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| President Goodluck Jonathan |
Jonathan, security chiefs meet
Court orders SSS, police to produce suspects
By Muhammad Bello and Tobi Soniyi
President Goodluck Jonathan Monday met with service chiefs
and other members of the security council to consider a brewing diplomatic
crisis threw up by the arrest of some Lebanese businessmen and their
accomplices for alleged involvement in terrorism.
THISDAY checks revealed that the meeting was called against
the backdrop of moves by countries sympathetic to Hezbollah, for which the
suspects were accused of working for, to seek their extradition from Nigeria to
prevent them from going on trial in the country.
The State Security Service (SSS) and the military had
arrested in Kano, four Lebanese - Mustapha Fawaz, Abdalah Tahini, Tala Ahmed
Rouda and Khosai Nouridine - for illegal stockpiling of sophisticated weapons
in a house in Kano and their business premises in Abuja. The suspects were
accused of being part of a Hezbollah terrorist cell in Nigeria working to
attack American and Israeli targets in the country.
The SSS was also said to have discovered more arms cache in
Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park in Abuja, which belong to some
of the suspects, and sought the president’s permission to demolish the
supermarket.
However, the suspects headed for the Federal High Court,
seeking N50 billion in damages from the federal government for their unlawful
arrest and detention without trial.
The court Monday ordered the SSS, the Inspector General of
Police (IG) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to produce Fawaz,
the owner of the supermarket, and others in custody in connection with the
case.
It was learnt that the matter engaged the attention of the
security council at an emergency meeting held at the State House.
THISDAY learnt that the meeting was convened to stave off a
possible diplomatic row that could pit Nigeria against backers of the
Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
The security chiefs, comprising the service chiefs, the
Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the IG and the
Director General of the SSS, after the meeting declined to speak with State
House reporters on their deliberations.
But a security source told THISDAY that the meeting was
prompted by moves by Jordan, acting on behalf of other Hezbollah allies, to,
through the back channel, lobby the federal government to extradite the
suspected terrorists to Lebanon for trial.
The source, who was privy to the deliberations of the
security chiefs, told THISDAY that Jonathan sought their advice on the issue.
He explained that Hezbollah, through its sponsors in Iran
and Syria, persuaded the Lebanese government to intervene in the matter by
seeking the extradition of the offenders.
This, he added, was agreed upon but the Lebanese decided it
would not act directly but solicited the assistance of Jordan to lobby for the
extradition of the suspects.
“The president wanted to know what can be done to avoid a diplomatic
row with the Middle-East countries that are patrons of these Lebanese.
“He also urged them to exploit means of soft-landing in the
crisis in such a way that it will not have a boomerang effect on the efforts
his administration is making to tackle the regime of insecurity that has
hitherto threatened peace in some states of the North,” the source said.
“The Lebanese may have gone to court with the foreknowledge
of this back door diplomatic manoeuvre that is trying to get them off the hook.
So, now instead of getting scared that they will be prosecuted and possibly
jailed, the Lebanese are now trying to play games with the federal government.
“If you notice, the presidency couldn’t expressly grant
permission to the SSS to proceed legally with the demolition of Amigo,” the
source explained.
Meanwhile, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court
in Abuja Monday ordered the SSS, the IG and the AGF to produce Fawaz and two
other Lebanese suspected to have imported arms cache into the country for
alleged terrorist activities.
The court directed the defendants to produce the suspects
before it on June 13.
The judge gave the order following an ex-parte application
by counsel to the suspects, including Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), Ahmed Raja
(SAN) and 12 others.
The suspects had sued the three defendants, challenging
their arrest and continued detention.
Out of the four prayers before the court, the trial judge
only granted the request of the counsel to produce the suspects on June 13.
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