Afeez Hanafi
A security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has
asked the Federal Government to see the danger in the appointment of Abu
Musab Al-Barnawi as the new Boko Haram leader by the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria.
Ekhomu, who is the President of the
Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, said
the appointment was a dangerous development in the ongoing war against
terrorism in the country.
Boko Haram had recently sworn allegiance with ISIS.
ISIS reportedly declared Al-Barnawi to
replace Abubakar Shekau, after the latter failed to appear in any
authentic video clip since 2015.
But Ekhomu, in a statement on Thursday,
urged the FG to place intelligence agencies, the military, law
enforcement and citizens on the full alert to avert terrorist attacks.
“If ISIS gets to appoint senior
leadership for Boko Haram then they are probably running the Nigerian
terror group as a local franchise. Strategic decisions such as
leadership appointments are made by the spiritual leader of a terrorist
group. In other words, the appointment of Al-Barnawi might have been
made by ISIS leader Sheik Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi himself,” he added.
Ekhomu stated that under the leadership
of Shekau, Boko Haram caused over 30,000 deaths in Nigeria. He called
for a higher level of preparedness, urging Nigerians to be observant and
report unusual events, people or packages to security agencies.
He called on the Lagos State Government
to create an intelligence fusion centre where all-source intelligence
could be harmonised in order to disrupt terror attacks in the state.
“As a mega city, Lagos presented a
tempting target for BH/ISIS and the state should be target-hardened in
order to prevent any surprise attack,” he added.
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