Why I was sent on suicide bombing mission —Girl, 14

24 Chibok girls protest poor welfare, want to go home
82 to re-unite with parents this week
Four ‘Chibok’ babies now in FG’s custody

By Kingsley Omonobi, Joseph Erunke & Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA— Details of how Boko Haram insurgents hyptonise and drug young girls to become suicide bombers were narrated, yesterday, by a 14-year-old girl, who was sent on a suicide mission by the terrorists for refusing a marriage proposal.

The girl, suspected suicide bomber, said Boko Haram leaders chose her to detonate an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, in Maiduguri because she refused to get married to their members in Sambisa Forest.

She is among three suspects arrested by the military when they allegedly came for a suicide mission at a military facility at Jakana in Maiduguri, Borno State.

This is even as some of the 24 Chibok girls, pained by alleged failure of the Federal Government to send them to school or allow them return home since October, have started protesting.

The suspect said she was abducted with her father, Usman, by Boko Haram insurgents in Gwoza, Borno, in 2013.

She said she and her father were running to Mandara mountain for safety when they were abducted.

The suspect said she and her father wanted to travel to Madagali in Adamawa where he normally sold cows before Boko Haram insurgents attacked Gwoza.

Her words: “I have spent three years in the hands of Boko Haram. Three different Boko Haram (terrorists) had proposed to marry me and I refused. Two among them were commanders (amir).  When I refused for the third time, one of the commanders became furious and threatened to kill me and my father. I told him I would rather die than marry a Boko Haram (terrorist).

They injected me

“So, after one week, they said since I have refused to get married, I should be taken to Maiduguri for a suicide mission. So, three of them held my hands and they injected me. Then, I never knew what was happening again. I was taken to a herbalist, who, after I regained consciousness, told me that I had been with him for 30 days.

“He told me he was preparing me for a mission. So he gave me some water to drink. I don’t know what it tasted like but I drank it. So, he said they would come and pick me today.  At about 7p.m, three Boko Haram (members) came with a male and a female. They were also recruited for the mission like me.

“We spent one and a half days on the road to Maiduguri. It was when we got to Maiduguri that they strapped the bombs on our bodies. At that moment, I knew that I was going to die, so I started crying.

“I was watching when the first bomber, a female, detonated her explosive close to a military checkpoint which killed no one but herself. The second, a male, was killed by the military before he could detonate his.

“At that time something told me to remove my own IED and surrender which I did. I was surrounded by soldiers and policemen and I fainted.  When I woke, I discovered that one of the policemen at the checkpoint is my mother’s brother. I think that was the reason I survived.”

Suspects being

de-radicalised at the military detention

Meanwhile, Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, said the suspects were being de-radicalised at the military detention facility.

“We have quite a number of them here in our facility. We have been profiling them and making them feel comfortable. So far, from their testimonies, they usually tell us that they were brainwashed by some sort of charms to commit suicide,” Irabor said.

 

24 Chibok girls protest poor welfare, want to go home

Meanwhile, some of the 24 Chibok girls, pained by alleged failure of the Federal Government to send them to school or allow them return home since October, have started protesting.

This is coming at a time the Federal Government has concluded arrangements to reunite the recently released 82 Chibok girls with their parents this week.

 82 to re-unite with parents this week

However, the government, in a statement posted on the website of the Presidency Office of Digital Engagement PODE, weekend, said, the girls were happy and in high spirits.

The statement read:  “The parents and families of all the girls have been contacted, and arrangements are already being made to reunite them with the girls. We expect that this reunion will happen in the week commencing May 15, 2017.”

Government said the girls would be given appropriate and comprehensive medical and psychological care and support.

The statement added: “The Federal Government will underwrite all of the care they will receive, as well as their educational ambitions. The ultimate goal is to reunite them with their families, reintegrate them into the society, and support them to achieve their personal, educational and professional goals and ambitions. .

“In addition to the girls, there are four babies, also in the care of the government. All four babies belong to mothers within the batch of 24.”

 Troops apprehend Boko Haram member, kidnappers in Yobe

Meanwhile, troops of Forward Operation Base, Fika, on routine patrol, arrested a 30-year-old suspected fleeing Boko Haram terrorist, on Saturday.

Similarly, troops deployed at Forward Operation Base, Yuga on blocking position, also ambushed and arrested four suspected kidnappers at Mundu village.

The fleeing Boko Haram suspect, who gave his name as Bala Ibrahim, was arrested at Fika.

The Nigerian Army, in a statement, yesterday, said preliminary investigation showed that the suspect “is an indigene of Bulabulin village, Fika Local Government Area, Yobe State. He is further being interrogated.”

 

 

 

The army said the four suspected kidnappers, Yahaya Auta, aged 25, Salisu Lawal, aged 20 years, Umar Mohammed, aged 18 years and Samaila Abubakar, arrested at Mundu village were in possession of one locally made six loader single barrel gun, one empty cartridge, two machetes, a knife, two mobile telephone handsets, two packets of tramol tablets and the sum of three hundred and sixty naira, while on their way to commit crime

“They are currently being further investigated,” the statement read.

 

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