By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Kano State Police Command, on Monday January 27, 2025, insisted on the credibility of their terror alert message, pre-2025 Tijjaniya Maulud celebration in the commercial hub of the Northern region.
The Source reports that the Kano state Government and the State Police Command had last Friday, January 24, engaged in an open disagreement over the latter’s position on the Muslim annual festival of Tijjaniya Maulud, slated for last Saturday
In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, the police had warned residents to avoid the Sani Abacha Stadium Kofar Mata, the venue of the event, due to an unfavourable intelligence, suggesting the high possibility of a terror attack.
The Police raised the alarm also on planned terrorist attacks on some other strategic places within the commercial city.
To this end, the police authorities had cautioned residents against crowded environments until further directives.
The Command, however, assured that it had put all necessary machineries in place to nip the terror attacks in the bud.
But the Kano State Government quickly dismissed the terror alert as a hoax, and an orchestrated plot to abort the annual Tijjaniya Maulud celebration which was to be led by the Factional Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi.
In a statement, the State Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Abdullahi Ibrahim Waiya, noted that the State Government was not aware of any known threat to the peace and stability of the State as being claimed by the Police.
While insisting that the terror alert was meant to scuttle the yearly religious ceremony by the police working in concert with outside forces, the State Government warned that it will not succumb to any blackmailing antics from any quarters.
“Kano has always being a beacon of peace and religious tolerance and we will not accept any form of intimidation and or undue interference in our internal affairs.
“We remain resolute in ensuring that the rights of our people to religious freedom and peaceful assembly are respected”, the Commissioner for Information stated.
Although, the ceremony later held on Saturday as earlier scheduled, the Kano State Commissioner of Police, CP Salman Dogo Garba, at an interactive session with the media on Monday, remained adamant over the authenticity of the earlier terror alert.
This is even as he announced the arrest of eight suspects in connection with the planned terror attacks
However, he informed that the main culprit, a Chadian, whom he said recently carried out a similar attack in his country, narrowly escaped arrest.
The CP maintained that the terror alert was borne out of credible intelligence ,and was devoid of any iota of politics.
” Politics aside, my forefathers of hundreds of years back were Muslims and Tijjaniya. So there is no way I will politicize this issue.
“We truly received terror alerts and we tracked the suspects to the Tijjaniya Maulud celebration venue.
“As we moved closer to getting him, he got the hints and escaped to Cameroon. But thank God we have gotten the person who sheltered him in Kano and he has given us credible information about the person.
“On receiving the intelligence, we combed the whole area till dawn ,and we succeeded in ensuring that the whole programme was conducted peacefully”, CP Garba stated.
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