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| Deutschland G7 Gipfel Elmau Barack Obama und Muhammadu Buhari |
For providing intelligence information that led to the foiling of a terrorist attack on the United States of America (USA), President Barack Obama has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, appreciating Nigeria for its role.
The United States president also commended Nigeria's secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) which actually provided the intelligence information.
A highly placed DSS source who disclosed this yesterday, said that a few months back, men of the service, in the course of their work, got information about a group planning to carry out a terror attack on US grounds and the information was shared with relevant US agencies who collaborated with the service to forestall the attack.
According to him, Obama in the letter praised the DSS for their professionalism and expertise in the handling of the matter.
The source further disclosed that ever since the arrest of Khaid al-Barnawi, leader of Ansaru, a splinter group from Boko Haram, delegations from intelligence services across the world had been visiting Nigeria to consult the DSS as well as interrogate the suspect who is still in custody.
Also known as Mohammed Usman, Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Mallam Dauda and Alhaji Tanimu, al-Barnawi who was the mastermind of the bombing of the UN building in Abuja was arrested by the DSS in April this year.
Before his arrest by the DSS, the USA Department of State designated him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 on June 21, 2012 and announced a reward of $5 million for his arrest.
The USA government designated Ansaru, which emerged as a faction of Boko Haram and announced its formation in early 2012 a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on 13 November, 2013. Ansaru has close ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and has sought to target Westerners, including Americans.
al-Barnawi is alleged to be behind the May 2011 kidnapping from Kebbi State of a British and an Italian engineer, who remained hostages until they were killed in March 2012. On November 26, 2012, Ansaru members raided a police station in Abuja, killing Nigerian police officers and freeing detained terrorists from prison. Ansaru also claimed responsibility for the December 19, 2012 kidnapping of a French engineer in northwestern Nigeria, and the February 16, 2013 kidnapping and subsequent execution of seven construction workers from Britain, Greece, Lebanon, and Italy.
The DSS source said yesterday that, “We arrested the man responsible for the killing of expatriates between 2012 and 2013. The US announced a bounty on his head but we arrested him for free. He’s still in our custody and intelligence organisations have been coming to us here, some to interrogate him.”
The source further pointed out that with the success recorded in the area of security under the present administration, Nigeria had regained it’s respect among other nations.
“Nigeria’s service chiefs and heads of security organisations are now respected abroad and accorded full protocol as those from their countries get when they visit Nigeria,” he stated, adding that more countries are beginning to call on Nigeria to share her success tips in that regard.
On the issue of Sambisa Forest which was recently recovered from insurgents, while noting that fleeing terrorists were finding their way into the society, he assured that the security agencies were prepared for the fallout of the Sambisa takeover long before the success was recorded and were ready to arrest the remnants of insurgents who fled the Sambisa Forest.
He further dismissed insinuations that there was lack of cooperation among security agencies in the country, insisting that the successes recorded were evidence of the interagency cooperation that exists among them.
Culled from Leadership
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