Nigerian Terrorist Attacks - Accusations and Recriminations
Recent events in Nigeria are saddening. On the 50th anniversary of the
country's independence, the government decided to throw a big bash (not that
there is anything to celebrate in Nigeria, except perhaps the criminality and
corruption of politicians, government officials and their business associates
who help them perpetrate the crimes and hide the loot).
The British intelligence agency had alerted British citizens in Nigeria and
the Nigerian government about a potential October 1 attack days before, and in fact, had
prevented its invited dignitaries from attending the celebrations in Abuja on
October 1, 2010. Based on this intelligence two days before the
attacks, the Interpol had searched the
home of Mr. Henry Okah, a Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(MEND) arms supplier living in South Africa.
The bombs, whose explosions had punctuated the events of October 1 in the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) were claimed to have been planted by the notorious
Niger Delta militant group, MEND, who had sent emails and
text messages to the Nigerian Security Agencies, the BBC, and other News
agencies claiming responsibility.
The smoke had barely settled when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan made the
puzzling announcement that MEND was not behind the attacks despite the emails
and text received from them. Experience and history of this kind of
attack anywhere in the world shows that it takes more than a few hours to make
the determination of culpability, and even then it is often a law enforcement
agent, and not the president, that makes such announcements, typically after weeks or months
of careful investigation. It begs the question of the veracity of Mr.
Jonathan's claims and absolution of MEND in spite of their claims to have carried out the attacks.
Mr. Okah has since been arrested and was said to be in complicity with the
group that planted the explosives. Mr. Raymond Dokpesi, the campaign director
general of one time Nigerian military president, retired General Ibrahim Babangida, who is
Mr. Jonathan's most formidable adversary for the Presidential elections, was
also arrested and claimed to be in contact with Mr. Okah via text messages and
phone days leading up to the October 1 attacks. Curiously though, Mr.
Dokpesi was released after interrogation, indicating that the claims may be
spurious.
Mr. Okah, through an interview with Al Jazeera claimed not to be involved in
the attacks and in fact had been contacted by an associate of Mr. Jonathan's to
announce that MEND was not responsible for the attacks hours before Mr.
Jonathan made that strange announcement absolving MEND. He further claimed
that Mr. Jonathan's associate on the call had essentially told him that if he
did this, he would be a free man.
It is even more baffling as members of MEND were shown in the creeks on an Al Jazeera interview less than 48 hours before the blasts, engaging in paramilitary exercises and flagrantly denouncing the Nigerian government and professing their resolve to keep fighting in the Niger Delta.
The questions now are a) Why would the President of Nigeria absolve
the militant groups even as investigations had barely begun? b) Is Mr.
Jonathan using the attacks opportunistically to denigrate his political foes
and thus win the sympathy of Nigerians? c) Could members of the Babangida camp be in
bed with Mr. Okah, or in fact are his sponsors?
It should be easy to establish any connection between the Babangida camp
and Mr. Okah if one exists. Since the British had some intelligence on the
attacks before they happened, sifting through these should shed some light on the investigation. Following the money trail if indeed there was any funneled
to Mr. Okah for the attacks should lead to the sponsor. If all the claims
made by Mr. Jonathan however are false, then Mr. Jonathan and his associates
are perpetrating a crime at least as heinous as the October 1 attacks.
