Bomb threat: FG orders SSS, Police to stop MEND

Punch

16 March 2011

Bomb threat: FG orders SSS, Police to stop MEND

The Federal Government has directed its security agencies to counter the threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta to launch attacks in Abuja, Lagos and oil the Niger Delta, security sources indicated in Abuja on Tuesday.

MEND in a statement on Monday had said that it would soon commence attacks on oil installations in order to cripple that country’s economy and warned Nigerians to stay away from political gatherings in Abuja, Lagos and the Niger Delta.

It accused the President Goodluck Jonathan administration of unwillingness to address key issues in the Niger Delta.

The militant group also warned that its threat must be taken seriously in order to avoid a repeat of the Independence Day bombings’ tragedy when about 13 people died because its warning was not taking seriously.

In another mail on Tuesday, MEND reinforced its threat to bomb political gatherings and oil installations and warned that anybody who took its warning for granted did so at his or her risk.

It said that it learnt that agents of the United States of America were training some members of the Nigeria Police on bomb detection and detonation, saying it might “resort to bomb blasts without prior notification.”

The militant group had promised on Monday to issue prior notification to allow for evacuation and a final warning 30 minutes before its planned blasts.

Our correspondent gathered that government ordered the agencies to be on the alert nationwide in order to thwart any move by the group to cause a breach of the peace in the country.