Nigeria on Monday named a high-powered team to prepare for a state visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, amid reports that al-Qaeda may be plotting an attack against her.
The queen is due to visit Nigeria in December, when she will open a Commonwealth summit in Abuja and visit the commercial capital Lagos and northern regional centre, Kano, a statement said.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar will head a committee made up of four ministers, the governors of Kano and Lagos, Nigeria’s police chief and the heads of its foreign and domestic and foreign intelligence services.
”The government attaches a lot of significance to the visit by Her Majesty the Queen and would therefore do everything possibleto ensure its smooth conduct,” the statement from the vice-presidency said.
This week, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported that British ministers had received reports that al-Qaeda’s Saudi-born leader Osama bin Laden might be planning to kill the queen during the summit.
It cited high-level sources as saying that Britain would consider offering Nigeria security assistance, perhaps including military personnel, to reinforce safety at the 52-nation conference.
Nigerian police have played down the report, insisting that they have enough manpower and organisation on the ground to deter attackers.
”The Nigerian police have changed for the better. We are up to the task. The British queen and all participants in the Commonwealth summit are safe. We will ensure this,” said Femi Oyeleye, a national police spokesperson.
Earlier this year bin Laden, in a tape broadcast on the Arabic-language satellite news network Al-Jazeera, named Nigeria as one of six ”apostate states” whose Muslim citizens should seek to overthrow the government.
But, although the al-Qaeda network of Islamic extremists has been linked to several attacks in east Africa, including taking blame for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, there has never been any concrete evidence of it operating in Nigeria or the west of the continent.
Around half Nigeria’s 126-million-strong population is Muslim, and in the northern city of Kano — where the queen is expected to meet the Emir — pro-bin Laden demonstrations have been held in the past.
The Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting will open formally in Abuja on December 5, although ministers will gather one day earlier, and contimue through the weekend until December 8.
The leaders of all 54 Commonwealth members, mainly former British colonies, are expected, apart from presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, whose countries are suspended from the body. – AFP
