NAF destroys Boko Haram IED manufacturing plant
Paul Obi in Abuja
Following the bombing in Mubi, Adamawa State, where several people were killed, the Inspector General of Police, (IG) Ibrahim K. Idris, on Wendsay ordered all Commissioners of Police in charge of state commands and their Supervising Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) and other police formations nationwide to be on red-alert with effect from November 21, 2017, to nip in the bud and prevent the spread of the renewed Boko Haram attacks on soft targets, such as mosques, churches, markets, schools, motor parks, farm lands, settlements, villages, towns and cities in the North-east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
He also tasked them to quell the recent attacks by bandits in Zamfara State and other vulnerable states in the country. The Police Joint Team will also pay particular attention to the security of IDP Camps and liberated areas in the mentioned states.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, explained that “while the ongoing joint operations between the police and other security agencies in the states of the North-east of the country is being sustained, additional deployment of police personnel from Police Mobile Force (PMF), the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Police Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD), Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID) Personnel, Attack and Sniffer Dogs Section have been made to Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State to bring new impetus to the fight against insurgency by Nigeria Police Force in the affected states.
“The Nigeria Police Force deeply commiserates with the government and people of Adamawa and Zamfara States over the recent killings in a mosque in Mubi and another attack in Numan council area and in Shinkafi and Maradun Local Government Areas respectively.â€
Moshood said: “The Force also wishes to implore the people in the affected states to be vigilant and more security conscious most especially during periods of worship.
“A significant number of worshippers should be assigned and rotated to screen and watch over the praying venues to complement police personnel deployed to protect them.
“They are to promptly report suspicious acts or persons to the nearest police detachment or station to avert untoward incidents.â€
He stated: “the Commissioners of Police in the affected states have been redirected by the IG to make additional posting of Joint Police Team to patrol mosques and churches and other vulnerable locations on 24 hours basis to ensure that no such attack occur again.
“The Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) and other Commanding Officers in the Area Commands, Divisions in the towns and villages are under strict instructions to work with the people in the localities and sustain Police Visibility Patrols in the mentioned States.
“Meanwhile, a new Commissioner of Police who was previously Commissioner of Police, Federal Operations, has been redeployed to Zamfara State and has since resumed duty.
“Additional police personnel comprising 20-Units of Police Mobile Force, 10-cells of Counter Terrorism Unit, Special Police Forces and 2,000 conventional police personnel in compliance with the presidential directive have equally been posted to the state.â€
In another development,, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) under Operation Lafiya Dole has successfully destroyed a Boko Haram terrorists facility for manufacturing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, said: “The Boko Haram facility, which was in a place known as YIWE Forest, located 23km south of Konduga in Borno State. Previous NAF Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions had revealed the location to be a Boko Haram hideout, from where the Maiduguri suicide bombing of 18 November 2017 was reportedly planned.
