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.
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.
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.
A major flaw in the new video however is
that Shekau wrongly identified the Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole
as the governor of Lagos State.
You can watch video HERE and HERE.
