Police foil plot to bomb Third Mainland Bridge

The police have foiled an attempt by a
notorious Niger Delta militant group
operating from the creeks of Ikorodu and
Arepo on the outskirts of Lagos and Ogun
states to blow up the Third Mainland
Bridge in Lagos.
A top commander of the group, Abiodun
Amos, who is also known as Senti, an Ijaw
from Arogbo, Ese-Odo Local Government
of Ondo State, who is also said to be the
group’s explosive expert, was arrested by
operatives of the Inspector General of
Police Special Intelligence Response Team
(IRT), who trailed him to a river bank at
Majidun, Ikorodu, Lagos.
Two AK47 rifles hidden in a “Ghana-Must-
Go” bag were found with the suspect. He
led the IRT operatives to a vehicle parked
discreetly within Ikorodu, where a large
catche of dynamite and detonators was
recovered— from its boot.
It was also learnt that Amos’ arrest
followed intelligence generated by the
office of the National Security Adviser
(NSA), which was passed on to the
Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris,
indicating that the group was at its final
stage of carrying out an attack on the Third
Mainland Bridge—Africa’s longest at 13
kilometres.
It was confirmed that the group was
actually planning to blow up the bridge at
the end of November. The group,
detectives discovered, had acquired large
quantities of dynamite and several other
explosives for the attack.
In October 2016, the group, which has no
known identity and was notorious for
pipeline vandalism, kidnapping and bank
robberies, demanded for amnesty,
threatening to disrupt the economy within
Lagos and Ogun states if the Federal
Government did not dialogue with it and
grant its members pipeline protection
contracts.
The leader of the militant group, known as
“General” Ossy Ibori, who coordinated
most of the bank robberies and high
profile kidnappings, including that of three
schoolgirls at Babington Macaulay Junior
Seminary School in Ikorodu, four landlords
at Isheri North, Oniba of Ibaland, Oba
Goriola Oseni and many others within
Lagos and Ogun states, boasted in an
interview that his group had over 21
“generals” commanding 7,800 battle-ready
boys.
He added that the group was rich enough
to fight the Federal Government as it had
acquired thousands of military grade arms
and ammunition, which he said would be
deployed in disrupting the economy within
Lagos and Ogun states, should the Federal
Government fail to dialogue with the group
and grant its wishes.
Sources disclosed that the IRT operatives
made several arrests within Ikorodu and
other parts of Lagos State. One of the
suspects is said to have given the police the
information, which they used in trailing
and arresting Amos, who was on his way
into the creeks.
The 43-year-old suspect confessed that his
group was formerly into pipeline
vandalism but they resorted to kidnapping
when it became difficult for them to
vandalise and sell their stolen petroleum
products. According to him;

we went into bank
robberies and
kidnapping because
we wanted to get
government attention
and all we wanted was
for them to grant us
amnesty and also offer
us pipeline protection
contract. We have
made several appeals
and the government is
not listening to us.
“General” Ossy said ‘if
we don’t blow up the
Third Mainland Bridge
government’ they
would not listen to us.
We had concluded
plans and we decided
to carry out the attack
by November ending.
I am the group’s
explosive expert and
before I was arrested
we were going into
the creek to conclude
plans on how to carry
out the attack.”

“Yes, an individual
was arrested. On
sighting the
policemen, the second
suspect jumped out of
his car and escaped
into the bush,
abandoning the
operational vehicle.
”On searching the
vehicle, two cartons of
Gelatine dynamite
explosives and
hundreds of
detonators were
recovered in the boot
of the car. Efforts are
in progress to arrest
the remaining gang
member alaba TV news .