The Department of State Security has submitted its security report on the Jan. 1 Benue killings to President Muhammadu Buhari, and the report identifies the signature of ISIS’s West African wing fighters that have infiltrated the north central and the southsouth.
A top government official told journalists on Sunday that the DSS has informed the president that the ISWA network is using foreign terrorists and recruiting young men to fight and kill innocent persons.
According to him, the aim is to “exacerbate tensions along the county’s ethnic, religious and regional fault lines.”
The intelligence followed the arrest of several suspected attackers made up of Fulani herdsmen, government-sponsored militias, militants and other miscreants in Benue State.
Among those in custody, according to the Presidency source, are many suspects who cannot speak any Nigerian languagesm but are fluent in French.
This is the first time that security officials would be confirming that the ISWA members are operating as a unit in Nigeria.
“A good number of the Islamic State terrorists have been arrested not only in the Benue valley but significantly in several towns in Edo State, specifically in Akoko-Edo, Okpella and Benin as well as in Okene, in Kogi State,” the official said.
“It is understood that the cell which has members in different parts of the country concentrates on recruiting young men to fight for the Islamic State in West Africa by unleashing the cold-blooded murder of innocent citizens.
He revealed there was a report that they had planned around Christmas and the New Year, targeting fuel dumps, embassies, and military formations.
The state involvement with the militias had even been confirmed as early as the January 1 Benue incident, when some of those arrested confessed the state armed them.
Gov. Samuel Ortom, however, denied it.
The last weekend witnessed herdsmen and farmers attacks in Ondo, Adamawa, and Delta.
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