Policemen in Yobe ‘arrest’ Boko Haram bomb maker

A suspected Boko Haram bomb maker has been arrested in the Arikime area of Potiskum in Yobe state.

Security operatives also took nine other suspected members of the sect into custody.

Identified as Ba’na, the man was suspected to be behind the fabrication of explosives used in a series of suicide attacks.

A senior police officer told AFP that Ba’na was arrested on Sunday after some weeks of surveillance.

Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe State, has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent months, including a suicide attack on a secondary school in November, in which 58 people were killed.

On January 18, at least four people died in an attack on a bus station, while the previous weekend, two women wearing suicide vests killed six people at a market and two died in a car bombing outside a police station.

The police officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said Ba’na was in his mid-30s and had admitted making the bombs.

“He confessed to being responsible for the manufacture of the explosives used in at least three suicide attacks and the car explosion outside the divisional police station,” he said.

Ba’na allegedly made the explosives used in the November school attack, the January 10 car bombing and January 11 market blasts, the source added.

He was said to have moved to Potiskum from the state capital Damaturu three years ago and worked as a stonemason and water vendor before getting married.

“He was quite good at his disguise and his mason and water vending jobs gave him perfect cover,” the officer said.