Turkey detains 450 IS suspects in nationwide sweep…Read full details

Turkish police

Turkish police on Sunday detained almost 450 suspected Islamic State group members in nationwide raids just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the jihadists.

Security forces rounded up 448 suspects, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, in Turkey’s biggest police operation against IS since the New Year attack on the Reina nightclub that killed 39.

Among those detained were foreigners and those suspected of planning attacks in Turkey, the Dogan and Anadolu news agencies reported.

During the operation, 150 suspects, all Syrians, were rounded up in raids on hotels and private homes in Sanliurfa in the southeast, Dogan said.

Another 47 were detained in the nearby city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border which has a known jihadist presence while 38 were picked up in Hatay, also bordering Syria.

Sixty suspects, mostly foreigners, were detained in four districts in the capital Ankara.

Dozens more arrests were made in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Antalya on the Mediterranean and Bingol in the east.

Television footage showed police in body armour battering down a door in a pre-dawn raid.

– People smuggler link? –

In the usually peaceful Aegean city of Izmir, nine people suspected of travelling to and from Syria and planning attacks in the city were detained, Anadolu said.

One of the suspects detained in Izmir — a Syrian identified only as E.A. — is said to have been in touch with people smugglers in a bid to help the IS members escape to Europe, Anadolu said.

Eighteen people were detained in Istanbul and the neighbouring province of Kocaeli on suspicion of planning attacks. Another 14 foreigners were due to be deported, including 10 children.

Meanwhile in Eskisehir east of Istanbul, nine people were detained on suspicion of membership of Fateh al-Sham, Al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria.

Thirty-nine people, mainly foreigners, were killed on New Year’s night when a gunman went on the rampage inside a plush Istanbul night club.

IS claimed the massacre, its first clear claim for a major attack in Turkey although it had been blamed for several bombings in 2016.

Police detained the suspected attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 after more than two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre.

The Hurriyet daily later reported that IS had also planned a simultaneous New Year’s strike in Ankara but dropped the plot after arrests by the Turkish authorities.

– ‘I never knew’ –

An Istanbul court on Friday placed a dozen people under arrest ahead of trial over the nightclub plot, including Masharipov’s wife Zarina Nurullayeva.

In her statement to investigators, excerpts of which were published by the Turkish media, she said she had “no idea” what her husband was planning and “most of the accusations against me are false”.

She was quoted as saying the couple had arrived in Turkey from Iran but her husband had sworn allegiance to IS in Pakistan.

Last year, Turkey was hit by a string of attacks blamed on IS and Kurdish militants that left hundreds dead.

It is also engaged in a battle with IS to take the Syrian town of Al-Bab, in the fiercest fighting yet of the Turkish military’s campaign inside Syria that began in August.

At least 48 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the incursion so far, according to an AFP tally, the vast majority in the battle for Al-Bab since the fight for the town began in December.

Turkey was long accused by its Western allies of not doing enough to stop the flow of jihadists across its borders and emergence of IS cells in its own cities.

Ankara denies the charges, saying it listed IS as a terror group since 2013.

However, observers say Turkey has markedly stepped up its actions against IS in the last months and note that the capture of Masharipov alive may provide it with valuable intelligence.

SEC institutes N5bn investors protection fund (Read full details)

Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it has instituted a N5 billion Investors Protection Fund to compensate investors as contained in the Capital Market Master Plan.

The Director-General, SEC, Mr Mounir Gwarzo, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

According to Gwarzo, the commission will pay an investor as much as N200,000 as compensation so as to bring succour and restore confidence of retail investors in the capital market.

“ We have been doing quite well, the electronic dividend, the direct cash settlement, the dematerialisation I mentioned are all part of the implementation of the master plan.

“We have also done other things like the recapitalisation; we have instituted a corporate governance scorecard, requiring each company to comply with the score card.

“We have also introduced an operationalised, our national investor protection fund.

“Which allows an investor that invests in the capital market as long as that investment was registered by SEC, as long as the operator was also registered to undertake that function

“If there are some problems that led to loss of money, the national investors protection fund would compensate the investor up to a certain limit it has a maximum of N200,000

“ We have been talking about amending some of our laws in the capital market

“We have also set up an advocacy group that will look at the market, and will look at how can capital market be on the front burner of the Nigerian economy.

“So in terms of the implementation of the master plan we are doing quite well. It is very tedious, it is very laborious. But we believe that the implementation will certainly raise the standards of our market.”

