Al-Qaeda... is US Embassy in Nigeria a Target?

(From This Day (Nigeria) - AAGM)

Byline: Paul Ohia

With the closure last Thursday of the Consulate of the United States Embassy in Lagos, followed the next day by the missions of Germany, Italy, Finland, Russia, Sweden, India and Lebanon, there are now palpable fears that the Al-Quaeda network of Osama Bin Laden, might have infiltrated Nigeria in its bid to wreck havoc on US interests. THISDAY gathered at the weekend that the tip-off relied upon by the US embassy was supplied by an anonymous Nigerian but the questions remain: how real and genuine was this terror scare? Or was there more to it than mere security alert?

Walter Carrington Crescent is the most popular street in Lagos when it comes to diplomatic matters. It is shaped like a loop and has only one entrance. United States, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands and Russia have diplomatic missions on the road. In fact, nearly all the embassies of the most influential countries in teh world are located therein and despite the busy activities noticeable in the zone, the serenity of the crescent is second to none. A sharp contrast to the peacefulness of Walter Carrington was displayed last Friday when there was an unusual security presence in the zone. Vehicles were screened with bomb detection devices by members of the Nigerian police and hundreds of gun totting security men paraded the area.

This was a precautionary measure taken as a result of a statement released by the American government last week that it has received threats from terrorists that an attack was imminent on US interests in Nigeria. Because of this terror scare, US temporarily closed its consulate and those of Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia and other nations followed suit.

Nigerian security officials who spoke to THISDAY on conditions of anonymity said there were telephone calls to the embassy which warned of attacks. The security officials offered no further details.

Corroborating this, a US military spokewoman, Major Holly Silkman said in Dakar, Senegal that "there was some kind of terrorist threat made" adding that the threat was called in.

A statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said that the Nigerian government has begun "to investigate and address the situation, in collaboration with the United States authorities."

Following the development, the US embassy in Abuja operated with only skeletal services while embassy officials spoke tarsely on the situation.

The British Foreign Office in London said that it decided to shut its Deputy High Commission in Lagos following the closure of nearby US consulate while its Deputy High commissioner Martin Shearman said "We'll reassess over the weekend, but the plan is to reopen on Monday."

Germany also closed its mission in Lagos for security reasons, according to its Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

In Washington State Department Spokeswoman Angela Aggeler described the Abuja embassy as closed. Her words:"The consulate in Lagos is closed. Abuja remains open, but has minimal staff."

Many Nigerians who got wind of the incidence on Friday and yesterday questioned whether the threat by Al-Qaeda was being backed by any Nigerian collaborators but a diplomatic source said: "This is not a Nigerian source and there is not necessarily Nigerian participation, but we can't be sure of that."

Elsewhere in the money market the dollar fell against the euro and Swiss franc after the US, Britain and Germany shut diplomatic missions in Lagos.

Origin of Threats to Nigeria

In his last official video broadcast in the Arab television station al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, had singled out Nigeria, because of its close ties with Washington, as a country worthy of jihad. With this declaration, bin-Laden made the threat of a terrorist attack on Nigerian soil a very real possibility.

Following this broadcast, A United States intelligence expert and former ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Princeton Lyman spoke on an American television CBN where he said that investigations has unfolded that after the dreaded Middle East terrorist group, Al-Qaeda was chased out of Afghanistan, it has shifted base to Nigeria in which its influence is growing by the day.

Lyman said that the investigation done by the United Nations has uncovered surreptitious training bases of al-Qaeda in support of his conclusion that Nigeria is a natural terrorist target.

His words: "You have 60 million or more Muslims in Nigeria. It is the most populous state, and it is a country in which there has been a long history of religious tension, sometimes well-managed, sometimes not well-managed. If you wanted to target a state in West Africa, that's the one you target."

Lyman justified his fears on the fact that Nigeria is a leading oil producer and a major source of oil supply to the US.

Lyman said, "twenty-percent of the new oil coming on the market over the next decade is going to come from West Africa, and U.S. companies alone are going to be investing about 50 billion dollars up…