Nigerian security forces arrest 5 with 'Al Qaeda-links' over German kidnap

Nigerian authorities have detained five men, including a Mauritanian, believed linked to Al-Qaeda's north African branch over the January kidnapping of a German, two security sources said Tuesday.

Four of the suspects were arrested in a raid on a supermarket in the northern city of Kano owned by the Mauritanian on Thursday, while the fifth was held in a separate raid, the sources said.

"Guns and a laptop were recovered in the store and the documents found in the computer, including an AQIM operation manual, showed that the suspects are linked to AQIM and were involved in the kidnap of the German engineer in January," one of the sources said in describing the supermarket raid.

AQIM is the abbreviation for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the extremist group's north African arm.

It has not been known to operate directly in Nigeria, though some have suggested links between AQIM and Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.

German engineer Edgar Raupach was kidnapped on the outskirts of Kano in January. AQIM said last week it was holding the German and that it wanted to swap him for a jailed Muslim woman, a private news agency in Mauritania said.

A video obtained by the ANI agency and seen by AFP showed Raupach, his hands tied behind his back, surrounded by masked gunmen.

Germany has confirmed one of its nationals was kidnapped in northern Nigeria, and the German construction company Bilfinger Berger has said he is one of their employees.

"The arrests are an important lead that could help in resolving the kidnapping of the German," one of the security sources said.

The initial raid on the store was carried out on suspicion that the suspects were tied to Boko Haram, but investigations after the arrests led authorities to suspect they were linked to AQIM and the kidnap, the sources said.

The second source, speaking of the Mauritanian, said "he turned the upper floor of his store into a hideout where he housed his three Nigerian accomplices."

Nigerian authorities have come under intense pressure over the kidnapping as well as violence blamed on Boko Haram. They also faced criticism after a failed bid to rescue an Italian and a British hostage earlier this month.

The British and Italian hostages were killed by their captors before they could be rescued in a joint operation with British security forces, authorities said.

Nigerian authorities blamed the kidnap of the British and the Italian on a faction of Boko Haram, which had not been previously known to carry out abductions. A purported Boko Haram spokesman denied any involvement.

A security source however had offered an explanation that implicated the group by association, alleging that the mastermind was a man named Abu Muhammad who was affiliated with AQIM and Boko Haram.

The source said the kidnappings were aimed at collecting ransoms which could be used to finance Boko Haram activities, and that in return Abu Muhammad would be given security cover by the group to carry out further abductions.

Abu Muhammad died in custody after being wounded in a raid which led to his arrest, Nigerian authorities have said.

There has been speculation that criminal groups may be seeking to profit from the security situation in northern Nigeria, where authorities have been unable to stop scores of bombings and shootings blamed on Boko Haram.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 160 million people, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

AFP

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28 retired police officers die waiting for over due pension

Chief Effiong Orok, the Chairman of Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON), Cross River Chapter, says 28 pensioners have so far died in the state awaiting the payment of their pension.

The chairman disclosed this on Friday in Calabar to newsmen, saying that many of their members had died without enjoying their retirement benefits.

"We are now appealing to the Federal Government to assist us as many of our members are dead in the process."

"At the centre of the whole episode are the pensioners, whose welfare the whole exercise is all about and who are left in the blizzard of suffering."

Orok appealed to the Federal Government to pay the retired police officers in the country, adding that 28 of their members' names were not on the pay roll.

"Many pensioners whose names were on the pay roll before the biometrics' verification of July 2011, do not see their names in the pay roll again. "

The chairman said that those whose names appeared were paid once in every three months, pointing out that "since the year started, we have been paid once."

Orok appealed to the Joint Senate Committee on Establishments, States and Local Governments, to be more proactive in pension fund matters so that retirees would not be suffering.

"It is our candid opinion that those fraudulent officials who steal pension funds do so because they are not supervised by those the laws give such responsibility. "

He said there was need for government to expedite action on the exercise and cause the money to be released as members were really suffering and dying in silence in their hamlets and villages.

