Monday 7 November 2011

U.S. alerts "Terrorists may bomb Abuja luxury hotels"

IN its most pointed warning till date on the growing act of terrorism in Nigeria, the United States (U.S.) yesterday alerted the nation to the possibility of terror attacks on some luxury hotels in Abuja, the country’s capital.“Radical sect responsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in Nigeria this week could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in the oil-rich nation’s capital”, the U.S. Embassy warned yesterday.
The unusually specific warning from U.S. diplomats identified possible targets of the outlawed sect as the Transcorp Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. These hotels draw diplomats, politicians and the country’s business elite daily. The embassy said the attacks might come as Nigeria celebrates the Eid-el-Kabir and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.
Deb MacLean, an embassy spokeswoman, yesterday declined to offer further details about the threat or the source of the information.

In a related development, Nigeria’s fast-growing reputation as a country under terrorists’ siege took center-stage again at the United Nations (UN) at the weekend where members of the Security Council and the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, interrupted their weekend to condemn the attacks in Borno and Yobe states in which more 100 people were reportedly killed on the eve of the Eid celebrations.
Both arms of the global body - the Council and the Secretariat headed by the Secretary-General - insisted on bringing those behind the attacks to justice.
The Security Council, which is the highest decision-making organ of the UN, stressed that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of its motivation.”
However, while the Security Council expressly described the incidents as terrorist attacks, the Secretary-General’s statement appeared to have been restrained, describing them as “armed attacks and bombing.”
Also, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said “it is horrified at the scale of the terror attacks carried out by suspected Boko Haram insurgents” last Friday and noted that “it is time for security chiefs to toe the path of honour by resigning or be kicked out.”
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said “it is now apparent that those saddled with ensuring the security of lives and property in the country are grossly incapable of doing so, hence the need to shake up the security agencies and put more capable men and women in charge.
“The shake-up must not spare any of the security chiefs. This is about taking responsibility. After all, they have consistently assured the nation they are capable of stopping these deadly attacks, which have now grown in number and ferocity.”
And, Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has faulted the Federal Government for allegedly “failing to adopt effective and efficient proactive security measures which would have checked the series bomb attacks in the North-East.”
The rights group has also condemned the spate of targeted killings in North East Nigeria and urged the Federal Government to either provide effective security for Nigerians or quit honorably for failing to keep to the statutory function of government, which is the protection of lives and property of the citizenry.”
The U.S. warning came as a Nigerian Red Cross official said Sunday that more than 100 died in a series of attacks in northeast Nigeria launched by the radical Muslim sect, as sect gunmen shot and killed another police officer.
Ibrahim Bulama told the Associated Press (AP) he expected the number of dead to rise as local clinics and hospitals tabulate the casualty figures from the Friday’s attacks in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State.
While the hard-hit city remained calm and its inhabitants celebrated Sallah yesterday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet, Bulama said.
Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram members yesterday killed a police inspector Maiduguri, Borno. Gunmen stopped the officer’s car at gunpoint as he approached a mosque to pray with his family, Borno Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda said.
In a statement, the UN Security Council called the attacks in Damaturu and Maiduguri “criminal and unjustifiable” and asked members to help Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice.
A statement on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for “an end to all violence in the area,” while offering prayers for the victims.
Pope Benedict XVI on yesterday appealed for an end to all violence, saying it only increases problems, sowing hatred and division even among the faithful. He told tourists in St. Peter’s Square that he was following, with apprehension, the news from Nigeria.
In a statement by President of the Security Council for the month of November, Portugal’s Ambassador to the United Nations, JosĂ© Filipe Moraes Cabral, the Council asked the Federal Government to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice, while expressing condolences with victims.
The ACN said “for a country not at war, the death of 53 people - as claimed by the police - is enough reason for any President to be concerned enough to take an urgent action to rectify the situation.”
The party faulted “the President’s spin doctors for saying he cancelled his trip to Bayelsa for a family wedding in view of the attacks, saying that indeed is not what Nigerians want to hear at this point.
“The President’s spin doctors are so unimaginative. Why do they think Nigerians are more interested in whether or not he cancelled his social trip than in what the President is doing to stop this carnage?
“In other climes, the President would have gone ahead to address his compatriots to reassure them that the government is still capable of protecting them, instead of merely telling them his cannot make a social trip.”
The ACN again warned the government “not to think it can use force to defeat those behind these heinous acts, adding that a more imaginative solution must be fashioned out to save the lives of innocent Nigerians and the security agents who are daily being mowed down by Boko Haram.”
It said the government “must have a rethink on why what it initially considered a ragtag group is now carrying out sophisticated and well-coordinated attacks, in addition to spreading its attacks beyond Maiduguri. The government must also consider the possibility that the whole crisis may have been hijacked by other groups.
“And since it seems the government has now run out of ideas on how to tackle this crisis, we hereby repeat our earlier suggestion that the President should call a stakeholders’ meeting to help find a way out of the quagmire the country has been thrown into.”
source Guardia

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