Lynched ‘suicide bomber’ was a ‘mad woman’

The Bauchi state command of the Nigerian police force has said that the woman that was mobbed at the Muda Lawal market in the state on Sunday is not a member of the Boko Haram sect.

A mob had descended on her after she refused to be searched when she wanted to enter the market.

Witnesses said they put a tyre sprinkled with petrol over her head and set it on fire.

However, Haruna Mohammed, public relations officer of the Bauchi state police command, said the victim, identified as Thabita Haruna, was mentally ill.

Mohammed said efforts were being made to arrest her killers, and warned members of the public to desist from taking laws into their hands.

“The police searched the scene and the entire area and there was no explosives discovered,” he said.

“We saw a mob at the scene but before we got there, they had already set her ablaze.

“All our investigations have proven that this woman was mentally sick and had nothing to do with suicide bombing. We are continuing with investigation. As soon as the perpetrators of this act are arrested, we will take legal action.”

Rahab Haruna, mother of the deceased, wondered why such fate befell her first child.

“How can my daughter be a suicide bomber? She is a well-known person at the Muda Lawal market,” she said.

“They just killed and burnt her. She used to sell fish at the army barracks, which is close to the market but she started having mental illness when her business crumbled.”

The woman said her late daughter had received treatment at a psychiatric hospital in the state with the hope that her health condition would improve.

She further broke down, recalling her last moment with Tabitha.

“She left home on Saturday and we didn’t know where she was, so we started looking for her all over until the next day when we knew she was assaulted and burnt to death.

“We cannot do anything about it now because no amount of crying can bring my daughter back. Since the case is in the hands of the security, we leave everything to them to handle. If they fail to do anything about it, we will leave everything in the hands of God.”

There is paranoia in northern Nigeria due to the spate of suicide bomb attacks by Boko Haram members, and this has led to situations where innocent victims were mistaken for insurgents.

On February 14, Ahmed Falaki, a professor at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, was hacked to death in Kibiya local government area of Kano state on the suspicion that he was a member of the sect.

Two suspected female suicide bombers were also stoned to death at a market in Maiduguri late last year.