ABUJA: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has claimed responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, AFP reported yesterday, which, if true, would be the first recorded attack on the city by the militants.
“A bomb went off in Lagos. I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it,” Shekau said, according to the French news agency, which is usually the first to get hold of Shekau’s videos before they are distributed online.
The two blasts minutes apart last month in the main port of Apapa were almost certainly caused by bombs, three senior security sources and the manager of a major container company told Reuters. One was most likely the work of a female suicide bomber, they said. Authorities said the blasts on Creek Road were an accident caused by a gas canister, but the security sources told Reuters that was a cover-up meant to prevent panic in the city of 21 million people. At least two people were killed.
Shekau also claimed a bomb in a shopping mall in Abuja’s upmarket Wuse II district that killed 24 people. A military spokesman declined to comment, saying it was a police matter. A spokesman for police headquarters said that only Lagos police could comment. A spokeswoman for Lagos police division, however, did not respond to a request for comment.
“You said it was a fire incident. Well, if you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah,” Shekau says in the video. REUTERS
