With Sunday January 20, 2013 marking the one year anniversary of the black Friday attack in Kano State by agents of Boko Haram sect, operatives of the Joint Task Force stationed in Kano have found themselves under the nozzle of Boko Haram’s AK47s.
Already scores of the Nigerian Police officers in Kano have been gun down by unknown gunmen in the days leading up to the one year anniversary.
The attack on the Emir of Kano on Saturday afternoon (1pm) is believed to fall into the scheduled Boko Haram commemorative attacks. The attack saw two of his sons sustain gunshots attacks while the driver died instantly. Other aides were said to have sustained casualties.
The attack occurred along Ribadu road by Court. The wounded were taken to Aminu Kano teaching Hospital. An unconfirmed source says some palace guards were killed. The Police Commissioner in Kano has stated that the Emir is well and resting at home.
But questions of why the Emir was attacked have begun to raise eyebrows in some quarters particularly among informed political observers of the unfolding religious instability northern Nigeria. It is suspected that he operatives of Boko Haram may not be eager to rain a deadly attack on the Emir of Kano. The Emir is the highest respected Hausa religious position in northern Nigeria.
A highly placed security source who spoke with 247ureports.com indicated that the Emir may have not been their original target.
“The boys of Boko Haram got lucky as they saw a bigger target” returning home from the commissioning of a Quranic school located at Hausawa. So they seized the opportunity.
Our source continued to add that recent newsbreak of surgery sustained by the leader of the Boko Haram during a gun battle with men of the JTF may have lead to the decision to strike at the Emir.
The Emir’s coziness to non-indigenes in Kano is said to have played into the attack. The Emir is said to have provided low cost housing for non-muslins living in Kano. He significantly increased safety of non-Muslims residents through his intervention program aimed at securing the properties and lives of Sabon Gari residents.
Also, the Kano State governor Rabiu Kwankwaso is said to have been entangled in a long drawn battle with the Emir; the battle which has reached code-red immediately following the arrival of Kwankwaso to the seat of governor. The two men are said to be battling for the influence over power in Kano state.
It will be uncertain why the Emir will be wanted dead but the latest depicts a war against Boko Haram that has become more complex that originally thought.
