Boko Haram:Plot to bomb Abuja real, US insists

A United States’ (US) Sunday warning of possible attacks on three Abuja luxury hotels during the Sallah holidays was based on specific and credible information, an American diplomat said yesterday. Even though he did not want his name disclosed, the diplomat would not say where the information on the likely attacks by Boko Haram originated from. He however, said that the US Embassy had no choice, but to warn its citizens who frequent the hotels. The warning on the possible attacks was made on Sunday following the devastating attacks by the Islamist sect which claimed about 150 lives, last Friday and Saturday in Damaturu and Potiskum in Yobe State, as well as Maiduguri in Borno State. However, on Monday during a joint Press conference in Abuja, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi and the spokeswoman of the State Security Service (SSS), Marilyn Ogar, said that there was nothing new in the warning. They both said the security agencies are on top of the situation and that the US alert was “insulting to us as a nation.“-sunnews