| What police recovered
from 9 shot robbers
By IBRAHIM BARDE, Kano
Saturday, November 6, 2004
Police in the Jigawa/Kano axis, penultimate Tuesday, took
their full pound of flesh - with some blood -
from men of the underworld when, led by Ali Mohammed Azare
(Alias Ali Kwara), they mowed down nine heavily armed robbers
in a joint operation with Nigeria Police Zone (One) Kano.
Saturday Sun gathered that the annihilated suspected armed
robbers were part of a jeep-cruising gang that shot dead four
policemen in Hadejia, a week earlier.
Police sources revealed that the plan of the night marauders
was to camp in Hadejia, three days in waiting and planning
for an ambush on Kiyawa/Kano Road for Ali and his team who
frequent Kano along that road to revenge the deaths of seven
of their members along Kano-Gusau Road in the hands of Ali
and his group of crime-busters.
A jubilant Ali Kwara told Saturday Sun how he and his "boys"
escaped an ambush by the daring gang of armed robbers: "Their
plan was to camp in Hadejia and make plans on how to setup
a road block on Kiyawa/Kano Road for me and my boys where
they intended to shoot at us and kill us in revenge of the
deaths and arrest of their members along Kano/Gusau Road,
recently".
He said the information reaching the police said the robbers
were to carry out the deadly plan last Thursday, even as the
police command was also making plans on how to track down
the robbers. "It was a wanted-wanted situation by both
sides", Ali Kwara said, adding: "we were reliably
informed that they were going to use the Road from Hadejia
to Kafin Hausa to Jahun and finally to Kiyawa all in Jigawa
State but since we knew of this, we stayed away and continued
with our plans on how to get them too".
Saturday Sun learnt that probably because most of their munitions
have been seized by the Policemen in Ali’s patrolling
team, they did the unexpected. They drove through Hadejia
in a jeep, shooting sporadically to scare the courage out
of men and send women and children scampering for cover. In
the process, four policemen were shot dead at their duty post
and their rifles taken away by the gangsters.
But as good mother luck would have it, Ali Kwara and his people
did not show up that fateful Thursday, so the suspects waited
through out the weekend in vain. The robbers who were said
to have camped at a Village between Kiyawa and Dutse after
escaping with police guns from Hadejia were probably getting
impatient hence they decided to make good use of their stay
in the area when they launched a horrific attack on armless
traders and robbed and killed four of them on Kiyawa-Dutse
road Tuesday night.
Ali Kwara told journalists in Kano that: "following my
last interview with the press on how some of these bad elements
were arrested and those who tried to run away were shot dead
by the Police and other security agents in our team, the AIG
Zone One, Sir K.Z. Dudari invited me to his office, we discussed
and this coincided with the killing of the dutiful policemen
in Hadejia, I shared my intelligence report with him by revealing
the movement of the robbers; I gave out 10 Thuraya phones
to my boys who combed every village and revealed their position,
he told me that since there was no hiding place for them in
the North East and no big city like Kano where they could
easily hide in the North, they were likely to head for Kano
after their operation.
I bought his argument, the AIG raised a team of crack men
and officers from Jigawa and Kano State commands of the Nigeria
Police to tackle these animals! Mine was merely to help in
providing information through our network. The information
came with the description that they were moving in a jeep
and a Toyota Hiace bus, complete with the numbers and colours.
AIG had his men mounted Six strong road blocks; I was with
the Police on the last road block on the bridge over River
Wudil in Kano State.
At about 5:20a.m this morning, they got to our point after
they were deliberately allowed to pass through the other four
road blocks without molestation, then when they were all in
the bridge the Police from both ends of the bridge open flood
lights on them and announced their presence by saying: "Stop,
Police! Stop police!!" but rather than obey calls of
these law enforcement officers they foolishly challenged them
to a gun duel by shooting indiscriminately at them. The Police
had no choice but to return fire for fire".
Ali Kwara said that all of the nine armed bandits in the bus
were shot dead while nine machines guns, including the ones
the seized from Hadejia were recovered. Also recovered was
N945,000. 00 in cash, probably being part of the money they
stole from the traders two nights earlier.
Although the jeep was riddled with bullets, it still managed
to escape with some of the bandits, many of whom are believed
to be seriously wounded.
The Assistant Inspector-General of police (AIG) in charge
of Zone (One), Sir K.Z. Dudari said the manhunt for the jeep
and the wounded robbers will continue.
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