Amid reactions that trailed the security alert over impending terrorist attacks in Kano, the police command has disclosed the arrest of a suspect linked to the terrorists.
Furthermore, the police claimed that operatives of the command recovered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the Sani Abacha Stadium, the venue of the National Maulud of the Tijjaniyya Muslim sect over the weekend.
Responding to questions on the security signal issued over the weekend regarding terrorist attacks in Kano, Commissioner of Police, Salman Dogo Garba, insisted that the command acted based on reliable intelligence.
Salman spoke during a press briefing on Monday at the command headquarters, revealing that the terrorists had planned to take undue advantage of the mass gathering of Tijjaniyya sect members, who had converged from across the country in Kano to unleash terror.
According to Salman, the suspected terrorists, who came from the Republic of Chad to perpetrate the dastardly act, were forced to flee the ancient city and escaped to Cameroon upon the launch of the security signal.
The CP expressed concern over how residents have politicized security affairs in the state, while tracing his strong background and ancestral affiliation to the Tijjaniyya movement, which he emphasized he would not jeopardize.
“We truly acted on intelligence of terrorists who came from Chad to launch an attack in Kano. They had planned to use the Tijjaniyya Maulud celebration to unleash their terror.
“That was the reason for the signal, and we deployed men to comb the venue of the event. We recovered IEDs at the venue, and we also arrested a soft suspect of the terrorists who was their host in Kano while the primary targets escaped to Cameroon,” Salman said.
The spokesperson of the command, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, on Friday, raised an alarm over planned terrorist attacks at some strategic locations within Kano metropolis.
While cautioning residents to avoid crowded environments until further notice, Kiyawa said the command had rolled out tanks to foil the purported terror plots.
According to him, the police have deployed necessary security arrangements, including a team of explosive ordnance disposal, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear units of the force to mount strategic positions in an effort to neutralize the threat.
In a counter-reaction, the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in Kano, Abdullahi Ibrahim Kiyawa, declared that the security alert was rather an attempt to obstruct the annual religious activities scheduled at Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano.
Kiyawa, who briefed journalists on Friday night, emphasized that the state government had not issued any complaint regarding insecurity in Kano and pointed out that there had been no report of any security threat that would warrant such extreme measures by the police.
