Troops of the Nigerian Army have arrested two suspects in connection with the bomb explosion that killed five persons and injured 32 others after a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) inside a mosque in Gamboru market, Maiduguri, Borno state.
According to According to Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, the Christmas Eve attack was reportedly coordinated by the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), Ansaru, and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terrorist groups.
Quoting intelligence sources, Makama reported that a Boko Haram team led by Munzir Abu Ziyadah, a notorious IED expert, allegedly prepared up to 10 person-borne improvised explosive device (PBIED) attacks from the Ali Ngulde camp axis of the state.
The publication said terrorists reportedly moved through the Ngoshe Mountains towards Gazuwa and Ngom, infiltrating several communities in Borno ahead of the planned attacks.
The Christmas Eve mosque bombing was one of the attacks that succeeded.
Makama said troops of Operation Hadin Kai arrested one of the suspects on Monday evening in Banki town, Borno, during joint operations and intelligence-led patrols, while the second was picked up in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe.
It added that the suspect arrested in Borno on Monday evening was reportedly intercepted with primed IED materials.
The other suspect, identified as Ibrahim, was arrested in Damaturu through collaboration with a local hunters’ group and was taken to Maiduguri on the same day for questioning.
According to the publication, Ibrahim was taken to the Izala Mosque in the Tashan Joni area of Maiduguri, where he identified a location; he claimed to have dropped a bag containing an IED after he could not get close enough to detonate it.
“However, the bag was not found at the indicated location,” Makama quoted one of its sources as saying.
Further interrogation reportedly led Ibrahim to confess that he was an accomplice in the explosion at the mosque in Gamboru market.
The suspect said he planted a bomb in a bag at the entrance of the mosque on Christmas Eve while his accomplice, identified as Adamu, now deceased, entered the worship centre with a suicide vest and detonated it.
He also confessed that six suicide bombers were deployed to Maiduguri ahead of the attack under the coordination of a terror kingpin.
He reportedly named three of the bombers – Salisu, Yusuf, and Adamu – who are residents of Maiduguri, while the other three, identified as Adamu, Yusuf, and Abdullahi, allegedly hailed from Michika LGA in Adamawa.
The publication noted that a sweep of the region led operatives deployed at the Cameroon–Nigeria border gate to intercept a Peugeot vehicle carrying six bags of urea fertiliser, identified as a key component in the manufacture of IEDs.
The driver and the consignment were taken into custody, while follow-up operations led to the arrest of the fertiliser dealer and recovery of an additional six bags of urea fertiliser.
