Kano
State police command yesterday paraded one Adamu Sani, 35, as the
principal suspect who led the attack on the Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado
Bayero on January 19. Also paraded were six of his alleged accomplices.
The police said the suspects claimed
they had enrolled into a group that wages jihad and is controlled by
some Islamic scholars.
They said the leaders warned them they
would be killed if they renounce membership of the group. Bayero was
attacked by many gunmen as his convoy drove out of Hausawa quarters
after he attended a Qur’anic graduation ceremony on January 19. Six
people were killed in the attack, including his driver, two aides and a
local government interim chairman.
Two of the emir’s children and over a
dozen others sustained injuries. Briefing newsmen in his office
yesterday, Kano police commissioner Ibrahim K Idris said Sani was
arrested by the police at Sabuwar Gandu, shortly after the attack.
According to the commissioner, the
suspect was carrying a passenger on the motorcycle and that the two
attempted to escape after sighting policemen at a roadblock, but the
police persued them and arrested them. “He voluntarily confessed to have
participated in the attack on the Emir’s convoy and so many coordinated
attacks in the state, including the attack and killing of policemen at
‘Yan Awaki quarters, Tishama, Kwanar Freedom and the burning of primary
school at Gayawa,” said the police chief.
Explaining how the January attack on
the emir was carried out, Idris said the gunmen came to the area on
motorcycles and took strategic positions along a popular Waziri Road,
adding that the assault was launched with a suicide bombing targeting
the lead car on the convoy.
“The attackers shot severally at the
Emir’s Limousine instantly killing his driver and two of his aides who
tried to shield His Royal Highness. At some distance from the scene, the
attackers shot and killed the Interim Management Officer (IMO) of
Kumbotso LGA and his aide. “The assailants equally shot and injured two
sons of the Emir, other palace guards and some innocent citizens,” he
said. Idris said following investigations, six other suspects were
arrested, namely Malam Salisu Mohammed, Mubarak Isa, Hashimu Ado, Surajo
Salisu, Mohammed Auwal Hashim and Abdul Jalil Musa Maishayi.
“In his confession, Adamu Sani stated
that he was recruited into the terror group by Mal. Salisu Mohd of
Unguwa Uku quarters and Mal. Sharif Mohd Ghali, the Imam of Filin Cashew
Mosque.
“They usually ordered them to go for
Jihad and anybody who decides to pull out from the way of Jihad would be
killed. They held meetings at Mal. Salisu’s mosque after Isha’i prayers
before subsequent attack on any target chosen by Mal. Salisu and Mal.
Sharif Mohd Ghali,” police said.
Meanwhile, the police had declared
Malam Sharif Ghali, Babangida Baba Salihu, a former staff of National
Hajj Commission, Ibrahim of Hadejia, Adamu of Jigiwa State, Alhaji Ali
Na’ibawa (Islamic scholar), Alhaji Ali Unguwa Uku (Islamic scholar),
Habibu Gwammaja and Salmanu of Jigawa State wanted over the attack.
Asked when the suspects will be
charged to court, the police commissioner said given that lives were
lost in the attack and “the Emir and his children were injured, we will
have to conduct thorough investigation before we charge them to court.”
When journalists interviewed the
‘principal suspect’, who spoke backing cameras, he confessed to being a
member of the Boko Haram sect, but said he did not know who the target
of their ‘jihad’ was on the day Ado Bayero was attacked. “I took
Mubarak there on my motorcycle, but I didn’t know who the target was,”
he said.
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