TheCable

Boko Haram is using female suicide bombers because women generally raise very few security suspicions, spokesman of the Nigeria police, Frank Mba has said.

At a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, Mba said that although the use of female suicide bombers is nothing new in global terrorism,  it is a new trend in terrorism in Nigeria.

“If you have been following the trends of terrorism worldwide, you will understand that use of female suicide bombers is actually not totally new. It is actually a new trend in our own part of the world,” Mba said.

“The reasons why established international terrorist organisations go for female suicide bombers is clear. The major reason is that women raise fewer suspicions, particularly with security layers, and so they take advantage of the fact that women raise fewer suspicion to try to indoctrinate and recruit female suicide bombers.

“The suspicion even becomes much lesser if the woman in question is a minor and that explains why. In addition to that is the fact that by rules of engagement that we are cultured to, male security operatives are not allowed to frisk or search females but we are equally developing counter terrorism strategies to deal with that.”

He disclosed that there would be an increase in female police officers on the roads and other places where stop-and-search exercises are being carried out.

“Nigerians should prepare to see more female police officers, more female bomb disposal experts, more female DSS operatives, more female soldiers actually in combat operations and carrying out stop-and-search,” he said.

He appealed to parents and local government authorities to support the police in stamping out hawking in the streets so that it would be easier to track down minors who are used for terrorist activities.

Director-general of the national orientation agency, Mr Mike Omeri, who was at the media briefing, said the trend of using minors for terrorist activities by Boko Haram is proof that there is something wrong in the recruitment arm of the terror group.

“This trend of using young people clearly shows that there is something wrong with the main recruitment arm of the insurgents because citizens are becoming aware and so the tendency is to recruit those who may not even know what they are doing,” he said.