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Why Boko Haram Is Targeting Lagos

More facts emerged yesterday on the plot by Boko Haram to bomb Lagos. The main reason for the planned attack on Lagos, the “commercial nerve centre of Nigeria,” is its booming economy. The motive is simple: Attack Lagos and Nigeria grinds to a halt. One of the service chiefs reportedly confirmed at the Executive Session held with the Senate last Wednesday on the state of insecurity in the country that the threat to bomb Lagos was real.

He listed five reasons for the plot. The sect, it was gathered, reckons that the economy of the North is already in ruins with the incessant bombing of its major commercial cities including Kano, Kaduna and Maiduguri in Borno State. Kano is no longer the thriving commercial nerve centre of the North, while the Joint Task Force (JTF) occupies every 10 kilometres in Maiduguri, making commercial activities difficult.

Kaduna is also worse off as some bombings have shattered the peace and trust which hitherto existed among the different tribes in the city. The spate of bombings, they argued, has almost crippled commercial activities in the North as investors no longer look towards that region. Moreover, it was assumed that it would take more than 50 years for the North to bounce back economically.

While the bombings have heightened insecurity in the region, the economy of the South, symbolized by Lagos State, continues to boom. To ensure “balance,” the sect reckons that the South should also “taste and feel what is happening in the North. A National Assembly source told Daily Sun that the only target in the South is Lagos State which is believed to be the “honey pot of Nigeria. Bomb Lagos and the economy of the entire South would collapse.”

Recall that the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Sa’ad Ola Ibrahim, Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika (Army), Vice Admiral Ezeoba Dele (Navy), Air Marshal Alex Badeh (Air Force), and Mr. Ita Ekpeyong of the Department of State Security (DSS), took turns to brief the Senate behind closed doors last Wednesday.

The meeting lasted five and a half hours after which the Senate urged the security agencies to do more in addressing the spate of insecurity in the country. Senate reportedly convened the meeting with the service chiefs after some members suspected to be members of Boko Haram were arrested in Lagos.

Also recall that the DSS had late last month and with the co-operation of the military, arrested a Chadian suspect with two AK 47 rifles and suspected Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The arrest also led to the rounding up and deportation of about 100 aliens.