Nigeria’s DSS foils terror attack on US, arrests notorious terrorist

Nigeria’s Department of State Security (DSS) it was learnt has foiled a planned terror attack on the United States of America.

It said it also arrested a US wanted terrorist, Khaid al-Barnawi, leader of Ansaru, a splinter group from Boko Haram responsible for the killing of expatriates between 2012 and 2013.

The DSS was said to have disclosed these to some newsmen on Tuesday, saying that a few months back, it received information about a group planning to carry out a terror attack on US soil, which it latter foiled.

The feat by the DSS it was learnt, led President Barack Obama to write President Muhammadu Buhari, praising Nigeria for its role in giving information which led to the foiling of a planned terror attack on the US.

Revealing that Obama commended it for providing the intelligence information, the DSS added that it shared the information with relevant US agencies, who then collaborated with the service to forestall the attack.

According to the DSS, a section of Obama’s letter to Buhari, specifically praised the agency for their professionalism and expertise in treatment of the issue.

The DSS source went further to say that since the arrest of al-Barnawi, delegations from intelligence services across the world had been coming to Nigeria to consult the agency as well as interrogate the suspect who is still in their custody.

Al-Barnawi, said to be the mastermind of the bombing of the UN building in Abuja, was arrested by the DSS in April 2016. He operates under different aliases such as Mohammed Usman, Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Mallam Dauda and Alhaji Tanimu, Al-Barnawi.

The DSS source added that before the arrest, that the US Department of State had tagged him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 on June 21, 2012 and announced a reward of $5 million for his arrest.

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The US government tagged Ansaru, which emerged as a faction of Boko Haram and announced its formation in early 2012 a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on 13 November, 2013.

Ansaru group is also said to have close ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and has sought to target Westerners, including Americans, and their leader Al-Barnawi, allegedly was behind the May 2011 kidnapping from Kebbi State of a British and an Italian engineer, who remained hostages until they were killed in March 2012.

Ansaru members on November 26, 2012, raided a police station in Abuja, killing Nigerian police officers and freeing detained terrorists from prison. The group further claimed responsibility for the December 19, 2012 kidnapping of a French engineer in north-western Nigeria, and the February 16, 2013 kidnapping and subsequent execution of seven construction workers from Britain, Greece, Lebanon, and Italy.

“We arrested the man responsible for the killing of expatriates between 2012 and 2013. The US announced a bounty on his head but we arrested him for free. He’s still in our custody and intelligence organisations have been coming to us here, some to interrogate him.”

“Nigeria’s service chiefs and heads of security organisations are now respected abroad and accorded full protocol as those from their countries get when they visit Nigeria,” he stated, adding that more countries were beginning to call on Nigeria to share her success tips in that regard,” the DSS source stated.

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