The President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, Dr Ona Ekhomu, says analysis of recent terrorist attacks in West Africa shows that Nigeria may be the next target of Islamic terror group, Al Qaeda.
Ekhomu warned that security must be beefed up in hotels, airports, shopping malls, transport centers, among others, to forestall mass fatalities, a statement said on Tuesday.
He said, “The trajectory of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the Al Mourabitoun wave of terrorist attacks in West Africa, shows that Nigeria is the probable next target. The most likely target cities are Abuja or Lagos.
“Intelligence analysis conducted from open source materials on the current phase of implacable jihad mounted by Al Qaeda on West African nations, showed that Nigeria was in the next logical target for an active shooter attack by a six-man hit team of terrorists.”
He said the three recent attacks in West Africa targeted hotels and were carried out by an alliance of AQIM and AMB.
Ekhomu said the attacks on Radisson Blu in Bamako, Mali; the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Ivory Coast; and the Grand Bassam Resort in Ivory Coast caused 73 deaths and involved only 11 attackers.
“The odds were in favour of the terrorists to cause mass deaths in those attacks,” he added.
He called on Nigeria’s intelligence community to up its game in the collection, analysis and dissemination of actionable intelligence on the Al Qaeda’s threat in Nigeria, adding that it was a new national security threat.
The security expert urged the government and corporate security outfits to conduct vulnerability assessments of facilities and work on various threat scenarios.
“The Al Qaeda threat is more serious than Boko Haram threat,” he added.
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