The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Hezbollah

  • Hezbollah: Court orders SSS, IGP, AGF to produce detained suspects

    Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday ordered the State Security Service (SSS), the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to produce the owner of Amigo Supermarket, Mustapha Fawaz, and two other Lebanese.

    They are being held for their alleged importation of arms for “terrorist activities”.

    The other suspects include Abdallah Tahini and Tala Ahmed Roda, who are also in the custody of security agents.

    Ruling yesterday on an ex-parte application by the applicants, Justice Ademola ordered the three defendants to produce the suspects before the court on June 13.

    The ex-parte application was argued by Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), leading Ahmed Raja (SAN) and 12 other lawyers.

    The suspects, last week, sued the three defendants, challenging their arrest and continued detention.

    They also faulted the closure of their business premises by security agents; demanded a public apology from the defendants, to be published in three national dailies and N50billion compensation.

    After listening to Chief Clarke’s argument, the judge said: “That an order is hereby made directing the respondents, particularly the first and second respondents, to produce the applicants in court on June 13, 2013.

    “That it is further ordered that the applicants’ Motion on Notice, dated June 3, 2013, already served on the respondents, is fixed for June 13 for hearing.”

    The applicants sought four prayers but the judge granted the lawyer’s request for his client’s production in court on the next adjourned date of June 13.

    The ex-parte application reads: “Upon the Motion Ex-parte dated and filed on June 3, 2013, praying for the following:

    “An interim order granting bail to the applicants forthwith conditionally or unconditionally, pending the determination of the substantive Motion on Notice in this matter.

    “An Interim Order restraining the respondents from continued arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation of the applicants, their families, relations and/or business interests pending the determination of the substantive Motion on Notice in this matter.

    “In the alternative, an Interim Order directing the respondents, particularly the first and second respondents, to produce the applicants in court for the hearing of the Motion on Notice in this matter pending the hearing and determination of the said Motion on Notice.

    “And such further order(s) as this honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.”

  • Enter Hezbollah

    Enter Hezbollah

    WHAT will it be next? First it was the Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad, aka Boko Haram Islamist sect; then the Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan better known as Ansaru, both Nigerian grown terrorist groups. There were also talks of Al Qaeda infiltration and support for these two groups, and now an element of the Lebanese Hezbollah has been discovered in Kano, northwest of Nigeria.

    Not to be overlooked is the Ombatse cult of Lakiya, in Nasarawa State, which is alleged to have ambushed and massacred about 60 policemen and security operatives recently. In this season of violent affront to the sovereignty of Nigeria, which group will pose the next challenge?

    This must be the question in the minds of top government officials and the military hierarchy as they grapple with their latest terror challenge. On May 30, the Joint Task Force (JTF), the 3 Brigade of the Nigeria Army in Kano and the State Security Service (SSS) discovered a large cache of arms in the bunker of a house belonging to some Lebanese businessmen in Kano. Some of the Lebanese named in connection with the arms include Mustapha Fawaz, co-owner of the popular Amigos Supermarket and the Wonderland Amusement Park, both in Abuja. Others are Fauzi Fawad, Abdullahi Tahini and Talal Roda. Nigeria’s security apparatus has determined that the arms belonged to the Lebanese Hezbollah group’s cell in Nigeria that targets Israeli and American interests.

    According to army spokesman, Brigadier-General Ilyasu Isa Abba, the haul of weapons consists of different arms and ammunition which include: 11 anti-tank weapons, four anti-tank mines, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG), 21 RPG missiles, 17 AK-47s, two sub-machine guns and 76 grenades.

    While we commend the joint security team that made this catch, we shudder at the thought that this quantum of arms and ammunition could be smuggled into the country and buried underground in the heart of a city the size of Kano. From the rusty nature of the lethal articles on showcase, it suggests that they had been stored for quite some time. Are there other bunkers? There may be other ‘terror cells’ operating out of Nigeria. That is unsettling indeed.

    Though Nigeria’s security agencies have pronounced the suspects as members of a cell of the violent Hezbollah of Lebanon, we hope that would not be a cover for unscrupulous foreign arms merchants who profit from massive importation and sale of arms to terrorists, robbers, cultists and sundry miscreants. We urge Nigeria’s security agents to look deeper to ensure that what may be a purely criminal enterprise does not find an escape route under the cover of international politics and regional agitations.

    Having noted all that, we wish to point out, as we have done several times before, that what have been unfurling before us in the last few years are security lapses arising from poor understanding and management of Nigeria’s internal security over the years; not to mention failure of leadership. Government must realise that in today’s world, security is paramount in every sovereign nation and even if all else fails, our security system must remain intact and unassailable.

    We urge government to take a holistic approach to the matter in order to revamp, overhaul and restructure Nigeria’s entire security system. As currently structured, the country is too porous, prostrate and pliable; her security agencies are ill-trained, ill-equipped, easy to compromise and rather anachronistic for this age. The huge arms haul in Kano is yet another wake-up call for urgent action.

  • Assad warns Israel on air strikes

    Assad warns Israel on air strikes

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned Israel that it will respond in kind to any future air strikes.

    Mr. Assad told a Lebanese TV channel a Russian contract to supply it with air defence missiles was being implemented – but did not confirm any deliveries.

    BBC reports that Israel has warned it will attack if the system is used against it. It has carried out strikes to stop weapons being sent to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    Meanwhile heavy fighting continues in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair.

    A Syrian doctor has described the horrors of living there, telling the BBC that more than 600 injured people were trapped in rebel-held districts with no access to medical assistance.

    “They are waiting three to four days for drinking water and that doesn’t include the water they need for everyday use for washing their clothes and for normal day-to-day activities,” he said.

    There were women and children “dying in the battle for more control” of the town, which lies 30km (18 miles) south-west of Homs, he said.

    He said he had seen the bodies of “many” fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement.

    Gen. Selim Idriss, the military chief of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels, the Free Syrian Army, told the BBC on Wednesday that more than 7,000 Hezbollah fighters were taking part in attacks on Qusair.

    Meanwhile, United States and United Kingdom officials are looking into unconfirmed reports that an American woman and a British man have been killed in Syria.

    This follows a report aired by Syrian state TV showing the bodies and identity cards apparently of Westerners killed by government troops while fighting for the rebels in north-west Idlib province.