Boko Haram, Police shoot-out: 7 killed, 14 arrested

Three policemen were killed weekend in a bloody clash with members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect at Darmunawa quarters in Kano municipality. Four members of the sect also died in the encounter while 14 of them were arrested with assorted Improvised Explosive Devices and three posh cars recovered.

Kano state police commissioner Mr Ibrahim Idris said the shootout occurred on Saturday after a suspected Boko Haram leader discovered that his house was under surveillance by the police and called out other members of the group to attack the police. Idris told newsmen that two of the police officers on surveillance duty were killed, and that when reinforcements were sent, one of those officers was also shot dead and another wounded.

“Four of the sect members were shot dead,” he said, referring to the suspected Boko Haram members.

Some of the sect members fled and were pursued by members of the public according to Idris while 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. Bomb materials were found in his house, according to Idris.

The Commissioner of Police who paraded some of the arrested suspects along side the cache of arms explained that they owed their success to the cooperation of the locals who supported the police.

He stated that preliminary investigation revealed that all those arrested were neither natives nor Hausas, stressing that this provoked the locals into action.

According to Mr Idris, “a total of 14 suspects have so far been arrested and investigation so far revealed that all of them are non natives or non indigenes of Kano, and they are strangers who have made their state inhabitable and fled to Kano to abuse the hospitality”

Mr. Idris noted that the locals have demonstrated that they have no sympathy or affiliation with these groups of individuals, adding there was visible anger on the part of the locals who risked their lives to assist the police contain the attack.

The CP  displayed 7 riffles, including 4 AK 47, 1,125 ammunition, 9 magazines which were impounded during raids of some suspected hideout in the city. Other items recovered from the suspects included 19 bags of ammonium chemicals, one bag of iron scraps for making bomb, twenty bags of substances for making bomb, international passports, one 25 litters jerry can containing chemicals and another two assembled bombs.

In an incident on Thursday, gunmen attacked a military-run school outside the city, killing at least three air force personnel, but it was unclear if there was any link to Boko Haram.

Mr Idris  said that the Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim has ordered  a heroic burial for the dead officers that include three regulars and a spy during the bloody encounter.

Spokesman for the sect, Abul Qaqa, told reporters the group was not behind the school attack, but claimed it was involved in the shootout in Kano.

The bloody encounter has forced the police authority to set up check points at strategic points in the metropolis, as the Police headquarters in Bompai was cordoned off.

In Sabon Gari areas where non natives reside night life has been crippled as the hustle and bustle associated with the area has disappeared

Prayers were offered in churches on Sunday for divine intervention, while their Muslim counterparts did same in their respective mosques.

Vanguard Nigeria