We use yam hawking to spy on our targets – Terror suspect

Bus shortly after the bombing

A suspect of the Jaji military formation bombing, Mohammed Idris, said on Friday that he and a colleague always pretended to hawk yams in order to spy on their targets.

He stated this when the State Security Service paraded him and another suspect, Ibrahim Mohammed, for their alleged involvement in the bombing of St. Andrews Protestant Military Church located in the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State on November 27, 2012.

A number of other suspects that were arrested in connection with the attack were still under investigation.

Mohammed from Ilobu in Osun State, said he accompanied the two suicide bombers, one Tasiu and Mallam Lawal, to the gate of the AFCSC, where he bade them farewell.

The terror suspect admitted that he procured the fertiliser used in priming the Toyota Matrix, which was one of the cars used for the Jaji suicide attacks.

Lawal spoke when he was paraded alongside Idris by the SSS in Abuja.

Deputy Director, Public Relations and Media, SSS, Marilyn Ogar, who briefed newsmen, explained that Mohammed was indoctrinated into the Boko Haram sect by the late Bashir Madalla, who also trained him in the use of firearms and priming of Improvised Explosive Devices.

According to her, Mohammed,18, had also participated in several attacks in Kaduna including the one on St. Rita Catholic Church, Badarawa, Kaduna.

“The suspect stated that Madalla sent Lawal, one of the suicide bombers, to Damaturu, Yobe State to retrieve military uniforms and weapons from the Boko Haram cell and that Lawal wore the military uniform with the rank of a captain, which afforded him free access into the military formation in Jaji,” Ogar stated.

Idris, 50, stated that he was indoctrinated into the Boko Haram ideology by one Lawal, a fellow yam hawker in Jalingo in August 2012, after which he was relocated to Kaduna and given a two-bedroom flat in Rafin Guza area, which served as the sect’s operational base.

He confessed to investigators that the Toyota Matrix used in the Jaji attacks was primed by Mohammed and Lawal at his residence and he served as a motivational preacher and father figure to the sect.

Idris was, however, not forthcoming when questioned by newsmen.

But Mohammed stated in Yoruba that he was living with his uncle in Kaduna and was about being put under apprenticeship as a motor mechanic when he was returned to his parents in his home town.

PUNCH