By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano
Even though the Kano state government and National Leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Parry (NNPP), Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso described as false Kano state Police Command’s alarm of terrorist attacks on Kano, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Salman Dogo Garba, on Monday, narrated how police and sister-security agencies averted terrorist attack during last Saturday’s National Tijjaniyya Maulud celebration at Sani Abacha stadium Kano, which attracted mammoth crowd.
The Commissioner of Police, who insisted that security agencies had no intention of stopping the event, hinted that Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs) were diffused within the venue of the event before it was held.
Kano state government through the Commissioner of Information and Internal Affairs, Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Waiya, had faulted the unusual security presence at Sani Abacha stadium before the National Tijjaniyya Maulud.
Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has also chided the police for raising the false alarm of a possible terrorist attack in Kano.
But CP Dogo who confessed that he is an ardent Tijjaniyya follower said the alarm was never meant to stop the National Tijjaniyya Maulud.
He said the action of the police was a result of security reports that a terror kingpin who had already killed eight people in the Republic of Chad was in Kano to cause mayhem taking advantage of the National Tijjaniyya Maulud.
According to him, the terror kingpin escaped from Kano to Cameroon on the eve of the Tijjaniyya Maulud, when he learnt that security agencies were on his trail.
The Kano police boss further hinted that the host of the terror kingpin who had the key to the house he was staying in was arrested as a soft suspect, while the key and some IEDs were recovered.
CP Dogo said: “There was a security alert about a terrorist attack in Kano, using the advantage of the then ongoing Tijjaniyya Maulud which we raised alarm.
” We informed the public. We set up machinery and cordoned off the area. The terrorists were there at the venue, but some of them left the state when they discovered we were looking for them.
” Even one of them left for Cameroon. He came from Chad. He killed eight people in Chad. He came from Chad, and we trailed him. And it was his host who had the key to his house that told us he had left for Cameroon. We arrested his host.”