*15 dead, 33 cars burnt, 50 damaged
*Earlier plot on Ringim’s life foiled

JIDE AJANI  &   KINGSLEY OMONOBI

Many may not know that last Thursday’s bomb blast was the second attempt on the life of Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim.  The first was last month – by a police officer who had attempted to either use voodoo or bombs.  We’ll get to that later.

But, for providence and the gallantry of the late Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP,  Nangor Dantim, of the Police Traffic Warden Department, Ringim, his security escorts, personal assistant, Musa Atiku and CSO, Adamu, would have been blown to pieces by a Boko Haram suicide bomber  right on the premises of the Police Force headquarters, Abuja.

Neither Ringim nor his aides in his convoy suspected anything until they got to the designated car park of the Inspector- General.  Ringim and his men had driven into the force headquarters at 10. 50 a.m, unaware that another vehicle, an ash colour Honda Civic salon car, without number-plate , indicating it might have been an official security vehicle, was following his convoy.

At the gate of Force headquarters, the security operatives thought it was part of IG’s convoy so they allowed the car pass through.

Why they allowed the car  was because the men had identity cards on them. But the identity cards were not the real Police IDs; they were fake.

In fact, Sunday Vanguard learnt that the bombers, who were also said to have carried out a reconnaissance of the Force headquarters prior to Thursday’s dastardly act, may have perfected their plans prior to the bombing.

A very competent source told Sunday Vanguard that the type of security arrangement at the entrance of the Force Headquarters “was such that without a certified identity card, entry can only be possible through a second or third party identification.”

The source added, “it is believed that the bombers had a prior knowledge of how best to gain entry into the premises, hence the resort to the use of the fake identity cards.

“Once the bombers got to the entrance and had their identity tags on, the fact that they were in mufti could not have aroused suspicion as plain-clothe policemen also operate from the Force headquarters,” the source revealed.

Bomb explosion at the Nigerian Police Headquarters in Abuja

The driver of the unmarked car, a heavily-built fellow, was said to have followed the IG’s convoy to its official car park which is at the foot of force headquarters, stopped and made attempt to get out of the car. But ASP Dantim, the traffic officer in charge of the IG’s car park, quickly rushed to the occupant of the Honda car, prevented him from coming out and threatened him to move the car to the general car park for visitors.

Dantim then entered the passenger’s side of the car. It was while they were at the general car park, about 10 minutes after the encounter, while the police officer was interrogating the fellow that the bomb went off, blowing up Dantim and the occupant of the Honda Civic car to pieces. Aside from the bodies of the suicide bomber and Dantim, the charred and scattered remains of persons unknown, were seen littering the car park.

No fewer than 40 vehicles were immediately set ablaze while another  50 inside the car park and within the vicinity of the Force headquarters had their windows, headlights or rear lights destroyed or shattered.

As a result of the fire that raged through the vehicles parked at the general car park, three other persons, some of them, drivers of vehicles waiting for their principals who had come to Force headquarters, were said to have been burnt inside their vehicles.

The entire 7-storey building of Louis Edet House, the Force Headquarters, felt the impact of the bomb blast which ripped windows, office furniture apart, while electronics  such as TV sets, refrigerators, and office file cabinets were sent flying from end to end, even up to the 7th floor.
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Meanwhile, prominent public office holders have been commenting on the incident.

Senator David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal, Senate President and Speaker, respectively, in separate statements, said people with grievances should never resort to violence, while they commiserated with those who lost loved ones.

The police are accusing the dreaded Islamic fundamentalist, Boko Haram, for the incident.

Said Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Olusola Amore, “definitely, we are suspecting a group that goes by the name Boko Haram which has been issuing threats upon threats and for which the police are rising up to the challenge.”

