Fleeing Terrorists Regroup in N/Central State
*May Launch Fresh Deadlier Attacks *Anger, Frustration Trail Jail Breaks *Nigerians Demand Accountability, Knock Buhari For Inaction
There is definitely more to come from the daredevil terrorists running riots in Nigeria. Thrilled and emboldened by their accomplishments in executing deadly attacks on soft and hard targets in Nigeria, THEWILL gathered authoritatively, the terrorists have regrouped in a North-Central state close to Abuja shortly after Tuesday’s attacks on Kuje Maximum Correctional Centre, Abuja and the presidential convoy in Dutsinma in Katsina State same day. Their mission? To launch more coordinated attacks across the country.
Dependable security sources told THEWILL that immediately after executing their combined attacks on Tuesday, the leaders of the terror squads from Ansaru, Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) and Boko Haram have become emboldened to assert their claims to remake the country in their Islamic image. The capacity to strike and hold on to acquire enclaves has boosted their morale and they can see that the scale of power has tilted in their favour, the source said.
THEWILL investigations further revealed that many of the 69 officially declared wanted escapees from the Kuje jail break comprising confirmed Boko Haram commanders and hardened criminals, were ferried into an abandoned construction site in the North-Central state early on Wednesday morning to reunite with their fellow travellers in order to set the stage for their next attacks.
The abandoned construction site, THEWILL was further told, had been a formidable fortress for the terrorists, who have been operating several cells around the area for some time.
The terrorists think that, as the next line of action, they would have to work together to sustain the upper hand they have gained against the Nigerian state by their intimidating attacks.
The choice of the North-Central state, according to the sources, is simply for convenience and strategy. Many of their members have become entrenched in the state where they levy communities with audacity, raid and rape their women and confiscate poultry and foodstuff unchallenged.
UNCHANGED LANDSCAPE
After summoning an emergency National Security Council on Friday in the heat of the Tuesday attacks, President Muhammadu Buhari and his lieutenants gave no indication that salvation was on the way for Nigerians.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, some cabinet ministers and all security and service chiefs attended the meeting. Others present at the security meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, was represented at the meeting.
But Nigerians are not amused. It is a familiar path they have come to identify with the country’s leadership in similar situations.
“It is this kind of predictable reaction from the authorities that embolden the terrorists,” a source told THEWILL. “We expected to hear from the President that those he condemned for being lax in intelligence gathering during his visit to Kuje after the attack had been either fired or redeployed. Nothing and then the attacks would continue.”
A retired military officer, criminologist and criminal justice expert, Sir Olatunde Okelana, JP, confided in this newspaper: “It is unfortunate that our security architecture has been compromised. Our intelligence gathering has failed as a nation. The planning of the attack on Kuje Correctional Centre and the presidential convoy must have taken not less than six months and then the attackers struck within 24 hours of guard rotation. They had an insider.”
A United Kingdom-based security expert, Temitope Olodo, imagines two scenarios from the Kuje Prison attack, even as he described mixing high and low risk criminals as a threat to the country’s prison system.
Olodo, who spoke on an international news channel monitored