31st July, 2014
Nigeria security operatives have arrested a 10-year old girl strapped with explosives as well as two members of Boko Haram, Mike Omeri, Coordinator of the national Information Centre revealed at a briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
Omeri identified the teen bomb carrier as Iliya Dahiru while the two Boko Haram suspects are Zainab Musa and Hadiza Musa, both 18 years.
According to him, the three suspects were arrested on Tuesday at about 10pm along Zaria road in the Tudun Wada area of Funtua metropolis in Katsina while they were driving 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 immediately, Iliya and Zainab made attempts to escape with the car but were later blocked by other concerned Nigerians and subsequently arrested.
The police successfully unstrapped the explosives,” said Omeri who appealed to parents to take more interest in the activities of their children to stop them being used by terrorists.
He however commended Nigerians for their level of consciousness of on security issues which, according to him, has lead to low level of insurgent activities in recent times.
Omeri urged Nigerians to remain vigilant as he promised that the Nigeria military will eventually win the war against the insurgents and counter the spread of terrorism in the country and on the continent.
“The government is closely liaising with domestic and international intelligence agencies within the newly-established Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit (RIFU) to track and capture all terrorists, and their sponsors, in the country.
“With this action, the government is sending an unequivocal message that terrorists will find no safe haven in any corner of the count,” Omeri said.