By Camillus Eboh
 |
| Marilyn Ogar |
(Reuters) - Nigeria's secret
service say they have arrested a "terrorist cell" trained in Iran who planned to attack
U.S. and Israeli targets in Africa's most populous nation.
The State Security Service (SSS)
said they arrested Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and two other Nigerians in
December after Berende made several suspicious trips to Iran where he interacted with Iranians in a "high
profile terrorist network".
"His Iranian sponsors
requested that he identifies and gathers intelligence on public places and
prominent hotels frequented by Americans and Israelis to facilitate
attacks," SSS spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said in a statement.
 |
|
Abdullahi
Mustapha Berende
|
"There is conclusive evidence
that Berende in collaboration with his Iranian handlers were involved in
grievous crimes against the national security of this country."
Iran has yet to respond to the
allegations. Berende, who will now be charged in
court, admitted spying for Iranian counterparts to reporters on Wednesday.
"As for surveillance, that
one is true ... It is a regrettable phenomenon I shouldn't be proud of
it," he said as he was paraded by the SSS in their Abuja offices.
He received $30,000 to carry out
operations, the SSS said.
This is not the first diplomatic
incident between Nigeria and Iran. An Iranian diplomat was arrested in 2004 on
suspicion of spying on the Israeli embassy in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Israeli
sources said. Iran denied any arrest.
In 2010, authorities at a Lagos
port found a hidden shipment of artillery rockets, rifle rounds and other
weapons from Iran. The shipment was supposedly bound for Gambia. A Nigerian and
an Iranian face criminal charges over the shipment.
Tehran has previously denied any
involvement in bomb attacks against Israeli embassy targets in India and Thailand in February last
year and dismissed accusations it was involved in a bombing in Bulgaria that
killed seven Israeli tourists last July.
Iran has accused Israeli and
Western agents of sabotaging its disputed nuclear program, including the
assassination of several of its scientists. The Iranians deny that the sabotage
has significantly set back their nuclear program.
Berende first travelled to Iran in
2006 where he studied at an Islamic university, before returning in 2011 for
weapons and explosives training, the SSS said.
Ogar said Berende sent his Iranian
partners photos of the Israeli cultural centre in Lagos and told them that they
should attack former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida and Islamic spiritual
leader the Sultan of Sokoto to "unsettle the West".
Nigeria's population of 160
million is split roughly equally between a mostly Muslim north and a largely
Christian south.
Islamist groups in the north have
become the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil producer. Western
governments are increasingly concerned they are linking up with extremists
outside Nigeria, including al Qaeda's north African wing.
(Additional reporting by Dan
Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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