A 13-year-old girl was arrested on Wednesday after she and a male accomplice walked into a clinic seeking medical treatment.
“We alerted the police who immediately mobilised and arrested the duo,” A nurse told Vanguard.
“On searching her, the police discovered explosives hidden under her hijab, confirming our suspicion. They took her and the man accompanying her away.”
The senior security source said the young girl was from the northeastern state of Bauchi and had been part of the “suicide team” that attacked the busy Kantin Kwari textile bazaar.
Four people were killed in that attack and seven others injured.
“Her arrest is a huge breakthrough in unravelling the spate of suicide attacks by young girls in the city,” the source added.
Boko Haram has increasingly used women as suicide bombers in attacks ranging from Borno state in the far northeast to Niger to the northwest.
Just last month, at least 120 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at Kano’s central mosque and gunmen opened fire on worshippers as they fled.
Security analysts have seen the use of women — whether voluntarily and ideologically motivated or coerced — as a sign that Boko Haram wants to sow fear and terror further afield.
In July, a 10-year-old girl was discovered wearing a suicide vest in Katsina state, also in the north.
