Some vigilantes, who are civilian security agents, today in Maiduguri, Borno state, intercepted five food flasks filled with bombs, outside a popular Maiduguri mosque.
Information reaching us indicated that the Mosque was filled with worshipers for the Maulud celebration for which today was declared public holiday by the federal government.
It was learnt that no fewer than five suspected Boko Haram members, accompanying the consignment in a hand-pushed cart and headed for Medinatu Mosques in the heart of Maiduguri, Borno state, were arrested. They were said to have been arrested before they could make their way to the Mosque where members of the Tijjaniya Islamic sect were marking the Maulud Nabiyi.
The arrested bombers, according to witnesses, earlier claimed that the giant food flasks contained hot rice cooked to be delivered to the celebrating Muslims as gifts.
Maiduguri has always been a home to thousands of Muslims from different parts of the country and from other Islamic countries, for the Maulud observance at the popular Sheikh Abdulfathi mosque, located in Medinatu neighbourhood of old Maiduguri. During the celebration, individuals usually make charity donations in form of foods and other consumables to help make visitors comfortable.
One of the civilian security agents who participated in intercepting the dangerous food flasks, Aminu Abdullahi said: “when we saw them coming with hand-push-cart filled with food flasks. We thought they were normal people that usually come here.
“We almost passed them on when one of our members instinctively asked what the content of the large food flasks were, and they said ‘hot rice to be delivered to the Sheik’s guests.’
“All of us were almost deceived but when we insisted on seeing the flasks opened for proper inspection, the conveyors became jittery, and by the time we forced them to open the flasks, we were shocked to find coupled bombs in all the flasks.” [myad]
