Picture: Boko Haram Bomb Maker Arrested by Police

The Nigerian Police have caught a suspected bomb maker for Boko Haram by name, Ba’na in Yobe State. He is suspected to be the creator of the bombs used in a series of Boko Haram suicide attacks.
Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe State, has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent months, including a suicide attack on a secondary school in November in which 58 people were killed.
On January 18, at least four people died in an attack on a bus station, while the previous weekend two women wearing suicide vests killed six people at a market and two died in a car bombing outside a police station.
An unnamed police officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said Ba’na was in his mid-thirties and had admitted making the bombs. “He confessed to being responsible for the manufacture of the explosives used in at least three suicide attacks and the car explosion outside the divisional police station,” he added.
Nine alleged accomplices were also arrested in a hideout in the town hours after Ba’na’s arrest. Ba’na is said to have moved to Potiskum from the state capital Damaturu three years ago and worked as a stonemason and water vendor before getting married. “He was quite good at his disguise and his mason and water vending jobs gave him perfect cover,” the officer said.
However, the Nigeria Police has said it did not have any information on the suspect or purported arrest. “I don’t have any information on that,” the police spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, said on Tuesday when contacted by our correspondent.