AS life gradually returns to normal in Kano city after a weekend of bombings, Police sources on Thursday claimed that no fewer than 200 suspects, including 160 Chadians, had been arrested in connection with the attacks.
The official casualty figure released by the police on Tuesday put the number of dead victims at 186.
“Many arrests have been made since the attacks. We have arrested around 200 attackers and 80 per cent of them are Chadians. They came in as mercenaries,” agency reports on Thursday quoted an anonymous police source to have said.
The source added that the Chadians were engaged and paid by the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, to participate in the Kano multiple attacks in which at least 250 people were feared killed.
However, the police are known to carry out indiscriminate arrests after major crimes and thus it is too early to say if the men arrested took part in the attacks.
“Following previous attacks by Boko Haram, the security forces have often resorted to dragnet arrests, rather than arresting people on the basis of reasonable suspicion that they committed an offence,” Amnesty International had said in a statement issued during the week.
The police source who spoke to Reuters also said that the sect had reached out to government for talks.
“They said they wanted the Emir to mediate in the dialogue they proposed,” the source said.
Boko Haram violence was largely responsible for the removal of former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, on Wednesday. A new IG, Mohammed Abubakar, has resumed work in acting capacity.
Ringim’s removal came few days after a Boko Haram member believed to have masterminded the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Mandalla, Niger State, escaped from police custody barely 24 hours after his arrest.
A United Nations’ report on regional security released on Wednesday had said that there was evidence suggesting that Boko Haram had Chadian members who had received training from Al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate.
The UN report also indicates that the sect may have secured some of the weapons that flowed out of Libya during the conflict that toppled Muhammar Gaddafi.
The global body on Thursday, in a statement on its website, asked for the prosecution of the bombers and their sponsors.
The statement reads, “The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of its motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed, and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group.
“The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Nigerian authorities in this regard.”
Meanwhile, the British government on Thursday promised to assist the Federal Government in tackling the Boko Haram menace through a broad range of support.
The Deputy High Commissioner of the British High Commission, Abuja, Mr. Giles Lever, said this in Kaduna at a workshop on the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
Giles said, “There is a very broad range of things that we can offer. We are already working with the Nigerian government on some of these. I must also say we reaffirmed the offer following the terrorist attacks in Kano. The strategies have different pillars within it. One is trying to prevent the radicalisation of young people.
“Another pillar is making targets and public buildings and so on more difficult to attack, and the third one is being ready to deal with the consequences of large scale terror attack in terms of crisis management.
“The last pillar is to identify who these people are and making sure their plans are disrupted, and they are arrested, detained and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law.
“The attacks were sickening and barbaric. To kill this many people in the name of some political dispute or religious dispute or whatever the agenda is, it’s just wrong. It’s quite unacceptable and is causing sufferings to innocent people and so we condemn the attacks unreservedly. We consider ourselves and hope to be friends with Nigeria in good times and bad times and we are willing to work closely with the Nigerian government, to help the Nigerian authorities to combat this menace from terrorism.”
Giles who also condemned the recent wave of terrorist attacks by the Boko Haram sect in which 186 people were killed in Kano and Bauchi states, stressed that the British Government was ready to avail Nigeria the opportunity of borrowing from the different strategies it had developed over the years in its efforts to fight terrorism.
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