Abandoned Car Filled with Bombs Discovered in Kano

10 Apr 2012

The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) shows off some of the weapons captured during raids in Kano

By Michael Olugbode and Ibrahim Shuaibu

A day after the Kaduna bomb attacks which claimed 40 lives, security agents have detonated explosives in an abandoned car in Kano.

On Sunday, a six-year-old girl was shot dead by suspected Boko Haram militants in Potiskum, Yobe State, while four others were killed in Dikwa, Borno State.

The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Kano defused the explosives found in the abandoned car parked at a bye pass of Zaria Road in the metropolis.

The suspected members of Boko Haram killed the six-year-old girl, Safia Hassan, a daughter of a police corporal, Hassan Isa.

It was learnt that the fundamentalists stormed the house of the corporal with the intention of killing him but he was fast enough to escape through the back door.
Annoyed that he had escaped, the sect members angrily opened fire on his daughter who died on the spot.
Spokesman of the Police in Yobe State, Toyin Gbadegesin confirmed the killing in a telephone interview.

He said the six-year-old girl was shot dead, while two other children of the policeman - a boy and a girl - sustained gunshot injuries during the attack and were now responding to treatment at the Potiskum General Hospital.

In Kano, residents noticed a vehicle parked by the roadside at about 10am as they started out for the day’s business.
The car had been parked for hours without anyone inside.

Following this development, the JTF was notified and the operatives swiftly moved to the scene.

They discovered that the vehicle was loaded with explosives.

Spokesman of the JTF in Kano, Lt. Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the story to THISDAY.

“This morning, the JTF discovered the vehicle laden with explosives. Our men hurriedly rushed to the area and in the process, they were able to diffuse the explosives. As I’m talking to you, we thank God that nothing happened. And as such, the area has been cordoned off and the vehicle moved for safe keeping,” he said.

The JTF spokesman also said: “We are commending the general public for their useful information being given to the security operatives which has gone a long way in assisting them in tracking the men of the underworld.”

In Borno State, suspected Boko Haram militants struck again at the headquarters of the second largest emirate of the Kanuris, Dikwa, setting ablaze a police station, a bank and a hotel.

An attempt to raze the local government secretariat was however repelled.

It was also gathered that in the siege on the town that lasted for over an hour, the former council boss, Alhaji Babagana Ali Karim, a police sergeant and a civilian whose names were not disclosed were killed by the fundamentalists.

THISDAY also gathered that the military had to deploy soldiers from nearby military facilities before the siege could be smashed after three members of the sect were left dead and several others injured.

Confirming the attack in a statement in Maiduguri, the JTF spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said: "Between 01:35 to 02:45 hours of Monday, suspected Boko Haran terrorists attacked and burnt Dikwa police station, Unity Bank, Freedom Hotel and attempted to burn Dikwa Local Government secretariat."

He revealed that the JTF Forward Operating bases in Dikwa and Gamboru, the 202 Battalion and the Nigeria Police personnel in the area were all called to action before the militants could be repelled.

Musa said items recovered included an unregistered Isuzu pick up van, a pump action gun, an AK47 rifle, a double barrel gun, a box loaded with assorted ammunition, 19 empty magazines of AK47 rifle, a bullet-proof jacket, a crash helmet and a DVD player.

Musa claimed that normalcy had since returned to the area.

SOURCE: ThisDay, 10 April 2012. http://www.thisdaylive.com/