How German died during JTF operation in Kano
Security sources disclosed that the mission was to set free the expatriate, although JTF spokesperson, Lieutenant Ikedichi Iweha, said the operation was targeted at some “terrorist senior commanders” holding meeting inside the building. Edgar, according to sources, was shot in the head and disemboweled in a gruesome manner before the task force could gain access […]
Security sources disclosed that the mission was to set free the expatriate, although JTF spokesperson, Lieutenant Ikedichi Iweha, said the operation was targeted at some “terrorist senior commanders” holding meeting inside the building. Edgar, according to sources, was shot in the head and disemboweled in a gruesome manner before the task force could gain access into the house.
The German, who was working with construction giant Dantata & Sawoe, was inspecting a flyover project along Kano/Zaria expressway near Na’ibawa, when gunmen kidnapped him at gunpoint. Reports said he was handcuffed and bundled into a car boot.
The operation, according to residents lasted over three hours, during which there was an intense gun battle between the security agents and the abductors of the expatriate. People in the area also reported hearing sounds of explosives during the fighting and seeing military helicopters hovering.
After the gun duel, five of the abductors, including a lady, were killed Also, a mentally unstable person, whose name was given as Musa Lado, was working with a university staff in the state, until he was disengaged on health grounds. He was also killed, as according to eyewitnesses, he was the first to come out after hearing gunshots.
An elderly housewife told our correspondent that her son was shot in the leg while she was attending a naming ceremony. “They told us that my son, Misbahu, has been shot and was taken to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. That was when we abandoned the ceremony and rushed back home,” she said. Just opposite her house, stood the crème-coloured bungalow in which Edgar was killed. Before the JTF came back and razed the building to the ground, it was attracting people from far and near.
Taller and distinct from all other structures in the vicinity, due to its newly coated paint and a satellite dish rising over its iron gates, the house gives out its owner’s as relatively affluent, but for the big and small holes on all its corners, caused by gunshots and explosives going off. The rear of the building appeared to be its worst-hit, outwardly.
Through an opening, at a corner linking the parlour to an adjoining lavatory, a mound of thick brain tissue covered the carpet, splashed with blood. The two rooms in the house had nothing left of their relatively luxurious interior, but charred remains and burnt pieces of indistinguishable electrical appliances. A sofa had been turned over inside the sitting room. At one corner of courtyard, a motorcycle had been burnt.
Edgar’s remains and those of his alleged killers were deposited at the Gamji Military Hospital, Weekly Trust gathered. A source revealed that his employers, Dantata & Sawoe, were at the hospital yesterday, evidently to start preparation for his body’s final journey back home to Germany.
In a statement, Iweha said security forces were not aware of the presence of the German inside the building. He said the JTF men came under fire from the “terrorist elements,” who also threw IEDs at them. The statement said upon search of the premises, “the security forces found the handcuffed, gruesomely murdered corpse of an expatriate, later identified as the German national, Edgar, who was kidnapped since January 26th 2012 along Zaria road bye-pass Kano.”
“The German was apparently killed by the terrorists on noticing the security forces,” the statement said. “During a further search of the terrorists’ hideout, the security forces recovered 2 AK 47 rifles, huge quantity of ammunition, 36 hand grenades and Improvised Explosive Devices stored by the terrorists for possible attack against innocent persons and security personnel.”
Foreign news services reported that in Berlin, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said their crisis unit and the German Embassy in Abuja were trying to gather more information. Meanwhile, the police began grappling Thursday with the kidnapping of another expatriate in central Kwara State. Unidentified gunmen on Monday abducted an Italian working on a road project for Turin, Italy-based construction firm Borini & Prono.
Another source from the office of the National Security Adviser also told Weekly Trust that the operation was actually not a rescue mission but meant to eliminate top members of the Boko Haram sect that intelligence revealed were holding a meeting. The source said security operatives believed that 90 to 95 percent of Boko Haram leaders, with the exception of the leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, had been eliminated in the operation. “Security people got information that the Shurah Council, the highest decision-making body of Boko Haram was meeting somewhere in Kano; that the council consists of all the thinkers, operational commanders, strategists, planners and informers. The security operatives traced the location and members of Joint Task Force (JTF) went there to arrest them.
Back at Edgar’s abductors’ residence, a resident said he could spot a pair of jeans and a T-shirt left inside the parlour, which belongs to the owner of the house. Other residents told Weekly Trust that they never had inkling that a foreign captive was being held inside. All they knew was that there was a couple living there and they hardly related with people. “We were sitting outside yesterday evening when he went out with a motorcycle with his wife riding behind him,” the source said, adding that they had no idea he was going to bring them tragedy.