Security agencies have recorded another success in the anti-terror war, as the Police Command in Kano State Sunday said it had seized a car intended for suicide bombing.
It also claimed to have discovered a bomb-making factory in Darmanawa Quarters, Ungwan Uku, in the Kano metropolis.
The Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, told the media that the command raided several compounds where bombs were being manufactured.
Fourteen suspects have been arrested, with many members of the public participating in the chase.
According to Idris, the police arrested one Yunusa Ahmed.
When his compound was searched, the police recovered bomb-detonating head explosives, wires, chemicals and some recordings of the preaching of Muhammed Yusuf, the slain leader of the Boko Haram sect.
He added that in the homes of Ahmed’s associates, the following were recovered: one fabricated bomb casting mould, sacks containing gun powder, and two sacks of powdery substance used in bomb-making.
He further revealed that one of the recovered cars at Ahmed’s compound was laden with explosives, meant for a planned attack, which he said the police foiled.
Idris stated that in a search conducted by police in the house of another suspect, Mohammed Ali, at Darnamawa Quaters, one Honda laden with 50 litres of petrol and 50 kg cylinders prepared for suicide-bombing were equally recovered.
Four suspected members of Boko Haram sect were gunned down during the duel, while the command lost three men, he said.
The police displayed seven riffles, including four AK 47s, 1,125 rounds of ammunition and nine magazines, which were recovered during a series of raid on some suspected hideouts in the city.
Other items recovered were 19 bags of ammonium chemicals, two constructed bombs, one bag of iron scraps for making bomb, 20 bags of substance for making bomb, international passports, and one 25-litre jerry can containing chemicals and another two assembled bombs.
The police chief also said in the course of investigation at Unguwar Dabbai, Rijjar Zaki quarters in Kano, some suspects were arrested.
On December 12, 2011, at a checkpoint at Kofar Fomfo, one police sergeant was attacked while on duty and his attackers abandoned their vehicle, from which AK47 live ammunition, 9mm and 55.6 ammunition, 42 Motorola walkie-talkie model 5.118 and N58,000 were recovered.
According to Idris, “Investigation has shown that all the suspects so far arrested or being declared wanted are not natives of the state. They are strangers who have made their states uninhabitable and have fled to Kano to abuse its hospitality.”
Among those killed on Saturday were two of the police officers on surveillance duty in Kano. When reinforcements were sent, one of the officers was also shot dead and another wounded.
Some of the extremists fled, and the suspected leader, Mohammed Aliyu, who also goes by the alias Hamza, was arrested at a checkpoint.
Police said they found rifles in his car that had been stolen from police in Yobe and Kaduna States.
Meanwhile, the sect Sunday said it would continue its jihad on Nigeria "until her present constitution is abrogated, her democracy suspended and a full fledged Islamic state established".
The group also singled out the commercial nerve centre of the North, Kano, as the next city it would launch a total war on, noting that the attack was long overdue.
The group in a statement e-mailed by its spiritual head, Muhammad Abubakar Shekau, to Maiduguri-based correspondents said it would “launch endless and violent attacks” on Kano and its environs because of “arbitrary arrests and persecution” of the group's members there.
Shekau disclosed that the group had earlier released an open letter to the people of Kano, including the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero; Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata; and Khalifa Sheikh Isiaka Rabiu.
He said the letter became necessary because of the recent happenings in the ancient city and that the attacks were postponed this long due to the intervention of some prominent scholars in Kano.
Shekau said had it not been for the interventions of the respected scholars, his group would have made the city of Kano ungovernable long ago.
The proclaimed religious leader said: “The message here is that everybody knows that a lot of our people were killed in Kano State, especially in Wudil town. We had perfected plans to take revenge but some notable scholars intervened by pleading with us. They also assured that our members would never be persecuted again and we took them by their words."
He added: “Unfortunately, however, about five months ago, security agencies began trailing and arresting our members who are carrying out their legitimate businesses, alleging that they were thieves and armed robbers."
He said at this point again, they had perfected plans to attack the city of Kano but the scholars pleaded that they should not but rather advised that they should write a formal letter of complaints to some notable people, and it was at this point “we agreed and sent letters to the Emir of Kano, Wamban Kano, Dan Masanin Kano and the governor of Kano State. We also posted the open letter on the internet but nothing was done to stop persecution of our members".
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