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ABUJA. — Military authorities in Nigeria yesterday said three suspected female members of the Boko Haram sect were arrested by troops during an operation in the north-eastern region of the country.
According to a statement released by the public relations department of the Nigerian Defence Headquarters in Abuja, the three women served as undercover agents for the outlawed sect.
Their arrest was sequel to the failed suicide bombing attempt on a military facility by a female terrorist who blew herself up in the north-eastern state of Gombe, said the statement, which also noted the three suspected female terrorists had been secretly recruiting ladies into the female wing of the terror group.
“The suspects — Hafsat Usman Bako, Zainab Idris and Aisha Abubakar — were intercepted while traveling to Madagali (in Borno State) from where they were to transit to the (Sambisa Games) forest to reunite with their cohorts.
“Investigations revealed that the suspects, led by Hafsat Bako, had the mission to recruit members into the female wing as well as conduct espionage for the group,” said the military.
Military intelligence revealed that Bako’s link with Boko Haram had earlier been a subject of investigation in 2012, when security agents on a man-hunt for one Usman Bako, her husband, who was identified as a terrorist, stormed their residence. Her husband later died in an encounter with troops in the north-western state of Sokoto, where he had relocated to continue his terrorist activities, while she continued with the terror group, specialising in surreptitious recruitment of members into their fold.
According to the statement, the three suspects were luring ladies, especially widows and young girls by enticing them with male suitors, mainly members of Boko Haram, for marriage. Before their arrest, they were on a mission to take additional briefing from the leadership of the terror group, it added. Nigeria currently grapples with various security challenges, part of which is the insurgency of Boko Haram. The sect claimed responsibility for the abduction of more than 200 school girls in Nigeria in April, which was greeted with tons of condemnation locally and internationally. — Xinhua
Online Reporter