A 14-year-old female suspected suicide bomber has revealed that Boko Haram leaders chose her to detonate an improvised explosive device in Maiduguri because she refused to get married to their members in Sambisa forest.
The suspect was among three suspects arrested by the military when they allegedly came on suicide mission at a military facility in Jakana in Maiduguri.
The suspect told the News Agency of Nigeria in Maiduguri that she was sent on the mission to detonate the device because she refused marriage proposals from three Boko Haram terrorists.
The girl said she was abducted with her father, Usman, by Boko Haram insurgents in Gwoza, Borno, in 2013. They were running to the Mandara Mountain for safety when they were abducted.
“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).
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.”
The girl said that she was sent to a herbalist who told her that she has spent 30 days with him, of which she has no memory. Then she was sent on a suicide mission to Maiduguri together with another female and one male. The Boko haram militants strapped bombs around their bodies when they got close to the city.
The female attacker detonated her bomb near a military checkpoint but killed only herself and the male was shot by the soldiers before he was able to detonate his device. At that moment the girl threw her bombs away in order to surrender and fainted. When she woke she recognized that one of the soldiers was her mother’s brother and believes this is the reason why she was still alive.
Meanwhile, Major-General Lucky Irabor, the former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole has 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.”
