Aircraft, Truck Collide at Lagos Airport

A Kano-bound IRS Airlines plane departing the Lagos airport on Wednesday morning collided with an abandoned truck beside the taxiway, forcing the pilot to cancel the flight.
The wing of the Fokker-100 aircraft, it was learnt, collided with the truck which fell into a drainage on Tuesday.
The truck belongs to a Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria contractor.
The 91 passengers on board the flight were later disembarked and put in another plane which left for Kano three hours later.
A statement by the Managing Director of IRS, Mr. Yemi Dada, confirmed the incident.
The statement quoted Dada as saying “This morning our flight LVB 3306 taxied out on a Lagos to Kano flight with a transit stop at Abuja. The aircraft taxied out at 7:48am with 91 passengers. While taxing on the taxi way the Captain observed a FAAN truck in a ditch. There were no marshals around it neither was there any marking to indicate that it encroached into the taxi way. There was no Notice To Air Men (NOTAM) issued to that effect as well.”
He added, “The captain continued on his taxi and the wing tip hit a protrusion from the truck towards the rear of the truck. This made the captain request a return to ramp from the tower and also notify the tower of the incident and the danger posed by the truck.
“The passengers were disembarked and accommodated in another aircraft which departed Lagos at 10:15am. The incident has been reported to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and we await the clearance of the NCAA to effect repairs and return the aircraft to service.”
A FAAN statement also confirmed the incident.
A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Datti, said, “At about 8.30 pm last night (October 9, 2012), a gully emptier with registration number XT 461 LSD on official assignment accidentally fell into a drainage in the taxiway ramp of GAT and could not be evacuated immediately.
“At about 7.30am of today, October 10, 2012 an IRS aircraft, Forkker 100 with registration number 5N SAT left the parking bay of MMA2 for the threshold of runway 18L of MMIA. The pilot Capt. D Kelly of IRS was informed by an Arik Pilot of an obstruction on the taxiway towards Runway 18L and he (Capt. D. Kelly) felt he could manoeuvre the obstacle by his own judgment but this failed because the tip of the wing of the aircraft collided with a section of the gully emptier at about 7.45 am.”
It added, “Capt. D Kelly did not stop but continued to taxi back to the boarding gate of MMA2 to discharge his passengers. No passenger or crew sustained injuries as a result of the incident. All the passengers were later transferred to another IRS flight to Abuja. Officials of the Accident Investigation Bureau and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority were immediately invited to the scene of the incident for the on-the-spot assessment of the incident while engineers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria were placed on stand-by to evacuate the stuck sewage tanker as soon as preliminary investigations by both AIB and NCAA were concluded.”

¡¡¡SHOCKER!!!: Senior Boko Haram commander caught: Nigeria police is a Yoruba Man.

Senior Boko Haram commander caught: Nigeria police

REUTERS | 2012-05-13 15:43:00

ABUJA - Nigeria's police said on Saturday they captured a senior commander of the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram in Kano, the largest city in the north and scene of attacks this year that have killed hundreds of people.

Security sources also said that the man police say they caught, Suleiman Mohammed, was known to be a leading Boko Haram figure in Kano. The sect has denied the arrest of senior members claimed by the police in the past.

"We made an arrest Friday based on intelligence reports concerning his hideout and he was arrested successfully with his wife and children in his hideout," the police commissioner in Kano State, Ibrahim Idris, told Reuters.

"He is now being interrogated by the security agents. He has been flown to Abuja. He is Suleiman Mohammed, a Nigerian, Yoruba by tribe. He is the operational leader of the sect in Kano."

The Yoruba tribe is mostly based in the southwest, away from the focus of Boko Haram's violence in the north. The Yoruba are split between Christians and Muslims.

Idris said his officers had recovered explosives, ammunition and guns at Mohammed's hideout.

Gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded many more at a Christian service in Kano last month and in January coordinated bomb and gun attacks in Nigeria's second city killed 186, the most deadly strikes yet claimed by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which wants to carve out a Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has many factions and the leaders of the group in Kano often work independently from senior members in its home base in the northeast, security sources say.

