The Nigerian Army has confirmed that it has intercepted plans by the dreaded Boko haram insurgent group to carry out attacks during the forth-coming Sallah celebrations in Kano State.
According to the Commander ‘3’ Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brig. Gen Illiyasu Abba, at a press briefing in Kano, a combined team of the JTF troops and Department of State Services made stunning recoveries during a raid of two Boko Haram terrorists’ hideouts at Gunduwawa village in the Gezawa Local Government Area.
Brig.Gen Abba said the security operatives recovered bomb making paraphernalia which were being assembled for an attack in the state during Sallah andother upcoming celebration this year from a factory.
Abba said, “At about 2 am on October 8, a combined team of the JTF troops and Department of State Services raided two Boko Haram terrorists’ hideouts at Gunduwawa village in the Gezawa Local Government Area.
“The raid, which was conducted following a lead on intelligence reports, made no arrests as the terrorists fled the village on the approach of the JTF troops and DSS personnel.
“The weapons and other dangerous materials were meant to wreak havoc on Kano during the Eid-el-Kabir and other festivities before the end of the year.’’
He also said the suspected child of owner of the house, an unnamed young man was shot dead during the operation.
The items the military said it recovered includes: improvised Explosive Devices, ‘two AK 58 with 193 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, one AK 47 magazine with 107 rounds of 5.56 millimeter ammunition, bows and arrows as some of the recovered items.
There were also: three primed cylinders of IEDs, one primed explosive suicide back pack, 18 empty IED cylinders, 24 detonators, a small bag of fertiliser, IED timers cortex wires, three remote control devices, five Motorola hand held radios, four communicators, six alarm clocks, two cartons of nine -volt batteries, a scale, one external hard drive and one heavy duty charger/battery were also recovered from the factory, according to the commander.
In a related development, reliable source revealed that Cameroonian soldiers, on Tuesday, engaged the members Boko Haram in a fierce gun battle which left about 180 members of the sect dead while various sophisticated weapons were also recovered.
The source stated thus: “The Cameroonian troops have been involved in a serious confrontation with the insurgents. They have killed over 180 of them.
“Almost 200 rifles and 70 machine guns were recovered from them by Cameroonian soldiers.
“You can see from the casualty figure and the level of seizures that they were already comfortable in that part of Cameroun until this incident.
“Ironically, the Camerounians who had been reluctant in spite of complaints by Nigeria at the diplomatic level are the ones now reaching out to us to ensure that the fleeing insurgents are not allowed to escape. So, I can tell you that the heat is on them” the source further revealed.
The source also said that the killing of two gendarmes on patrol by the insurgents lead to a reprisal around the border which Cameroon shares with Nigeria.
“I think this angered them to order a comprehensive raid of the hideouts of the insurgents” he revealed.