PREMIUM TIMES
Indications have emerged that Nigeria’s security and intelligence agencies are bracing up for possible suicide bombings from the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP).
The development comes about 12 days after suicide bombings were recorded in Gwoza in Borno State, north-east Nigeria.
The 29 June suicide attacks, in which at least 20 persons died, were reportedly coordinated by a Boko Haram faction. Boko Haram is a rival group from which ISWAP broke away.
The public has yet to be officially alerted to the ISWAP threat, but PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that the government has instructed all security agencies to prepare against it.
This newspaper gathered that the security agencies believe that ISWAP is planning to attack prisons and oil and gas facilities.
On Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES obtained an intelligence memo dated 10 July alerting the personnel of one of the security agencies about possible attacks by ISWAP and calling for more vigilance.
Full details of the agency and the memo itself are not provided in this report to protect the source.
However, according to the memo, the terrorist organisation is planning to attack prisons, including the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, Kaduna Central Prison, Port Harcourt Maximum Prison, and Kirikiri Correctional Center in Lagos, among others.
Also mentioned in the memo as a potential target is the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) pipeline, a 614km-long pipeline being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to transport natural gas from the south to the north-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
However, all security agencies have been asked to extend their vigilance beyond the potential targets identified in the memo.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that within three hours on 29 June, female suicide bombers detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at various locations in Mararaban Gwoza and Pulka. A factional Boko Haram leader, Ali Ngulde, controls the territories from his Mandara Mountain camp.
The newspaper also reported that the use of female suicide bombers was a tactic of Boko Haram and was last used about three years ago before the recent Gwoza incidents.
ISWAP recently escalated its offensive against Nigerian troops fighting insurgency in Northern Nigeria.
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