Amore added that the  remains of the suicide bomber have been recovered by police forensic experts for laboratory analysis, stressing that  full investigation has commenced.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has directed the immediate establishment of a Special Joint Military Task Force specifically to tackle the Boko Haram crises in the North. The taskforce has its headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The task force, to be headed by a Major-General of the Armoured Corps, would comprise the Nigerian Army,  Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, Nigeria Police and the State Security Services (SSS).

Sunday Vanguard gathered that no fewer than  200 SSS  operatives,  300 airforce personnel, 300 naval personnel and 500 soldiers have landed in Maiduguri, with their Force Commander, ready to be deployed for action.

It was further gathered that at the end of the day, the Army will have two  battalions of soldiers in place; the police will deploy 1,500 officers; SSS, 500 operatives; Airforce, 650 officers while the Navy will have 750 officers deployed.

Ringim’s Earlier Escape

It was the decision of Ringim to accede to the request of the Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, to deploy the Chief Security Officer of the former as Aide-de-Camp, ADC, that led a Deputy Superintendent of Police, who felt the position of ADC belonged to him, to attempt to bomb the 7th floor office of the IG and possibly kill him (Ringim), was at the weekend uncovered.

The planned bombing of the IGP’s floor with explosives by DSP Musa Agbu, who, until his arrest, worked at the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, in Lagos, would have been the second approach of vengeful engagement by the officer aimed at the IG for scuttling his ambition to become the governor’s ADC.

The first approach, based on what Sunday Vanguard sources revealed, was for a marabout to plant deadly charms on the car of the Inspector-General which would cause it to be involved in a fatal accident and lead to Ringim’s death.

Another plan of the officer was that the juju man would go to Lafia, Nasarawa State, get access to the governor’s car, plant another deadly charm which was expected to result in another fatal accident.  The governor will escape with injuries while his ADC, ASP Kabiru Jaimilu, who took ‘his’ job, would die in the crash.

The plot, according to police sources, was uncovered when a mallam whom DSP Agbu approached to lead him to a reputable marabout, turned out to be an undercover agent of  the Police in Lagos.  DSP Agbu did not know.

On hearing the shocking reasons why Agbu wanted a marabout, the undercover officer went to the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration at  theLagos State Police Command and hinted him. The DC Admin then told the agent to play along with Agbu until he is nabbed in the act.

The service of a marabout was engaged from Nasarawa State. DSP Agbu told him what he wanted and some incantations were made for the planned death of the IG and the juju man left. Unknown to Agbu, the entire conversation was recorded.

Before contacting the juju man, Agbu had confided in the undercover agent that if the plot to eliminate the IG through accident by the charms failed, he would personally go to force headquarters in Abuja with explosives and plant it at the 7th floor to blow up the IG and his office.  He boasted that having worked with several senior police officers, he is well-known and nobody will check him while he is moving the explosives.

On what led to the DSP deciding to undertake the dastardly act, Sunday Vanguard gathered that before the emergence of Al-Makura as governor, DSP Agbu was said to have gone to some marabouts, paid them and tasked them to pray for Al-Makura’s victory over Akwe Doma, then incumbent, so that he would work with Al-Makura once he became governor.

On becoming governor, Agbu, a one-time police orderly to former Lagos CP, James Danbaba, and who hails from Nasarawa State, sent emissaries to Al-Makura using his sister-in-law who is said to be close to the governor, that he wanted to be his ADC. He was, however, told that the IG had already posted his CSO to the governor and believing that the IG deliberately schemed him out, decided to finish him off.

Already, the officer has been arrested and is being interrogated by the IGP’s Monitoring Unit in Abuja along with the juju man from Lafia.

Contacted on the development, Ringim confirmed to Sunday Vanguard that the plot was true as the officer who was brought before him, confessed. He pointed out that it sounded ridiculous but that it was true.

The IGP disclosed that ASP Jaimilu, his former CSO, was requested for by governors Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and Abdullahi Yari of Zamfara State, but that he told Jaimilu to make his choice who to work with and that he chose Al-Makura which he then sanctioned.
That was how Ringim escaped an earlier plot.