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Foreign security agencies assisting to probe the August 26 bombing of the UN House, Abuja, suspect that al-Qaeda probably had a hand in it

Micheal Ofili, a staff of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, should be happy that he is still alive.  But he does not feel so. He is sad. His sadness is as a result of the suicide bomb which shattered the United Nations Building in Abuja, August 26, killing many of his friends and colleagues.    “A large part of me died with the bomb attack. As at this morning, I have counted five of my friends and colleagues who died instantly. Some are still unconscious at the intensive care unit of National Hospital. These are people that mean so much to me. We eat, joke and share a lot in common.  It’s like a dream. I wouldn’t know how to cope any longer at my work place after this horror,” he said in an interview with Newswatch last week.

Ofili said he was lucky to have survived because he was not in the building at the time of the explosion. He described his escape as the work of God. “I was on my way back to the office. In fact, I was driving past the Area 1 roundabout, a walking distance to the UN House when I heard the deafening sound of the bomb. I didn’t know what it was all about until I saw huge smoke, commotion and wailing of everybody when I arrived the entrance of the building. It was a shocking experience seeing many I knew, some lifeless, many in the pool of their own blood,” he said.

David Okello, the country director of the World Health Organisation, WHO, told journalists in Abuja, last week, that he escaped death from the blast because he was away from the office. He said he went to Gwagwalada, about 50 kilometres from the scene of the incident to commission two mobile clinics donated by Hyundai, a Korean firm, to the General Hospital in the area. He said he was on his way to the event when he received a call informing him of what has happened.

Amina Mohammed was not as lucky as Ofili and Okello. A contract staff whose duty post as an office cleaner was within the reception room where the bomb was detonated. Mohammed was among the many, including mere visitors who were hit and killed by the direct impact of the bomb. A relation of hers, who was in a mournful mood, in the company of a group that came to request for the release of  her corpse at the National Hospital, told  Newswatch that she found it difficult to identify her corpse at the mortuary. “I saw Amina’s corpse in the mortuary. She was no longer the fair lady I knew. Her entire body was as black as somebody roasted in a charcoal oven. Her body was also not complete. She lost part of a hand and had bruises in virtually all parts of her body when I sited her corpse. It was a frightening sight and I know God will punish those behind her death,” she said.

Mohammed was among those officially confirmed to have died as a result of the early morning attack at the UN building by a suicide bomber sponsored by the  Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria. Boko Haram is said to be working in conjunction with the Al-Qaeda, a notorious terrorist group, to perpetrate the act.  The incident was said to have taken place at about 11 a.m on that fateful day when a Toyota Camry 2009 model car, laden with explosives rammed through two exit gates of the UN building before it zoomed into the waiting room, on the ground floor of the four-storey building where it detonated, the bomb shattering part of the concrete structure.

The death toll has continued to rise with more victims in hospital dying.  From 19 confirmed to have died on Saturday, a day after the blast, the figure has risen to 23 as at press time last week.  Statistics released by the World body, on Tuesday, August 30, in Abuja, said: “The death toll stands at 23:11 UN staff -10 Nigerians and one Norwegian - nine non-UN staff and three unidentified others,”

 The statement signed by Farhan Haq, acting deputy spokesperson, added that “Twenty-six injured persons remain in hospitals and clinics” in the capital, Abuja, where the attack took place, and that 12 of the wounded, including critically injured and those on life-support, had been airlifted to South Africa. It concluded by assuring that “Every effort is being made to reconcile known facts about non-UN staff on site, such as contracted services, cleaners, security guards, and visitors,” the statement said.

More details about the identity of the victims were provided a day after by Asha-Rose Migiro, head of the UN team that arrived Nigeria last week. Migiro told journalists after her inspection of the bomb blast site and visit to National Hospital that Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria were among countries that lost their citizens in the blast.

Indeed, the exact figure of people who died and those admitted in the Hospital remained a matter of guesstimate last week.  Unconfirmed reports put the total number of the dead so far at 30. The National Hospital where the majority of the injured were rushed to told Newswatch that between 68 and 71 people were admitted at the Hospital.  Obasi Ekumankama, the Hospital’s director of Clinical Services said the Hospital treated 75 injured people. He said nothing about the dead.

Tayo Haarstrop, public relations officer of the hospital told Newswatch that the hospital admitted between 68 and 71 people. He was silent on those who died, but only said those who died were those that died before getting to the Hospital. He added that the Hospital stabilised all the people sent to the hospital, and that as at Monday, August 29, none of the victims sent to the Hospital was still at the Intensive Care Unit, ICU. They had all either been discharged or allotted wards in the Hospital for full treatment. He thanked Nigerians for being their brothers keepers, as he admitted that about 200 Nigerians donated blood, in response to the call for emergency donations on the day of the bomb blast. No official figures were released from Garki Hospital, where some of the victims were also admitted.