Orok, however, said that the Federal Government should, at the conclusion of the current investigation, review the archaic pension laws as such laws were responsible for the fraud in the system.

"The expected pension law which the National Assembly will make should make pension one of the enforceable rights of the senior citizens with attendant heavy punishment for those who will violate such laws."

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Federal Government had, few weeks ago, released N24 billion to settle the arrears of pension of retired police officers.

Daily Trust

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U.S. embassy in the capital of Nigeria attacked

The United States of America Embassy in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, came under attack yesterday by unknown gunmen.

Details of the attack were sketchy, but it was learnt that the gunmen were over-powered by superior fire of a combined team of  security men on guard at the embassy located along the Diplomatic Drive, Central Business District.

According to reports, several shots were heard within the vicinity of the embassy in the afternoon, when the Ambassador was having a meeting with staff of the embassy. The internal security had to set off the alarm and got everyone to take cover.

It was gathered that as the shooting was going on everyone within the embassy ran for dear life before the situation was brought under control.  Two suspected assailants were apprehended and taken into custody at the end of the incident.

The embassy has been under heavy security watch since the attack on the United Nations Building in Abuja, last year.  It has been heavily barricaded, while fierce-looking security men keep watch around its vicinity.

A terse statement by the US authorities confirming the incident said, “we believe there were shots fired in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy. The Nigerian authorities have two individuals in custody. We refer you to the Nigerian police for further information.”

Strangely however, the police authorities in Abuja denied knowledge of the shooting and the arrest of the two individuals at the scene of the incident.

When contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations officer, Superintendent of Police Jimoh Moshood, told Vanguard that some senior police officers had been dispatched to the embassy to ascertain what really happened. An Anti-Terrorist Squad and Bomb disposal units were also said to have been deployed to carry out investigations about the alleged shooting incident but they said nothing of such happened.

Vanguard

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Halliburton bribe suspects walk free after sloppy prosecution by EFCC

The trial of the Halliburton bribery suspects reached an anti-climax yesterday when a high court struck out the case against them because of sloppy prosecution by the EFCC.

Ibrahim Aliyu, Mohammed Gidado Bakari and four companies were standing trial over serving as conduits and receiving bribes in hard currency to facilitate natural gas contracts between 1994 and 2005.

Aliyu, a former Federal permanent secretary, was at the time chairman of contract award committee of the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas, which awarded the contracts. The four companies are Urban Shelter Ltd, Intercellular Nigeria Ltd, Sherwood Petroleum Ltd and Tri-Star Investment Ltd.

The Halliburton bribery scandal gained international attention over the past years, and it led to convictions of companies and individuals in the U.S.

But the Abuja High Court yesterday said it was striking out the case against Aliyu and the others because of lack of diligent prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The accused had not appeared in court since the EFCC filed the case more than a year ago.

A leave for their arraignment was granted by the court on February 17, 2011. However, following their non-appearance to take their plea on January 23, the court warned it would strike out the case if the EFCC failed again to bring them to court.

When the case was called yesterday, Kauna Peziki of the EFCC applied for a bench warrant against the accused and requested for more time to prosecute the case.

In his ruling, Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar said the prosecution has failed to diligently prosecute the case.

"The court has the duty to discharge its duties diligently; court business is a very serious business. Court should not be turned into a warehouse of keeping moribund cases," the judge said.

"It has been over a year now and still the EFCC is coming up with excuses; the EFCC should know that if it is not ready to prosecute and bring cases to conclusion, it should not apply for leave of court to arraign anybody," he added.

The Halliburton bribery case involved the funnelling of $180 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials to facilitate natural gas contracts valued at $6 billion.

In 2009, former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), pleaded guilty and admitted that it paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials to win the $6 billion contracts. Partner companies from Italy, France and Japan were also involved.

The bribes - some delivered in a briefcase stuffed with $100 bills - were paid to officials in Nigeria's executive branch as well as the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, the U.S. Justice Department said.

