The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano State said yesterday that it killed four suspected members of Boko Haram sect at the Ring Road, Hotoron Gabas, in an operation launched in the house of one of the sect members.
The JTF reportedly engaged the suspected sect members in a shootout, and in the process? killed four of the members after a prolonged exchange of gunfire.
An eye witness confirmed that the shootout started around 10am and lasted for over two hours before the suspects were over-powered and killed by members of the JTF.
Residents of the area were thrown into panic as they ran helter-skelter in search of safety, following the heavy explosions and gunfire.
Spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the operation and the killing, saying that a number of arrests were also made during the operation.
He however declined further comment on the actual arrest so far made, but said that the operation was successful and would continue until the miscreants were finally flushed out from the area.
He therefore solicited for the cooperation of the general public in the effort to bring peace back in the state.
In another development, the Boko Haram sect has disowned a caller to an African Independent Television (AIT) phone-in programme who claimed to be speaking for the sect, saying the caller is an impostor.
The caller had issued a 72- hour ultimatum after which the sect would attack Abuja and Lagos State.
The AIT had played a phone call in which an individual claiming to be a representative of Boko Haram threatened to attack Lagos and Abuja in 72 hours.
The caller to the phone-in programme, which was broadcast last Friday, had demanded that President Goodluck Jonathan personally and unconditionally meet with the sect in Yobe State to discuss the terms of a ceasefire, failing which they would unleash more terror on Abuja and Lagos State.