Bid to Bomb Maiduguri Police Headquarters Foiled in Nigeria

Two people were reported killed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria political capital of Abuja when a bomb was placed at the national police headquarters. Authorities suspected the northern-based Boko Haram., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Boko Haram’s bid to bomb Maiduguri police HQ foiled

Tuesday, 16 August 2011 00:00
By Wole Shadare (Lagos) and Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri)
Nigerian Guardian

Taliban gave birth to group, says Yuguda

A TIMELY intervention yesterday saved the Maiduguri police headquarters from being bombed by a suspected Boko Haram’s suicide bomber.

The suspect, who was on a mission to bomb the office complex of the Police Force at 12.15 p.m., was shot dead as he crashed into the gate of the police headquarters in a Honda vehicle loaded with improvised explosives.

Yesterday too, Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda said that the Taliban religious sect actually gave birth to Boko Haram. Yuguda told journalists at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, that the head of Taliban was arrested some years ago.

Boko Haram is an Islamic fundamental group that espouses the doctrine of hatred for western form of civilisation. The sect’s operational base is in Borno State but the members have hit their targets with bombs in other northern states and Abuja.

The suspected bomber could not detonate the connected explosives as the police officers at the gate and the ones inside the headquarters gunned him down, after knocking down a policeman at the gate, 25 metres to the targeted police headquarters’ building.

Briefing reporters on the attempted suicide bombing, the Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda, said: “The suicide bombing of this police headquarters has been narrowly averted by our men and officers and with prayers when the suspected 25-year-old suicide bomber crashed into the police main gate and a tree at 12.15 p.m., before being shot and killed, while holding the bomb detonating key in his left hand.”

He said the attempted bombing of the headquarters also coincided with the recruitment of over 1,500 policemen, adding that before yesterday’s attempted bombing, the Boko Haram issued several threatening letters to his office.

Speaking on the extent of destruction to lives and property the suicide bombing would have caused, he said: “The police headquarters would have been up in flames with many police officers and men killed, because the Honda vehicle used in the attempted bombing contained seven cylinders of gas, each weighing 3.6kg, two jerry (plastic container) cans of petrol, a jerry (plastic container) can of gun powder, an air conditioner cylinder and a drum of acid weighing 28kg to rapidly facilitate the detonation and blowing up of the state Police Force Headquarters into flames.”

He said that the prevention of the bombing was made possible by the prayers of clerics and people of Borno and the vigilance of the police officers.

He said: “Clerics along with traditional rulers should continue to pray for the restoration of peace, unity, because their prayers will
soften the minds of the Boko Haram sect members to lay down their arms and resort to dialogue with the Federal and state governments.”

Speaking on various issues ranging from the healthcare system in the state, alleged indictment of former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the privatisation of some companies, including the liquidation of Nigeria Airways and good governance in Lagos State, Yuguda regretted that corruption was one of the biggest problems confronting the nation.

He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to help tackle the menace just as he lauded the President for his action on the vice.

Yuguda said it was unfair to castigate Obasanjo, wondering why those indicting him did not resign or complain openly that he (Obasanjo) was not heeding their advice at that time.

He spoke against the background of the allegation of a former boss of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Malam Nasir el- Rufai, that Obasanjo ignored all advice on the privatisation of most companies. He stated that it remained to be verified if Obasanjo really did.

The former BPE director-general, while testifying before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation probing the sale of Federal Government companies, had said: “The authority appointed people who did not know what privatisation was about, who saw the BPE as a cash cow.

“During my time, we always played by the rules. I never accepted interference from anybody, no matter how highly placed. During my tenure, 33 government companies were privatised and 23 were concluded, five were put on hold and all, but one, are doing well. We remitted N57 billion to the government treasury from the proceeds. Nobody interfered with our activities.”

Asked on the true position of polio cases in his state, Yuguda stated that “we have zero tolerance for polio in Bauchi. We have reduced both infant and maternal mortality.”

The governor said the state was listed among the high risk states with polio cases in the past, stressing that it had in the last 20 months recorded zero rate of poliomyelitis.

He said Bauchi State came second among the states that were affected with polio cases in 2009 “but the good news was that out of the 24 new cases of polio recorded this year, the state was free from it in the last 20 months. When I invited WHO (World Health Organisation) to partner them, we discovered that Bauchi has the highest cases of poliomyelitis in the country, hence, my decision to inaugurate this committee and I have no regret.”

He also lauded Governor Babatunde Fashola for transforming Lagos State, adding that he would volunteer to be his chief campaigner should the governor indicate his interest to vie for the nation’s presidency.