Boko Haram detention facility in Lagos? - As Jonathan seeks Germany’s help to fight sect

THE Nigerian intelligence
community, on Thursday,
reacted angrily to a report by
a foreign news agency that
security forces have opened a
secret detention facility for
Boko Haram suspects in Lagos.
The news agency had
reported that Nigeria is
opening a secret detention
centre to hold and
interrogate suspected high-
level members of a radical
Islamist sect responsible for
hundreds of killings this year
alone.
Anonymously quoting a
security official who is
allegedly directly involved in
the project, the report noted
that the prison was in Lagos,
far from the violence plaguing
the country’s predominantly
Muslim North, where Boko
Haram carries out frequent
bombings and ambushes.
“All suspects arrested will be
taken to the centre and
would be interrogated by a
security group,” the official
was quoted as saying, even as
he declined to say exactly
where it was or how many
inmates it could hold.
The official was said to have
narrated that authorities
were arranging to transport
suspects to Lagos, adding
that the detention centre
was created on the orders of
the National Security Adviser
(NSA), General Andrew Owoye
Azazi.
The report, however, quoted
the State Security Service
(SSS) as denying the
existence of a secret
detention prison, though it
noted that its Director-
General, Ekpeyong Ita, declined
to comment on Thursday
when the AP asked him about
it.
“Minutes later, SSS
spokeswoman, Marilyn Ogar,
called an AP journalist and said
anyone with information about
the purported prison should
go to the courts, instead of
talking to journalists. She
refused to confirm or deny
the prison's existence,” the
report noted.
“Whatever we do, we’re
running a democratic system
that respects the rule of
law,” the spokeswoman was
quoted as saying.
The agency quoted the
security source as saying that
“the problem we have is lack
of synergy among the
security agencies such as the
police, military and intelligence
agencies like the SSS.”
Amnesty International was
also quoted as condemning
the practice, accusing the
government of arresting and
locking up suspects for
months without being charged.
The human rights group was
also reported to have alleged
incarceration of women and
children related to suspected
Boko Haram members, in
attempts to draw them out,
alleging also that some Boko
Haram suspects had been
“subject to enforced
disappearances.”
Meanwhile, President Goodluck
Jonathan has appealed to the
German government to assist
Nigeria with technology and
develop the country's security
architecture, to successfully
tackle the Boko Haram
menace.
He made the appeal on
Thursday, during a media
briefing with German
Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in
Berlin, Germany.
The question of the Islamic
insurgents in parts of the
country featured prominently
on the agenda during the
bilateral talks between both
leaders at the German
Chancery in the country's
capital.
According to Jonathan, “from
publications on this terrorist
group, it paints a very gloomy
picture as if the whole
country is in tatters.”

Source: Tribune.com.ng