The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has warned that there may be terrorist attacks in Abuja between the 17th and 31st of December.
Local media reports on Friday quoted a statement signed by the Land Border Patrol Commander of the NIS, Edirin Okoto, as saying that the service had received a report from the Presidency with regards to attacks to be orchestrated by foreign terrorists.
These terrorists, the NIS commander noted, plan to enter Nigeria from Mali using the Niger Republic route.
It explained that the planned assault is purportedly being led by one Drahmane Ould Ali, aka Mohammed Ould Sidat, an Algerian national who is to be assisted by one Zahid Aminon, a Nigerien national.
Okoto noted that the duo is en route “Nigeria from Mali through Gao and the Niger Republic, riding a white Toyota Hilux van with Reg. No- AG157EKY.”
He added that these two had four Nigerian accomplices who are already embedded in the country.
Intelligence gathered by the NIS suggests that Ali holds an Algerian diplomatic passport with the name Najim Ould Ibrahim.
Consequently, the NIS Commander, who wrote on behalf of the Comptroller General, said he has been directed to request an intensifying of alert levels at the borders.
All operatives in charge were urged to emplace necessary countermeasures at all the nation’s entry and exit points (Air, Land, Sea/Marine), including, but not limited to, surveillance, rigorous search on persons and vehicles, transhumance, to effectuate the immediate arrest of these terrorists as to countervail this and any terrorist attacks in Abuja.
According to the report, the NIS’s warning comes a few weeks after the Department of State Services (DSS) raised an alarm over plans by terrorists to attack military bases in border towns across the country.
The secret agency also put the Nigeria Customs Service on red alert to avert the pending attacks by the insurgents on Ogun border communities and other border towns across the country, noting that the warning is based on intelligence it gathered.
GIK/APA