Boko Haram: We Did Not Arrest Any Bomb Maker – Yobe Police Command

SAN FRANCISCO, January 28, (THEWILL) – Contrary to a news report on Tuesday that it had arrested a bomb maker, the Yobe State Police Command said it did not arrest any bomb maker.

The State Commissioner of Police, Marcus Kwalati Danladi, while denying such arrest, said there was no truth in the news reported by an international new agency, Agence France Presse (AFP), that a suspected Boko Haram bomb maker and nine of his accomplices were arrested in Yobe.

AFP had claimed that a senior police officer had revealed that a man, identified as Ba'na, suspected to be behind the fabrication of explosives used in a series of Boko Haram suicide attacks, was arrested in the State.

The agency also claimed that the police officer who was involved in the arrest made on Sunday, disclosed that the suspected bomb maker was nabbed in the Arikime area of Potiskum after weeks of surveillance.

The said police officer said Ba'na was in who is in his mid-30s 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,” the agency had reported, adding that nine alleged accomplices were also arrested at a hideout in the town hours after Ba'na's arrest.

But refuting the story on Tuesday, the Commissioner of Police said: “We are doing our best to arrest the situation in the state, but I can tell you that no arrest was made of any bomb maker,” adding “I have spoken to the DPO in Potiskum and he told me that no such arrest was made.”