A Joint Task Force comprising the police, civil defence corps, Hisbah, KAROTA and vigilante members raided some identified criminal hideouts in Kano state yesterday and arrested 840 people suspected to be miscreants, including foreigners.

According to Ceoafrica, DSP Magaji Musa Majia, the police spokesman who paraded the suspects before journalists said 111 were foreigners, 101 were from Niger Republic, one from Ghana, one from Gambia and one from Sierra Leone.

Majia said the suspects included 67 minors, 112 women and 544 men, adding that 90 percent of the women were prostitutes.

He added that 53 of the arrested adults from the North-east were undergoing interrogation.

“Police launched the special operation following a security report that some insurgents from the North-east were planning to launch an attack on Kano and we succeeded in arresting 53 persons who came from that region.

Whoever is found guilty of terrorism will face the wrath of the laws”, he said.

Majia added that the foreigners among them would be handed over to the Nigerian Immigration Service for deportation to their respective countries.

He pointed out that while the suspected prostitutes would be taken to court, the minors would be handed over to their respective parents. He said the operation would be sustained for some time and urged members of the public to support security agencies with useful information that would help reduce crime in the state.

The suspects were arrested at various locations including the railway station, Sabon-Gari, Abedi road, Gap Hotel, Kantin Kwari market, Kofar Ruwa market, Sani Giwa, IBB Way, Wambai and Singer markets.