FBI, CIA put sponsors on watch list
•Plot to replace security chiefs thickens
From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN (Kaduna) & MURPHY GANAGANA (Abuja)
Sunday, September 04, 2011
•Aziza
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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There are strong indications that global intelligence agencies, especially in Britain and the United States of America, have placed some top Nigerian politicians and opinion leaders on a watch-list of terrorist sponsors, following the August 26 bomb blast at the United Nations House in Abuja, which claimed no fewer than 23 lives.
This is coming amid apprehension within the nation’s armed forces, police and the intelligence community of impending sweeping changes that might torpedo some service chiefs from their plum positions.
Sunday Sun can, however, reveal that President Goodluck Jonathan may have resolved to retain the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Owoeye Azazi, and the Director-General of the State Security Services, Mr Ita Ekpenyong.
Impeccable sources informed that the axe may as well be slammed on some top brass in the armed forces even as the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Oluseyi Petirin, is due for retirement just as the Naval Chief, Vice Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, has about a year in service.
While the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ihejirika, has about two years before his statutory date of retirement, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Umar, who is a Course 20 officer, has more than three years in service.
Feelers from the presidency, however, indicated that some of the service chiefs may not remain in office till their official terminal dates in service, more so as they are holding political appointments. The changes are expected to be made with the appointment of a new CDS.
Sunday Sun however learnt from other sources in Abuja and Kaduna that there are indeed moves to ensure Azazi and some of the security chiefs are replaced because of what one of them described as “obvious intelligence failure,” on the part of the security chiefs, including the office of the NSA.
“When security chiefs start contradicting one another on security matters, it is a sign of a more deeply rooted problem. I am sure you are aware that the SSS is claiming that it sent intelligence report to the office of the NSA before the UN House bombing.
“But the NSA has come out even on the pages of newspaper to deny that any of such thing happened. This is a clear signal that there is a problem. And it is up to the President to exercise his powers, because except he acts fast, the thing may consume him too,” said the source.
The development has heightened tension with the armed forces and the intelligence community, although President Jonathan is reportedly keeping plans in that direction close to his chest.
Sunday Sun further gathered that the President is no longer losing sleep over the recent UN House bombing as the attack has led to the unmasking of some suspected sponsors of the increasing terrorist acts in Nigeria, particularly in the aftermath of the 2011 general election, and consequently drawn international sympathy rather than anger towards Jonathan.
The incident, according to dependable sources, has also led to the revelation of intelligence reports in possession of some foreign agencies to the Nigerian government on two meetings allegedly held offshore by some prominent opposition politicians and opinion leaders of northern extraction in the past one month.
It was gathered that one of the recent meetings was held last month in Saudi Arabia while the second took place last week in London. Both meetings allegedly centred on how to intensify activities that would sustain the tempo of insecurity with a view to weakening and preventing Jonathan from taking monumental decisions with regards to the 2015 polls.
With international intelligence agencies presently keeping tabs on these moves and having followed the political dynamics that preceded the Jonathan presidency, including the post-election violence and subsequent Boko Haram insurgency, Britain, U.S. and the UN had reportedly been aware of the existence of a political wing of the fanatical Islamic sect, and, therefore, had no qualms in placing some prominent Nigerians on the watch-list of terrorist sponsors.
“There are two wars presently going on. The first is to weaken the President from taking monumental decisions on 2015. The second is to create the impression that only northern heads of the armed forces and the intelligence community can secure this country.
“And in the course of ensuring that they succeed in their plans, they went as far as attacking the UN House in Abuja. That was where they got it wrong. Now, they have taken the problem off the shoulders of President Jonathan. It is now a global affair and the world is watching them,” said a top security source, who pleaded anonymity.
There are already speculations that a former NSA, General Aliyu Gusau, may return to the intelligence community where he hitherto held sway, even though there are feelers that Jonathan may not be favourably disposed to such move.
In fact, the President is said to hold a strong view against the backdrop of unfolding events, that in the last 50 years the nation’s intelligence mechanism had not been citizen, community and country-based but driven by Very Important Person (VIP)/individualism, intimidation, and bravado.
This discovery, Sunday Sun learnt, may have informed Jonathan’s resolve to retain the NSA and the SSS boss among others, if he eventually decides to shake-up the armed forces and other security agencies, with a conviction that what is required is building up a new security infrastructure.
Jonathan made this position known on Friday in Abuja while launching the new vehicle number plates and drivers license rolled out by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
He also made a veiled reference to the foreign intelligence reports on suspected sponsors of terrorist activities in the country and their placement on a watch-list.
“I have directed a review of our national security architecture to lay greater emphasis on intelligence and citizens’ participation in security surveillance. Let me use this occasion to reassure Nigerians and members of the international community that we now have strong leads as to those involved in this terror war on Nigeria and Nigerians. I have directed security operatives to go after them no matter where they may be hiding.
“Also, I am using this opportunity to warn that those who choose to hide under our new freedoms to perpetuate evil against our people shall have no hiding place. This administration is fully determined and able to deal with all threats and agents of instability who continue to test the resolve of our nation and its democratic institutions and leadership.
“As President and Chief Security Officer of the nation, I will employ every means and instrument at my disposal to secure this nation against forces of evil, which seek to divide and sabotage our country. There shall be no sacred cows in our efforts to expose, contain and defeat this network of terror and its sponsors,” Jonathan said.
Sunday Sun can also authoritatively reveal that encouraged by international solidarity over the recent bomb blast and the frenzied efforts at tracking the sponsors, the President decided against a nationwide broadcast on the UN House attack as earlier announced by the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, and may have thus directed the SSS to issue a press statement on the arrests made so far and the extent of investigation.
“The fact is that they wanted to push the President to address the nation on the UN House bombing to create the impression that he is jittery and the country is on fire. How can he do that? When we had the Maitasine riots, the Boko Haram of the Yar’Adua administration and the uprising, were the sitting Presidents making national broadcasts? They just want to create panic and insecurity,” a source noted.
A top security source, who confirmed the move to bring back Gusau, said: “It is true. But I don’t know who is reaching out to whom between an ex-NSA and the Presidency. However, since you don’t want to mention his name, I will also not mention his name. But I am aware that during the time of late Yar’Adua, this same man you are talking about approached Yar’Adua to be appointed a security chief in charge of Home Affairs, the same way we have in the US, but the man turned him down. So he is good at that. He will be the one reaching out, but he will make it look as if, he is being reached out to.
“But he was around when Boko Haram started in 2003 or thereabout, what did he do? I mean this is a man who knows next to nothing about intelligence, but every time he is celebrated as a super intelligence officer. If Jonathan is serious, we have fine intelligence officers that are retired but can do the job for him intelligently and effectively.
“It will be premature to start linking this Boko Haram issue to either 2015 or an attempt by America to come in through the FBI. Don’t get me wrong, it may not be impossible. But I tell you, our security chiefs have proved incompetent and incapable in the face of this obvious security challenges. We just pray and hope that Jonathan will realize earlier enough that there is a great deal of difference between holding power and exercising it. For now, I believe the President is not exercising power, he is only holding power,” the source added. |
