it happens before we start to prepare."
The personnel of the anti-terrorism squad recently sighted in some states, the Police boss said, were there for training purposes and not deployed for any anticipated Al-Qaeda attack.
Some national dailies were awash with reports alerting the public of the pupported plans by the Al-Qaeda to bomb Nigeria. Okiro in a statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, Agberebi Akpoebi described the publications as false and misrepresentation of facts and accused the newspapers of working towards some ulterior motives.
"It is supected that the three newspapers' continued publication of false stories on terrorism which they ascribe to the Inspector General of Police and some unknown security sources is aimed at serving a selfish and private interest," Akpoebi said.
The Nigeria Police Force had in March this year, announced plans to deploy its newly created special outfit, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to volatile areas of the country. The pilot squad made up of 308 police personnel was programmed to be deployed in four strategic states namely, Rivers, Lagos, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory.
The scheme is designed to create a safer and more secure environment conducive for meaningful socio-economic development in the country.
Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro had at the opening of a seminar on anti-terrorism for the first batch of the Squad in Abuja said that Nigeria, like the rest of the international community, could no longer treat the phenomenon of terrorism with kid gloves given the current trend of events around the world and the danger posed by both international and domestic terrorism.
The police boss remarked that though, Nigeria has so far not experienced any international terrorist attack, domestic terrorism was already manifesting in the daily incidents of kidnapping, bank robberies, bomb explosions, assassinations as well as economic sabotage like oil pipeline explosions and large scale illegal oil bunkering.
He lamented that while terrorists have no respect for ethnic values, government and humanity, their common agenda is to create extreme fear in the minds of the people in order to make their demand strong in pursuit of their heinous agenda.
"Nigeria like the rest of Africa is not invulnerable to global threat of terrorist attack. The Kenyan and Tanzanian Embassy bombings of 2001 and subsequent terrorist attacks in North Africa are sad reminders about the vulnerability of our continent. Indeed all Nigerians who follow the current global trends will recognize that the phenomenon of international and domestic terrorism is real. Our nation and the rest of the international community are deeply concerned about the danger posed by terrorism," Okiro said.
THISDAY learnt that in line with the principle of inter-agency co-operation, the Nigeria Police collaborated with the Nigerian Army, the State Security Service, the Nigeria Customs Service and other government agencies in the course of providing training and direction for men of the Anti-Terrorism Squad. This is to enable them cope with the challenges of counter-terrorism in the light of changing realities across the globe.
Commissioner of Police, Police Mobile Force, Bala Hassan, under whose command the ATS has been placed, disclosed that the squad would during the seminar, receive further instructions on intelligence gathering to improve their ability to identify a terrorist threat.
They will also be trained in the art of disrupting terrorist activity and taking action to frustrate terrorist attacks and protecting people going about their daily activities in crowded places.
Beyond these, there are also provisions for more intensive training both within and outside Nigeria to ensure that Nigeria assembled a composite team to deal with terrorism any where it rears its ugly head within the country's borders.
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The next phase of the programme is the development of a National Plan for combating terrorism and the design of a National Anti Terrorism Strategy which should provide a clear statement about what the nation hopes to achieve in the anti-terror campaign. The National Anti Terrorism Strategy will not only define the roles of federal security agencies, but also those of states and local governments, the private sector and the international community.
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