The relative peace in Kano was shattered late on Friday and yesterday morning when men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and Department of State Security (DSS) raided the residences of suspected insurgents in Hotoro Danmarke and Brigade Quarters.
Five gunmen and two soldiers were killed in the attack, which caused panic in the metropolis as residents feared possible reprisal attacks from the insurgents.
The Joint Task Force (JTF) yesterday said it killed five suspected terrorists in the metropolis.
In a statement signed by the JTF spokesman, Capt. Ikedichi Iweha, the military said the incident occurred during an operation in two houses at Hotoro Dan Marke and Brigade areas.
Iweha said two soldiers lost their lives during the early morning operation.
"In the early hours of this morning, at 3am to be precise, a combined team of JTF and DSS personnel stormed two residences at Hotoro Dan Marke and Brigade General areas. During the operation which resulted in a shootout, five terrorists and two soldiers lost their lives," it said.
The statement added that intelligence reports had indicated that the terrorists were in the process of finalising plans to carry out simultaneous suicide attacks in Abuja and Kano.
It said items recovered during the operation included two AK 47 rifles, 458 rounds of 7.62 special and six AK 47 rifle magazines.
Iweha said the security outfit had been achieving positive results from its operations in the state.
"The proactive reactions of the JTF have denied the terrorists freedom of action in Kano and from using the state as a spring board to launch attacks on other parts of the country," it said.
The statement then urged members of the public to go about their normal businesses without fear as the JTF had increased its patrols to cope with the situation.
Iweha said: "The proactive reactions of the JTF have denied the terrorists freedom of action in Kano and from using the state as a spring board to launch attacks on other parts of the country. This is due to the cooperation the JTF is receiving from members of the general public. The recent rise in activities of members of the terrorist sect may not be unconnected with the increase in pressure being mounted on them by troops in the north-eastern axis and their desperation to make loud statements of their presence," he said. "However, worrisome is the ease with which terrorists secure accommodation easily in Panshekara, Ja'en, Mariri, Farawa, Hotoro, Sherada, Brigade and other outskirt areas in the state despite appeals by the JTF to property owners to desist from renting their properties to persons with questionable identities. The JTF in Kano would not allow the state to be used as haven for terrorists."
Boko Haram: Women, children seek release of detained breadwinners
Wives, mothers and children of persons allegedly arrested by the military operatives for several months in Borno State, at the weekend, took to the streets of Maiduguri to plead for their release.
It was an emotional scenario when the women in their hundreds stormed the premises of the Borno Radio Television (BRTV) asking to be heard over their plights.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered from the affected residents that their husbands, sons and fathers had been taken away by military operatives and kept in detention in the barracks for between eight months and one year.
Ya'hadiza Bulama Musa, a mother and medical records official of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, who led the group, said most of their husbands and children arrested by the soldiers were innocent. She wondered why they were still kept in custody, without anyone telling them anything about their whereabouts.
In an emotional voice and in tears, Ya'hadiza said two of her sons, Mustapha Tijjani Bukar and Allamin Sule Tijani, both graduates, were arrested while they were driving on the streets at Ngomari Junction on June 6, 2013, and since then she had not seen them.
"Our children are not Boko Haram, they were arrested innocently and wrongly by the JTF who labelled them Boko Haram. I am a mother and should know my children better. If they are Boko Haram I will not be here wasting my time. But I know my children; they are educated just like their fathers," she said.
A 14-year-old boy, Bashir Zarami, who broke down in tears while recounting his ordeal when his father was arrested in his presence said he could no longer go to school or feed himself properly.
Aisha Muhammed Luwaye said her husband was arrested on the day a police officer's wife was killed by Boko Haram in the Railway Quarters.
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