Security alert: Adegbite cautions IG

By Ayo-Lawal Gbenoba - 11.05.2008

SECRETARY-General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Lateef Adegbite, has urged security agencies to exercise extra caution in dealing with the Al-Qaeda alarm.

In a chat with Sunday Tribune on Saturday, Adegbite, who is also a prominent lawyer, expressed surprise at the announcement of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, that Al-Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb some parts of Nigeria.

He said: “We are surprised at this and we don’t have enough information from the IG on the statement. We don’t think Nigeria has done anything to attract such reprisal attack.

“It will be better if the security people handle the issue carefully. We are used to this kind of thing and I think it will stop. We hope this is not another ploy to harass Muslims because we can’t see any evidence that could lead to Nigeria being attacked.”

In the same vein, a former attorney-general in Oyo State, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, described the security alert as a ploy to distract the attention of Nigerians from crucial national issues.

The former A-G stated that the police should face “the security problems, like armed robbery, police fund probe and others, rather than issuing statements that could heat up the polity.”