According to Gwarzo, a board had been set up to help run the affairs of the fund and its members would ensure that complaints from investors were genuine.

“If you lodge any complaint, there are a lot of rigorous processes of verification to ascertain that your complaint is genuine and that you are actually the true owner of that investment.

“There is a limit that you can be paid more than N200,000. So the whole essence of giving the 200,000 is temporally to ease the financial pressure the person is going through. Last year, we paid about 320 beneficiaries, that is in early 2016.

SEC institutes N5bn investors protection fund

We will prosecute culprits in Kaduna killings, says El Rufai (Read full details)

The Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor Nasiru El-Rufai, has assured the people of Southern Kaduna that all those culpable in the dastardly act of killing innocents people in the area would be tracked down and prosecuted.

He described the incident in Southern Kaduna as unfortunate and condemnable.

He stated this when the Council of Traditional Chiefs and Emirs led by Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris paid him a solidarity visit.

“This is not something to talk about because I am not the first governor to receive this kind of treatment, every governor in the last 15 years in this state has been treated this way and it is part of the challenges and burden of leadership. So I am not disturbed.

“As you know, leaders especially in any political dispensation, must learn to tolerate a lot of things because you have those who like you and those who oppose you because of political differences.

” That is why I did not take this personal, but what we will do is to prosecute all those responsible for the killings. And we are working hard with security agencies to ensure our citizens are safe and secure,” the governor said.

He said, the biggest assignment is for the citizen to unite and should do the best to see that they have peace and unity as a prerequisite for progress and development.

“Besides security challenges, we are faced with poor infrastructure, poor social amenities, poor schools, bad roads, lack of power and potable water and that is what this government is working to provide for the people.

We have cut down the gains and monetary profits people get in government just to be able to provide democratic dividends to the people. In your domains, you can see on-going projects at various stages of completion.

“We are also committed to demonstrating fairness and equity in the way we execute projects all over the state. I and my deputy and all those who work under this administration, have taken oaths with either the Quran or the Bible, that we will be fair and just in our affairs. I am giving you my promise that we will be guided by this oath in all our dealings.”

On the issue of Southern Kaduna, the governor said that three measures would be put in place.

“I have met the Chief of Army Staff and he has approved the establishment of two battalions in Sothern Kaduna; one in Kafanchan and the other one in Kachia.

I thought the one in Kachia will be sited elsewhere because of the presence of both the Nigerian Army and Navy Schools but I know the military has a reason of putting it in Kachia.

“Kaduna state government is looking for a temporary place in Kafanchan to provide the army a temporary settlement before a barrack will be constructed for them.

He said, they are starting with Kafanchan, then that of Kachia will follow.

We hope that this will douse the fear in the mind of people and that the military presence will build confidence and we hope that their presence will help in confronting the attackers, especially with the added surveillance aircraft.

“We also know that this is a harvest period for farmers so we are asking the traditional rulers and community leaders to arrange with security operatives to plan how soldiers and police drafted in these areas will provide cover for farmers to go and harvest their crops.

“The second measure is that those involved in attacking and killing people and those behind the violence are being tracked and we have with the arrests of some who will be prosecuted.

“The third measure is that we have to go back to the dialogue and reconciliation efforts we have started in the past. We have a Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue that has been working in southern Kaduna in the past two years.

“They have done similar work in Jos in reconciling the conflicting communities in Plateau and when they completed that assignment we invited them to come to Southern Kaduna. They facilitated the signing of Kafanchan Declaration in April 2016.

“These are some of the measures we are taking but our doors remain opened for anyone that has a recommendation or any advice for us on how to tackle these challenges.

Our royal highnesses, I want to let you know that drafting security men alone will not give us the desired peace we want, except people are ready to tolerate and embrace one another, as well as choosing the path of forgiveness and unity.”

Earlier, the council has condemned the cycle of killings and reprisals in parts of southern Kaduna as senseless and inhuman.

The council appealed to security agencies and government at all levels to urgently tackle hate speech, divisive rhetoric and incitement.

“Killings and counter killings are senseless and ungodly; they are not solution to any problem. It is quite disheartening and worrisome. We must work hard against these threats to our peace and unity,” the leader of the delegation said.

He also told the governor that the visit is also to commiserate with him on the recent attack on his convoy when he visited Kafanchan.

We will prosecute culprits in Kaduna killings, says El Rufai