Anxiety has mounted in Lagos after the State government intercepted and disbanded a criminal gang, believed to be preparing a terrorist attack. A combined team of the Lagos State Security ‘Operation MESA’, the Department of State Security (SSS) and over 100 soldiers had on Thursday last week raided a house located at 24 Aromire Street and some other buildings at the Ijora area of the state where they arrested a Chadian, Ibrahim Musa, after they discovered bombs kept in a sack in a cooler and another hidden inside the ceiling of one of the rooms where he was living until he was arrested.
Musa, an illegal immigrant who rented five rooms alone and was described as not having any known job, was also found to possess several AK-47 rifles, cartridges and daggers. He is believed to be the leader of the group in Lagos.
Top government officials and politicians who spoke with Huhuonline.com on Sunday evening revealed that the state officials including the security operatives were caught unawares as the security report that would have assisted the government came very late.
Two government sources disclosed that the state Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, had met with top security officials in the State and had given them the assurance that they would get whatever support they needed from the state to quell the situation and frustrate any invasion of the state.
“It was not like we did not know that the state was no longer as secure as it had been for sometime now. But we were not expecting that it would be this quick to begin to know that these terrorists are in our midst,” the source said.
“In situations like this, the government has no choice other than to begin massive enlightenment of the people and make them very security conscious,” he added saying that there were plans to begin programmes to boost the security awareness of the people of the people of the state.
An Action Congress of Nigeria chieftain, who did not want his name mentioned, blamed the law enforcement agents in the state of not doing enough. He said if they were performing according to expectation, such dreaded groups would not find their way into the state.
He said he had it on good authority that Governor Fashola had given orders that the entire state should be combed and all illegal aliens are arrested and taken to their country. “How can you leave your country, come into another man’s land and be thinking of carrying out nefarious activities that would cause anguish and tears?” He said.
According to him, the state government is committed to the current troubles. A member of the state House Of Assembly who spoke with Huhuonline.com said the discovery that “those who have sold their lives to the devil are currently in Lagos, calls to mind the need for us t up our game. We are all scared right now and I can assure you that only God will give us the wisdom that we need to effectively combat this problem.”
The current situation is coming even in the face of several warnings by the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)) that the Boko Haram insurgents should limit their activities to the northern part of Nigeria if they really want peaceful co-existence.
