A 10-year-old girl, identified as Hadiza Musa, with explosives strapped on to her body has been arrested in Katsina, according to government sources.
Hadiza was arrested along with another girl and a male, Iliya Dahiru, all wired up with explosives, travelling in a car at night on Zaria Road in Tundun Wada, Funtua, Katsina State. The arrests were made on Tuesday night.
National Information Centre Coordinator Mike Omeri, who is also the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), who broke the news on Wednesday, said it was an indication that those behind women bombers are not using the abducted Chibok girls as being speculated.
“The three suspects were arrested in a Honda CRV car, when they were directed to disembark for security checks, 10-year-old Hadiza was discovered to have been strapped with an explosive belt and Iliya and Zainab made an attempt to escape with the car, but were later blocked and subsequently arrested after which the police successfully unstrapped the explosives.”
Police spokesman Frank Mba said the trend of female bombers is on the increase due to the notion that women are not properly searched.
“The use of female suicide bombers is not totally new; there is increase in their use now since women raise fewer suspicion, unlike the male. Women don’t like male security operatives to frisk or check them. We will begin to see more security operatives as their use increases, “he said
Mba urged parents and local governments chairmen to assist in curbing the use of young girls for hawking as most of them are now being lured into suicide bombing.
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