TheCable

A suspected suicide bomber seeking to blow up the Yankari motor park in Bauchi, Bauchi state, has been apprehended.

According to a security source who confirmed the arrest to TheCable, the man was trying to gain admittance into the park when the explosives on him were spotted by metal detectors fixed to the entrance.

“The man came very early in the morning, around 6am, and was trying to enter. But he was unable to achieve his aim,” the source said.

“Security at the gate detected the bomb, and they caught him. Most of the parks now have metal detectors since Boko Haram has been targeting crowds of people that can usually be found at parks.”

The suspect, described as “a grown man”, was handed over to the police.

The man must consider himself lucky to have been turned in to the police, as a suspected woman bomber arrested in similar circumstance in March was set ablaze.

A mob at the Muda Lawal market was infuriated by the woman’s refusal to submit herself for a search, and therefore concluded that she was a Boko Haram member on a sinister mission. The mob descended on her, beat her to a pulp, sprinkled petrol on a tyre, and hung it over her head before setting her on fire.

In late 2014, two suspected female suicide bombers were also stoned to death at a market in Maiduguri, Borno state.