Uncheck insecurity pattern in northern Nigeria

Over the past year, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has carved out what might be termed a zone of immunity in southern Yemen, away from CIA interference. According to one U.S. counter terrorism official, "Those territorial gains have allowed the group to establish additional training camps."

Some of the world most wanted terrorist, including those behind September 11 attacks on US soil hailed from this country. In 2009, it was the same Yemen that a Nigerian, Abdulmutallab, was converted from a mare student to a terrorist while studying in an Arabic school in the country.

In territorial gain, al Qaeda now have influence in Africa, East Asia and the Arabia peninsula.

Though, much subdue in most North African countries, the group is more active in Somalia and recently, Nigeria.

These two African countries have had their share of terrorism which had made Somalia inaccessible to both aid workers and troops and Nigeria whose Norther region is becoming a no-go zone to foreigners who are easy target to kidnappers and al Qaeda sympathizers.

Nigeria: Journey into the world of suicide bombing

The world 'suicide bomber' first had a Nigerian name when AdbulMutallb's name made headline in 2009 when he tried unsuccessfully to detonate a bomb aboard a plane. The design of the Christmas Day bomb was ingenious, according to counterterrorism officials. A specially sewn pouch in AbdulMutallab's underwear contained the main PETN explosive charge, which was connected to a detonator. The initiation for the device was a syringe in his underwear filled with two easily obtainable chemicals: potassium permanganate and ethylene glycol.

PETN is a white, odorless powder than cannot be detected by most X-ray machines. AbdulMutallab revealed to the FBI in his initial interview that he wore the underwear device on several flights during an almost three-week journey through Africa before traveling from Lagos to Amsterdam.

As Northwest 253 made its final approach to Detroit, he plunged the syringe, mixing the two chemicals and setting them afire. According to the prosecution, this flame set off the detonator, but the PETN main charge was not detonated. Instead, some of it started burning, creating a fireball on AbdulMutallab's lap.

An explosives expert says that a likely explanation for the failure of the underwear device to fully detonate was wear and tear during AbdulMutallab's lengthy transit through Africa. When the device was later examined, al-Asiri's fingerprints (Al-Asiri is a young al Qaeda bomb maker from Saudi but now reside in Yemen) were found on it.

Today, the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed close to 2000 people since it launched an uprising in 2009, including more than 250 in the first weeks of this year, according to Human Rights Watch.

In July of the same year, the sect launched an uprising in the north-east in which more than 800 people were killed in five days of fighting with security forces.


"We will consider negotiation only when we have brought the government to their knees," the spokesman, Abu Qaqa, said in the group's first major interview with a western newspaper. "Once we see that things are being done according to the dictates of Allah, and our members are released [from prison], we will only put aside our arms – but we will not lay them down. You don't put down your arms in Islam, you only put them aside."

 Security agents in Nigeria seems clueless on capable tactics needed to tackle the menace of the sect, from curfew to joint task force operation, it has become a dilly-dally affairs as stakeholders' call for truce and dialogue is now unanimous.

Newly-appointed Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (rtd) said, “We will explore dialogue with any aggrieved persons so that peace will reign in Nigeria. Where that is not working, I hope it will work, we will look at what we can do to guarantee peace."

Speaking in Ibadan, recently, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika said lack of information had made it impossible for security agencies to arrest leaders of the Boko Haram.

It is however, demeaning that security agents will complain of lack of information when it is their duty to gather information. This points to the rot and uncoordinated efforts on the part o these agencies.

While the state of unionism of the Nigeria state hang in the balance, threat from other sophisticated terrorist is a wake up call for the Nigerian government to sit tight and do things right before it is too late.

Odedeyi Abiodun