Last week, the officials of the federal government and that of the UN issued statements on the state of investigations into the bizarre act as search for more bodies buried in the debris caused by collapsed parts of the bombed building continued in Abuja. In a  State House press release issued by Reuben Abati, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, on the day of the blast, Jonathan condemned the act as  “barbaric, senseless and cowardly, a most despicable assault on the United Nations’ objectives of global peace and security, and the sanctity of human life to which Nigeria wholly subscribes.”

The Nigerian President extended  his sincere condolences to Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations and all members of the United Nations family who  lost loved ones in the heinous attack. He reaffirmed the Nigerian government’s “total commitment to vigorously combat the incursion of all forms of terrorism into Nigeria”, reassuring all Nigerians and the international community that his administration would spare no efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Later, the president visited the scene of the incident, where he vowed again that Nigeria, would bring terrorism “under control” and confront the radical Muslim sect that claimed responsibility for the bombing. It was an agonising moment as Jonathan saw the wreckage,  stepping  through shattered glasses  and  dried pools of blood at the damaged  UN building.  He promised to rebuild the edifice.

Security agencies in the country said they had commenced full investigation into the terror attack, in collaboration with Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, from the US.  Hafiz Ringim, inspector general of Police, explained last week, that some arrests of those suspected to be behind the act have even been made.  He was silent on the number of arrests as well as the identities and the nationalities of the suspects but revealed that the President would give details soon. “I wish to inform you that our security agencies have made some arrests and His Excellency (Jonathan) would soon make pronouncements in that regard to you and the nation where this is concerned,” Ringim said, while speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, August 29, at a media briefing held to reassure diplomats of their safety in Nigeria.

The IGP explained that all security agencies in the country had been ordered by the president to liaise with foreign missions operating in Nigeria to ascertain their security needs around their staff and their facilities. He also disclosed that all security chiefs had met with the president to discuss modalities to ensure the safety of all diplomats in the country.” On behalf of the security agencies in this country, I assure you that we will go round from mission to mission to discuss what specific security assistance you require that would make you feel more secure,” Ringim said.

Olugbenga Ashiru, minister of foreign affairs, said the meeting was necessary to reassure diplomats of their safety in the country.

 Mike Zuokomor, commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, who also spoke at another forum, assured residents of the readiness of the Police to fight insecurity in the capital city. At a press conference  he gave  after a joint security meeting chaired by  Bala Mohammed, FCT minister last week, the commissioner of Police  revealed that contrary to some reports, police had no prior information on the attack. He also stated that security was being beefed up at all the foreign missions in Abuja, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, the Federal Secretariat and other key places regarded as flash points.

On its part too, the UN last week explained actions being taken to unravel those behind the crime and also what it intends to do to provide greater security for its personnel.  At a press conference he held in Abuja, last week, August 30, Gregory Starr, United Nations under-secretary for security, disclosed that efforts were in top gear to recover CCTV footage of the attack.  “We did have CCTV cameras up. It is my understanding that the servers for CCTV cameras were close to the blast. We are trying to recover the pictures from it, but it is really the responsibility of the Nigerian government and the FBI to recover these pictures. We typically do not release those images and the host countries typically don’t release such images,” he said.

He revealed also that the UN was planning to scale up the security threat status of its Nigerian personnel and infrastructure from low and medium security.  He gave an insight why the UN is toeing that line of action.  “As we carefully analyse where we spend our security money, we looked at this country as one with low or medium security threat. This is not the kind of country we expected this kind of attack. We think that the security measures we took despite this heinous attack saved tremendous amount of lives. Over all, the security situation we believed to be low or medium grew to be incorrect, we need to take further measures in the future,” Starr said.

Last Wednesday, investigation in the bombing of the UN House received a boost as the SSS said it has arrested two key suspects while Mamman Nur, the masterminded   was declared wanted. The two suspects were arrested on August 21, 2011 in a joint operation by all security services. They   are notorious leaders of the Boko Haram extremists sect, namely, Babagana Ismail Kwalijima a.k.a. Abu Summaya and Babagana Mali a.k.a. Bulama. The suspects have made valuable statements and are being held at a military facility.

Marilyn Ogar, spokesperson of the SSS said that investigation has revealed that Nur, a notorious Boko Haram element with Al-Qaeda links who returned recently from Somalia, working in concert with the two suspects masterminded the attack on the UN building in Abuja. He is said to be on the run. It was gathered that he fled to Chad to escape arrest before moving on to Somalia. Security reports last week indicated that members of Boko Haram have received training from groups affiliated to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Algeria.