A 14-year-old
suspected female suicide bomber (names withheld) has opened up on how Boko
Haram groomed her to kill.
The suicide
bomber, in her confession to the Nigerian Army, said Boko Haram leaders chose
her to detonate an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Maiduguri, Borno State,
because she refused to get married to members in Sambisa.
She was
among three suspects arrested by the military when they allegedly went for a
suicide mission at a military facility in
Jakana, in Maiduguri.
The
suspect told the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Maiduguri, yesterday, that she was sent on the mission to detonate the
device because she refused marriage proposals from three Boko Haram terrorists.
According to
the suspect, she was abducted with her father,
Usman, by Boko Haram insurgents in Gwoza, Borno, in 2013 and added that
she and her father were running to Mandara mountain for safety when they were
abducted.
The suspect
said they wanted to travel to Madagali in Adamawa where her father sold cows, before Boko Haram insurgents attacked
Gwoza.
“I have
spent three years in the hands of Boko Haram. Three different Boko Haram
(terrorists) 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).
“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 happened 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 7:00p.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 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
up, I discovered that one of the policemen at the checkpoint was one of my mother’s brothers. I think that was
the reason I survived,’’ the suspect
said.
Meanwhile,
outgoing Theatre Commander of Operation
Lafiya Dole Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor disclosed 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 added.
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