Sadiq Shehu, a retired Army captain and security analyst, has said that some of the suicide bombers who killed people in Gwoza, Borno State, were given as low as N20.

Shehu stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.

He said that the Saturday attacks, which have claimed about 30 lives so far, were an indication that Boko haram cannot carry out conventional attacks.

He said, “Suicide bombing is relatively a very cheap thing to do. And to be honest with you, if you followed some of the interviews we had with some of the girls who were intercepted and did not detonate their bombs, they were given something as low as N20.

“For Boko Haram members, suicide bombing carries a lot of advantages. One, it is low cost. Second, the suicide bomber has the advantage of hiding the bomb. You know how people in the north east dress in hijab. It is very easy for a lady to conceal [explosives].

“And culturally even there is a tendency that the security personnel don’t search women too closely the way they can search a man. In our culture it is difficult to search women that way even though there is a solution as you can assign a woman to do that.”

Gwazo attacks indicates laxity in screening exercise –Commissioner

Meanwhile, the Borno State Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Sugun Mai Mele, said the attacks were an indication of laxity in screening exercises by security personnel.

He said, “They smuggled the blasts through the women who went to the farm. They usually go to their farms early in the morning, pass through the military gate and when returning they come through the military gate again. But they smuggled it through the women who were coming back from the farm.

“There is a level of laxity on the part of the security in the screening exercise. Before now when farmers were going out to the farm, they issued tags and they would be registered. In the evening when they came back, they showed their tags and the security personnel marked them. So anybody that did not come back during the closing hours then they should be are arrested or they would not be allowed in.

“But these women entered and disguised themselves as farmers. I learnt that one of them was even carrying a baby. When she went to the venue of the incident she started begging and people had even started giving her alms, she suddenly detonated the bomb.”

Daily Trust