This night Outside the Krystal Lounge, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja, Abuja
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A bomb exploded at the exotic Night life arena in Abuja called Krystal Lounge in the Wuse II district of Abuja. According to surviving patrons a man entered a crowded food court, planted the bomb and then ran away. Casualties have been reported. Confusion every where people running helter skelter.
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DID US EMBASSY NOT WARN " FOOLISH "NIGERIA ? READ ON THE ALERT AND THE NIGERIAN RESPONSE AND NOW IT HAS HAPPENED?
APRIL 18TH 2012
U.S Ambassador Terence P. McCulley
Boko Haram Plans to Attack Abuja......................US EMBASSY , ABUJA
Two weeks after the United States along with Britain issued a travel alert to citizens living in the country of a possible Boko Haram attack over the Easter holiday period, on Wednesday the US issued a fresh warning to its citizens indicating that the Islamist is planning attacks on Abuja, including major hotels there.
"The U.S. Embassy has received information that Boko Haram may be planning attacks in Abuja, Nigeria, including against hotels frequently visited by Westerners," an emergency message on its website said on Wednesday.
"The Nigerian government is aware of the threat and is actively implementing security measures."
The U.S. authorities issued a similar warning in November, naming the Hilton, Sheraton and Nicon Luxury as Abuja hotels that could be targets for Boko Haram, but it later retracted it, reports Reuters.
Authorities said then that high profile hotels were always a possible target but security was tight and people should not live in fear. However, occupancy at those hotels dipped after the last U.S. warning.
Incidentally, a similar travel advisory warning issued by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the American government of possible Boko Haram attacks in a number of states in the north over the Easter period saw an attempted attack on a church in Kaduna which killed over 40 people.
However, this time the US embassy did not name specific targets.
The Hilton in Abuja said it always took security seriously.
Boko Haram strikes usually target police, authority figures and churches in the north, although there have been a handful of deadly attacks in and around Abuja, which is home to the Presidency, government ministries and foreign embassies.
The sect claimed responsibility for a bombing at police headquarters in Abuja last year before a car bomb at the U.N. Nigeria headquarters in August killed 26 people.
The police said they killed one member of the sect and arrested 13 others on Tuesday during a crackdown in the sect's home base of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, which shares borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Boko Haram shot dead two people on Monday in Maiduguri, where it has carried out almost daily attacks in recent months.
Boko Haram's purported leader, Abubakar Shekau, has appeared in two al Qaeda style videos posted on the Internet this year but has made only vague threats and no clear demands.
He said his main objective was to spread Islamic law, free its imprisoned members and kill "infidels" who were working against it, whether Christian or Muslim.
Security experts believe Shekau is likely the leader of the main faction of the sect based in Maiduguri, which typically targets the police who killed its members, prisons and kills religious figures who speak out against its insurgency.
There are several factions within Boko Haram spread across the north and some have loose ties with Islamist groups outside the country, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, security experts and Western diplomats say.
Boko Haram, which wants sharia, Islamic law, more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, has killed hundreds in gun and bomb attacks this year.
NIGERIA'S RESPONSE ON APRIL 19TH 2012
US warning on Boko Haram attack: Don’t panic, SSS tells Abuja residents
The State Security Service (SSS) on Thursday dismissed the statement by the United States Embassy in Nigeria warning American citizens of an impending attack by the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram on majorhotels and areas visited by Westerners in Abuja.
The spokesperson for the SSS, Marilyn Ogar told Channels television in Abuja that no such threat exists but even if there were such threats, the security agencies are prepared for such challenges.
The spokesperson for the SSS, Marilyn Ogar told Channels television in Abuja that no such threat exists but even if there were such threats, the security agencies are prepared for such challenges.
“No intelligence has been received to that effect,” she said regarding the US embassy warning on an eminent Boko Haram attack in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
She said the Nigerian government is not against any mission warning or alerting its citizens of eminent dangers.
She said the Nigerian government is not against any mission warning or alerting its citizens of eminent dangers.
“But we are against the fact that you go to the open media where Nigerians are told that there is impending danger. If there is an impending danger, it should come from the Nigeria nation itself, not from a foreign mission,” Mrs Ogar said.
Reacting to question on the inconveniences and panic caused by the stop and search road blocks in almost all parts of Abuja, the SSS spokesperson said that the types of attacks in the country are alien to the security agencies and so they have to try new method of combating it.
“We are dealing with a new trend, a trend that just crept in suddenly and then overwhelmed us. And so whatever measure we put in place, we implore Nigerians to bear a little with us.
“No government will go on the street in order to impose unnecessary hardship on its own people,” she said.
“No government will go on the street in order to impose unnecessary hardship on its own people,” she said.
Mrs Ogar called on Nigerians to be more vigilant and not allow these supposed threats to make them live in fear.
Nigerians have hardly recovered from the Easter day bombings and bloodshed in Kaduna and Jos, Plateau state when on Wednesday the United States embassy issued a warning to its citizens living in Nigeria of an imminent attack by the dreaded Boko Haram sect.
The US authorities issued a similar warning in November, naming the Hilton, Sheraton and Nicon luxury as Abuja hotels that could be targets by the militant sect members.
This time, the embassy did not name specific targets.
This time, the embassy did not name specific targets.
The minister of information , Labaran Maku at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday said there was nothing new in the US warning, noting that it is similar to the one issued about a year ago.
Meanwhile, the managements of major hotels in Abuja have expressed confidence in their security arrangements.
Our correspondent noticed that some guests of these hotels appeared not to be bothered about the latest warning.
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