The sect's attacks have replaced militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta as the main security threat to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, and Boko Haram has gained momentum since his election victory a year ago.

Africa's most populous nation of more than 160 million is split roughly equally between a largely Christian south and a mostly Muslim north. More than 100 ethnic groups live side-by-side peacefully in most of Nigeria.

Nigeria: Some Boko Haram Schmucks Get The Dose Of Their Medications

KANO, Nigeria — Five suspected Islamist militants were killed when bombs they were assembling exploded during a shootout with government troops in northern Nigeria, a military commander said Monday.

"I can confirm that five suspected members of Boko Haram were on Saturday night blown to pieces by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)," they were assembling, Colonel Victor Ebhaleme told AFP.

Ebhaleme said the bombs were being assembled for attacks planned for the flashpoint city of Maiduguri, the epicentre of an increasingly bloody insurgency that has left more than 1,000 people dead since mid-2009.

He said the joint military task force (JTF) deployed to the region to stem the violence had surrounded the hideout and "engaged the suspects in a shootout".

Ebhaleme said the insurgents had thrown a bomb at the soldiers when the other bombs inside the house went off "killing the five suspects and destroying the house".

Nigeria: FG Opens Secret Prison For Sect

Abuja - Nigeria is opening a secret detention centre to hold and interrogate suspected high-level members of a radical Islamist sect responsible for hundreds of killings this year alone, a security official has told The Associated Press.

While the facility could create a more cohesive effort among disparate and sometimes feuding security agencies in Nigeria to combat the sect known as Boko Haram, it raises concerns about its possible use for torture and illegal detentions. 

Nigeria's security forces have notorious human rights records, with a documented history of abusing and even killing prisoners.

The prison is in Lagos, far from the violence plaguing the country's predominantly Muslim north, where Boko Haram carries out frequent bombings and ambushes, said the security official, who is directly involved in the project. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the facility with journalists.

"All suspects arrested will be taken to the centre and would be interrogated by a security group," the official said. He declined to say exactly where it is or how many inmates it can hold. He said authorities are arranging to transport suspects to Lagos, Nigeria's largest city located in its southwest.

The detention centre was created at the orders of Nigeria's National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoye Azazi, the official said. Azazi's telephone number is unlisted and the AP was unable to contact him for comment.

Ekpeyong Ita, the director-general of the Nigeria's secret police agency known as the State Security Service, declined to comment on Thursday when the AP asked him about the prison.

Minutes later, secret police spokesperson Marilyn Ogar called an AP journalist and said anyone with information about the purported prison should go to the courts instead of talking to journalists. She refused to confirm or deny the prison's existence.

"Whatever we do, we're running a democratic system that respects the rule of law," the spokesperson said.

Taunting videos

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of north Nigeria, is carrying out increasingly sophisticated bombings and attacks in its sectarian fight against the country's government. The sect carried out a suicide bombing in August at United Nations' headquarters in the country that killed 25 people and wounded more than 100 others, as well as a co-ordinated assault this January in the northern city of Kano that killed at least 185 people.

Diplomats and military officials say the sect has links with two other al-Qaeda-aligned terrorist groups in Africa. Members of the sect also reportedly have been spotted in northern Mali which Tuareg rebels and hardline Islamists seized control of over the past month.

Police officers shot and killed Boko Haram's former leader Mohammed Yusuf in 2009 while he was in their custody, underscoring the lack of respect for human rights among the security forces. Security agencies have been unable to find and arrest the sect's current leader Sheik Abubakar Shekau, who posts taunting videos on the internet promising more violence.

"The problem we have is lack of synergy among the security agencies," the security official told AP. Those agencies include the police, the military, and intelligence agencies like the State Security Service. 

Relations between the agencies are testy at times as each fights for its own budgetary allotments and there are suspicions that some have been influenced by ethnic or religious factors in this nation of more than 160 million people with two dominant religions and more than 250 ethnic groups.

