Osama: Security scare in Abuja

Posted by admin Abuja (FCT), Headlines, State News Friday, May 6th, 2011

There was security scare in Abuja on Thursday as Police and State Security Service operatives intercepted a truckload of youths numbering 246.

The youths who claimed to be migrant labourers, said they were on their way to Nyanya, an Abuja sattelite town from Dutse-mai, Katsina State.

The youths were stopped by the security agencies at Dutse-Alhaji Junction along the Abuja-Zuba Road and taken to the State Anti-robbery Squad.

They were later taken to the Federal Capital Territory Police Command in their truck marked Abuja, XC 737 RSH. The truck was also carrying about 80 goats owned by one Abdulahi Bako, a goat trader who claimed to have lived in Nyanya for over 20 years.

Their arrest caused panic among security agencies which believed that the youths might have been ‘imported’ to execute an evil agenda.

There had been intelligence report indicating that terrorist attacks might be carried out simultaneously in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Borno, Bauchi and Sokoto states after the Jumaat prayers on Friday (today) and assaults on churches on Sunday over the killing of the founder of Al Qaeda terrorist organisation, Osama bin Laden.

The report allegedly made the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, and Service Chiefs in Abuja on Wednesday.

The interception of the youths prompted an emergency meeting between the SSS Director, FCT Command, Mr. John Okogie, and senior officers of the FCT Police Command where they discussed the security implications of allowing the youths to proceed to their destination.

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, told our correspondent that the police later decided to allow the youths to proceed to Nyanya where they said they were going to look for menial jobs.

He said, “We gave them three police patrol teams led by a senior officer to go with them to their destination to verify their claims that they came to look for menial jobs.

“We have searched them and found no weapon. The team would investigate and then get back to the command and we will then know what to do.”

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has said that the US will never forget the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York by Al Qaeda.

Obama, who soberly laid a wreath at New York’s ground zero, said , “When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”

The President closed his eyes and clasped his hands at the outdoor memorial where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once dominated the Manhattan skyline.

He shook hands with family members of the victims of the attacks and others dressed in black at the site where the skyscrapers were brought down by planes commandeered by bin Laden’s followers. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.

Obama met privately at the memorial site with about 60 family members from various 9/11 organisations.

Earlier, the President visited the firefighters and police officers whose response to the terror attacks turned them into heroes and symbols of national resolve, but also cost them heavy casualties on that horrific day.

“This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day,” he said at Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9.

“What happened on Monday because of the courage of our military and the outstanding work of our intelligence sent a message around the world but also sent a message here back home.”

The firehouse in New York’s theater district lost 15 firefighters during the attacks.

At the First Precinct police station in lower Manhattan, the first on the scene on September 11, Obama alluded to bin Laden’s killing and said of those who died in the attacks, “We keep them in our hearts. We haven’t forgotten.”

There was heavy security, but New Yorkers still turned out by the hundreds to gather just southeast of the WTC site and line the roads to watch the President’s motorcades.

The mood at ground zero was somber, even sad, as Obama stood where the towers had been, seeing the faces of the children who lost parents and adults who lost spouses.

-Punchwp_posts