Femi Adi/ Kaduna

A team of heavily armed Nigerian soldiers and other security operatives have raided a house in Kaduna city, suspected to be a hideout of a Boko Haram commander .

But the suspect escaped, with the operatives arresting the landlord of the house, neighbours and witnesses said.

Kaduna: the raided house

One of the residents of the area said the soldiers stormed the house Wednesday night following a tip off. When they could not find their main target, the landlord was arrested.

Residents reported a heavy shoot out between the security operatives and the alleged Boko Haram commander for several hours , but unknown to the operatives ,the Boko Haram commander left his automatic rifle on while he escaped .

Identified as Mallam Muhammed Mai Borno, the alleged Boko Haram commander leased the property some few weeks ago and moved in with his wife.

Suspicion about him was raised when he started travelling too often and when he could not give satisfactory information about the whereabouts of his children.

Speaking to a group of journalists at Ungwar Dosa today , another resident of the area , Alhaji Usman Ahmed, disclosed that the security teams arrived the area around 12 midnight and within some few minutes the area was cordoned off and this was followed by sporadic gun shots.

“I was in my house which is in the next street and was woken up by the gun shots. Initially I thought it was a robbery attack and I called the leader of the Vigilante group in the area who told me that there is no cause foe alarm.”.