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Nigeria dismisses US
embassy's hotel bomb warning
Reuters Mon Nov 7, 2011
* Boko Haram attacks killed 65 in worst
attack yet
* Islamist sect has struck the capital
twice
* Nigeria security forces under fire for
failing to protect
By Joe Brock and Camillus Eboh
Gen Azazi
ABUJA, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Nigeria's national
security adviser on Monday dismissed a weekend warning from the
United States of an Islamist bomb threat to luxury hotels in the
capital as "not news", and said it was spreading unnecessary
panic.
The U.S. embassy warned its citizens on
Sunday to avoid three hotels in Abuja, which it said could be
targeted this week, after Islamist militants killed at least 65
people in coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the northern city
of Damaturu on Friday.
The attacks were the deadliest since
Islamist sect Boko Haram launched an insurgency against the
government in 2009. The group claimed responsibility for the
violence that left bodies littering the streets and police
stations in ruins.
Witnesses reported gunfire in the city
again on Monday, but military sources said it was from guards at
the Yobe state governor's house firing at a suspicious speeding
car, and gave no further details.
"The (U.S. statement) is eliciting
unhealthy public anxiety and generating avoidable tension," said
Owoeye Andrew Azazi, Nigeria's national security adviser.
"The ... government wants to advise members
of the public that it (will) continue to ensure security of
lives and property under its jurisdiction."
The U.S. embassy said it had "received
information that Boko Haram may plan to attack several locations
and hotels in Abuja," this week and that "targets may include
the Nicon Luxury, the Sheraton Hotel, and the Transcorp Hilton
Hotel."
Azazi dismissed this as old information.
The hotels are seen as one of the most obvious targets for Boko
Haram, a militant group self styled on the Taliban and whose
name means "Western education is forbidden".
Rumours the hotels could be targeted are
often circulated.
A U.S. embassy spokesman contacted by
Reuters declined to comment further.
GROWING THREAT
Boko Haram appears to be growing in
boldness and sophistication and security officials believe it
has made contact with al Qaeda's north African affiliate.
"The current threat of attack on the three
hotels in Abuja is not news, and for over three months the
security services have taken pro-active measures," Azazi said.
"Members of the public are ... urged to go about their business
without fear."
Yet Nigerians are becoming increasingly
weary of the what many see as the inability of security forces
to deal with the threat. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a
bombing of the U.N. Nigeria headquarters in Abuja that killed 26
people in August -- its second strike on the capital.
Reuters TV images showed soldiers and
police patrolling Damaturu on Monday, setting up roadblocks
along main streets to check vehicles for weapons or suspected
militants.
"It is now apparent that those saddled with
ensuring the security of lives and property in the country are
grossly incapable of doing so," the opposition Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) party said in a statement published in the
local press on Monday. "This is about taking responsibility."
The Hilton and Sheraton hotels in Abuja
were quiet. Soldiers stood idly where large queues of cars
usually form at security gates. The undersides of those vehicles
arriving were checked as usual for explosives using pole-mounted
mirrors.
Shola Adeyemo, head of public relations at
the Hilton, said the Muslim public holiday was the reason the
hotel was quiet, but that the U.S. embassy warning may have had
an impact.
"We do not know the source of the U.S.
information but anyway we have been on high security alert since
the U.N. bombing," he said. "Nigerian authorities ... have given
no indication of a new threat."
He added that he was surprised the U.S.
embassy did not consult the hotels before making the statement.
(Writing and additional reporting by Tim
Cocks in Lagos; editing by Matthew Jones)
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