A man suspected to be a Boko Haram suicide bomber, on Monday morning, at Ibrahim Haske Road in the Keke community of Kaduna Millennium City, Chikun local government area of Kaduna State, blew himself up with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), to avoid being arrested by security operatives.
Sources from the community confirmed that the bomber had been on the watchlist of security agencies, who eventually trailed him to an apartment in the Keke community where he had been taking cover.
One of the sources further disclosed that a combined team of policemen, personnel of the Department of State Security Services (DSS) and soldiers surrounded the apartment and engaged the suspect in a gun duel and upon sensing that the security operatives were closing in on him, the suspected terrorist blew himself up with an improvised explosive device.
An AK-47 rifle was said to have been recovered inside the man’s apartment, along with two other live explosive devices that were later safely detonated by the anti-bomb squad of the Kaduna State Police Command.
Meanwhile, the mutilated body of the man was later evacuated from the scene by security operatives, who later took the bomber’s wife and children away for further investigation.
The community leader of the area, Malam Samaila, who also confirmed the incident, noted that the security operatives had barricaded the street to prevent people from approaching the suspect’s house.
Samaila said that it was likely that the security personnel had tracked down the suspect to his residence to arrest him alive. However, realising that escape was impossible, he decided to take his own life inside the house.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Police Command spokesperson, DSP Muhammed Jalige, who earlier confirmed the incident to a journalist and however said he was awaiting for details of the incident from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Millennium City, did not pick the calls placed to his phone by our correspondent as at the time of filing this report.
