A
Joint Task Force team comprising the personnel of the police, Department
of State Services, the military and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence
Corps has been combing the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and other
towns for Boko Haram suspects and their sponsors. It was learnt that the Task Force, which
was set up by the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, had been
mandated to carry out massive operations against the sect members who
were suspected to have infiltrated different parts of the country.
The DSS had on Friday, arraigned in
court, about 45 terror suspects who were arrested for plotting to bomb
Dolphin Estate in Lagos. The suspects were subsequently remanded in
KiriKiri prisons by an Isolo Magistrate Court. As part of the operation to apprehend
fleeing terror suspects, the Task Force last Wednesday, raided a black
spot at Nyanya, a satellite town in the FCT, where it arrested about 30
suspects. Nyanya and Kuje, FCT recorded twin bomb
blasts on October 2, 2015, in which about 20 people lost their lives and
many others were injured.
Our correspondent gathered that the Task
Force was ‘processing the suspects’ after which identified terrorists
among them would be made to face the law. The Force Public Relations Officer,
Olabisi Kolawole, told our correspondent on Saturday that the Task Force
was set up to go after fleeing Boko Haram insurgents, adding that the
team has been carrying out operations in different parts of the country. She cited the operation at Nyanya
operation as one of the activities of the team, adding that it was based
on intelligence reports.
Kolawole explained that the operation
was part of strategies to prevent the committing of crime by criminal
elements in the FCT, adding that the raid to apprehend terrorists would
continue nationwide.
“The Task Force was set up by the IG to
go after fleeing Boko Haram members and their sympathisers and
supporters wherever they may be found. The team has started working and
its operations are yielding fruits already as they have been able to
apprehend some criminal elements who are being processed, as we speak,”
she stated.
She
added that the IG had also set up a special intelligence team tasked
with getting intelligence and information on terror plots in the
country. It was learnt that the intelligence team
successfully arrested the masterminds of the Nyanya and Kuje bombings,
five of whom were picked up in different parts of the FCT in Iddo
village and Karamajiji, along Airport Road, and Gaulaka area in Suleja,
Niger State.
The suspects—Abdulazeez Muhazab, Ishaka
Salihu, Mohammed Jimoh, Abdulwaheed Nasiru and Abdullahi Nasiru were
arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja last Thursday on five-count
charges bordering on terrorism, conspiracy, accessory to acts of
terrorism and act preparatory to an act of terrorism.
One of them pleaded guilty to terrorism.
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