A foreign agency report on Thursday, quoting an unnamed top security official, says the government has opened a secret centre in Lagos “to hold and interrogate suspected high-level” members of the violent Islamic sect.
“The prison is in Lagos, far from the violence plaguing the country’s predominantly Muslim north, where Boko Haram carries out frequent bombings and ambushes,” the American Associated Press reports quotes the top security official as said.
The source is said to be involved in the detention centre project. But the Federal Government on Thursday denied any move to create such a facility in Lagos.
Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, told our correspondent on telephone that the government had no such plan, adding that the counter-terror strategy of the government did not include such a facility.
He said, “To the best of my knowledge, there is no such. The prisons in Lagos are full already and we are not contemplating any movement of terror suspects to anywhere.”
The Nigerian Prisons Service also said it was not aware of any plan to move Boko Haram suspects to prisons in Lagos.
The NPS spokesman, Kayode Odeyemi, told The Punch that such a plan had not come to his knowledge.
A source in the service however said that the NPS could not disclose such a strategic plan on account of its security implications.
“It is not wise for us to reveal such strategic plan in the media because it will undermine national security. I think it is only the Federal Government that can give the right information on such a plan, if it exists,” the source said.
The AP reports quotes its source as indicating that the detention centre was created on the orders of the National Security Adviser, Gen. Owoeye Azazi.
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