The Department of State Services (DSS) has alerted security agents over plots by the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād to attack them, using suicide bombers.
The Chairman of Zonal Quarterly Conference of State Directors of Security (SDES) Northeastern States, Babagana Bulama, disclosed this on Thursday in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
According to Bulama, who also doubles as Director DSS in Adamawa state, the agency has received an intelligence that ISWAP members are training suicide bombers to carry out deadly attacks on security agencies and vulnerable communities.
He said, “The most prominent of these security challenges in the zone are terrorism and insurgency, occasioned by the activities of Boko Haram terrorists and its splinter Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP which have over the time left an indelible mark in the zone, interms of security and development.
“Although, attacks by the Insurgents in parts of the zone recently have reduced, owing to counter terrorism operations by security forces, available intelligence has indicated that ISWAP are training suicide bombers with a view to carrying out deadly attacks on security agencies and vulnerable communities.
“Most worrisome is recent intelligence on the convergence of elements of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the Lake Chad area, within the Nigerian territory. These terrorists, who fled Mali following increased military pressure from Russian mercenaries, see the Lake Chad areas as save heaven and apparently have come to support ISWAP to continue its terrorists activities.”
Since the death of JAS leader, Abubakar Shekau, ISWAP has been consolidating its grip in locations around Lake Chad.
In 2021, it appointed Wali Sani Shuwaram, a 45-year-old as the new Leader (Wali) of ISWAP in Lake Chad.
The sect’s membership has swollen with the defection of hundreds of Boko Haram fighters under Shekau.
The terror group has caused over 100,000 deaths and displaced millions of individuals mainly in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states.
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