"I Ordered Apapa Lagos Bombings" - Boko Haram Leader Claims Responsibility

Leader of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has claimed responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in Apapa, Lagos. Shekau, according to Agence-France Presse reports, made the claim in a new video sent to the French news agency.

Also, the Lagos State Council of Arewa Chiefs on Saturday confirmed that the June 25 blasts at Apapa were indeed bomb attacks masterminded by Boko Haram. The Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos State and chairman of the council, Alhaji Sani Kabir, said the police had confirmed that the Apapa explosions were actually bomb blasts and that 7,000 northerners had been arrested by the police in Lagos over the incident.

The Shekau video has since been posted on the internet. In the video, Shekau, standing next to at least 10 gunmen in front of two Armoured Personnel Carriers and two pick-up trucks, said, “A bomb went off in Lagos. I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it.”

Two blasts, minutes apart, had rocked Apapa, where Nigeria’s main sea ports are located, on the night of June 25. While the Lagos State Government and the police had said the incident was a mere explosion caused by a gas cylinder at a nearby depot, there had been speculations that a female suicide bomber had detonated an Improvised Explosive Device.

“The two blasts last month in Apapa were almost certainly caused by bombs,” Reuters quoted three senior security sources and the manager of a major container company to have said. Reacting to the Shekau claim, the Force Police Public Relations Officer, ACP Frank Mba, told The Punch on Sunday that the police had been studying the video and that they would wait for the conclusion of investigation into the video before making any pronouncement.

Mba said, “We are studying the video. Our approach is to first conduct a thorough IT and forensic analysis of the video in order to establish its authenticity or otherwise. “It is only after the investigation that we will be in a position to make an evidence-based stand.”

When the blasts occurred, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, had said they were an accident caused by a gas canister, but security sources had told Reuters that it was a cover-up meant to avoid panic in Lagos. Apparently reacting to the police claim then, Shekau, in his latest video, said, “You said it was a fire incident. Well, if you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah.” “The target of the Lagos bombs was a fuel depot. Had it gone up, it could have caused a massive chain explosion and disrupted Nigeria’s mostly imported fuel supply,” Reuters reports said on Sunday.