At various points, huge sums of money were wired through banks in Amsterdam and New York to accounts in Monaco and Switzerland.

In 2010, London lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who served as conduit for sharing the bribes, and 72-year-old retired sales executive Wojciech Chodan were extradited from Britain to the US to face charges over the Halliburton case.

But in the same year, the Federal Government withdrew charges earlier filed at a high court in Abuja against Tesler as well as Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, George Mark, Hans George Christ, Heinrich J. Stockhausen and Bilfinger Berger GMBH.

Chodan pleaded guilty in December 2010, while Tesler also pleaded guilty in March last year. They were sentenced last month, along with ex-KBR chief Albert Stanley, who was also convicted in the bribery scam. Tesler, 63, received the harshest punishment of 21 months imprisonment.

In a reaction to the Abuja court ruling that stuck out the case against Aliyu and the others yesterday, the EFCC said it would consult with its legal team on the way forward.

"EFCC will study the ruling and seek legal advice from our counsel on the way forward," spokesman for the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, told Daily Trust.

Daily Trust

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German engineer kidnapped in Nigeria

 

The kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar Fritz Raupach, in Kano has developed into a knotty issue for Nigeria’s security agencies, following claims that it was carried out by Al Qaeda.

THISDAY learnt that hitherto, the security agencies worked on the theory that Boko Haram was the only terrorist group in Northern Nigeria, but indications are now very strong that this may not be true.

It was even believed that Boko Haram was working in conjunction with Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a faction of Al Qaeda.

Raupach, who works with Dantata and Sawoe, was abducted from one of the company's road building projects on a bridge on the outskirts of the city since January 26.

A purported spokesman of Al Qaeda later said the group was responsible for the kidnap and the group is now demanding that German authorities should release a Muslim woman, Oum Seif Allah Al Ansari, who they said was being subjected to inhumane treatment in a German prison.

Boko Haram is not known to carry out kidnappings and promptly denied claims that it was responsible for the kidnap and eventual deaths of a Briton and an Italian in Sokoto State early this month.

The kidnap of Raupach has led to a manhunt mounted by a combined team of security operatives in the country.

The police said they had no immediate "clear suspicions" as to who were behind the kidnap.

However, AQIM, based in North Africa, last Wednesday, declared that it was responsible for the abduction.

The statement by the group was published by a Mauritanian news portal, Nouakchott Infor-mation Agency website, a medium which has always been used by the group to send messages. The statement published on Wednes-day by the AQIM is demanding the release of Al Ansari

THISDAY gathered at the weekend that Nigerian security chiefs are concerned about the latest development especially the link with Al Qaeda.

They have launched investigation into the Al Qaeda claim and the “swap” demand by the group. They are also looking at the possibility of the faction having a different command structure.

Meanwhile, there was a reported excitement in the camp of Boko Haram leader, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, over the reported death of a factional militant leader, Abu Mohammed.

Intelligence sources confirmed to THISDAY last night that the Shekau group indirectly helped with the information that led to the location of the hostages held by the Mohammed group in Sokoto, although the rescue operation failed as the two foreigners were killed by their captors.

The Shekau faction of the Boko Haram might have inadvertently given the intelligence that led to the arrests of Mohammed and his “fellow traitors” in Adamawa, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi States during a Shura Council (the highest decision-making body) meeting in Layin Hanwa, Zaria, and the subsequent failed rescue mission in Mabera Estate in Sokoto.

Mohammed broke away and ran a faction of the Boko Haram until he was arrested March 7, 2012 after a gun battle with security agents.

He died March 9 from gunshot wounds. Other suspects may be taken to court next week.
Security sources said Mohammed’s men appeared well-trained and organised, with weapons and armoury that security agents were still trying to unravel their origin.

This sophistication of the faction, apparently aided externally, readily showed in their ability to keep the two hostages away from the extensive security hunt for 10 months.

This dents the claim by the security agencies that they had acquired equipment that could track terrorists anywhere in Nigeria.

This Day

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