Intelligence agencies allegedly released a suspected Islamic radical in 2007 who later masterminded Boko Haram's suicide car bombing of the UN headquarters. Leaked US diplomatic cable also show US officials complained in 2008 about Nigeria's government quietly releasing other suspects into the custody of Islamic leaders as part of a program it called "Perception Management."

Suspected sect members have been arrested and kept locked up for months without being charged. Authorities also routinely arrest women and children related to suspected Boko Haram members in attempts to draw them out. Amnesty International has said some Boko Haram suspects have been "subject to enforced disappearances."

Incommunicado detention

This record leads to fears among human rights groups that the secret detention centre could see more suspects disappear, deprived of the right to challenge their detentions in the courts.

"Attacks by armed groups do not absolve the Nigerian government of the responsibility to conduct security operations in a manner that complies with national and international law," Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday. "Widespread unlawful, incommunicado detention must cease immediately."

Ogar, the secret police spokeswoman, appeared later Thursday on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority before the AP published its story. In an interview, she said that a "group of disgruntled people have gone to the foreign media to say that Nigeria has now produced another Guantanamo Bay," referring to the US military detention camp in Cuba.

It is unclear whether any foreign governments have offered Nigeria advice or assistance in opening the detention centre. US Ambassador to Nigeria Terence P McCulley, speaking to journalists April 4, said the US is "working with the Nigerian government to help them develop a counter-terrorism strategy that includes perhaps a centre even to better co-ordinate information and intelligence that they receive".

But Deb MacLean, a US Embassy spokesperson, told the AP that she was unaware of the new detention centre and said that the US had no role in it.

9 Boko Haram Members Killed, 2 Arrested.

It was war at Tudun Wada Local Government Area, Kano, northwest Nigeria, Wednesday when the police engaged members of the Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram in a gun battle and killed nine of them.

The lifeless bodies of the suspected Boko Haram sect members.

The terrorists attacked a Divisional Police Officer’s house, police station and Unity Bank.
P.M.NEWS learnt that the dreaded Islamic militants came on three vehicles at about 2 a.m., broke into the armoury of Tudun Wada Police station bombed the station and carted away arms and ammunition.
Security forces claimed no life was lost on their side, as nine Boko Haram men were gunned down while two were arrested alive during a gun battle that lasted for five hours.
Tudun Wada is about 100 kilometers away from Kano metropolis.
The Brigade Commander of 3 Brigade (Bukavu Barracks), Brigadier-General Illyasu Abbah briefed newsmen this evening.
He said the operation was a major breakthrough for Kano Joint Security Task Force.
According to him, the Islamic militants in search of guns and money attacked a Unity Bank adjacent to the bombed police station, “but they did not succeed in breaking into the vault containing about N2 million.
“Within the hours of 2 and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, hoodlums went to Tudun Wada which is about 100 kilometers from Kano. They used explosives to blow up the police station in the area.
“They destroyed the DPO’s house, went to the police station and did the same. They also used explosives to blow up Unity Bank adjacent the police station,” the Army Chief told journalists, adding that the Islamic militants carted away rifles from the bombed police station.
“On getting the information, at about 1:30 a.m. security operatives mobilised, blocked Falgore, Jos and Kano axis because definitely, they came from Kano to operate and move back.”
The Army boss said during the gun-duel, the JTF over-powered members of the sect who came in three cars, and recovered the arms and ammunition stolen from the destroyed police station.
He stated that, “only God knows what these weapons would be used for if they had succeeded in carting them away. This hoodlums lack arms and they have been in desperate mood to get these items. That is why their best place of attack are police stations.”
Items recovered from the Boko Haram militants include, 600 rounds of 5.6 mm bullets, 176 cartridges of Pump Action gun, 147 rounds of 9mm bullets, two AK 47 rifles, three pistols, two assorted rifles, two smoke guns, 21 magazines, two dane guns, one Pump Action gun, six containers of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), 70 Canisters of Tear Gas, one Lap Top, police uniforms and helmets.
By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano