An 18-year-old Boko Haram would-be suicide bomber, Amina, who was intercepted by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) yesterday in Maiduguri, said she was given N200 for the mission.
She told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri that she was abducted two years ago by the sect members in Madagali, Adamawa, and taken to Sambisa forest.
“They gave us N200 each which they said we should use to buy food for ourselves. It took us three days to come to Maiduguri on a motorcycle. We were directed by the sect members to detonate our explosives any where we saw any form of gathering. They said if we press the button, the bomb would explode and we will automatically go to heaven.
“I was scared, so, I told them that I could not detonate any explosive. So, they said if Zainab detonated her own, it would serve the purpose. On our way to Maiduguri, we encountered the military and they were shooting. I was very scared and the people that brought us ran away. I am from Imam Shekau’s faction of Boko Haram, even though I have never seen Shekau, I hear about him in Gobarawa,” Amina said.
She said that her father, mother and younger brother were all killed when they tried to escape from the Boko Haram enclave where they were held hostage.
“We came from Gobarawa along Damboa, Madagali and Alagarno axis, in a community where a lot of us were held hostage and married off by the sect members. I am also married to a Boko Haram Commander known as Amir,” she said.
The NSCDC Commandant in Borno, Abdullahi Ibrahim, said the command had handed over the suspect to the Garrison Commander, 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, “ for proper investigation’’.
The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maiduguri, Maj.- Gen. Lucky Irabor, confirmed that the suspect was in custody of the Army, and that she would undergo investigation.
“We are going to profile her as she would give us the lead to get to other insurgents,” Irabor said.
In a separate development, soldiers killed one female bomber and arrested another one while they were attempting to infiltrate Maiduguri, the Borno state capital yesterday.
The Borno Police Command said in a press statement signed by the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Victor Isuku, “Yesterday about 0700hrs, two female suicide bombers, about 18 years old, were sighted behind Mega filling station in Molai area. They were intercepted by security personnel on duty. One was shot dead by the military who sighted her, while the other who was arrested is with the military currently undergoing interrogations.”
He said officials drafted to the scene safely removed the device wrapped around the arrested suicide bomber and rendered the area safe.
