nine accomplices have been arrested by the
Nigerian security operatives.
The 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 Yobe State, a senior police officer
told Agence France Presse on Tuesday, Punch
reports
The suspected bomb maker was held in the
Arikime area of Potiskum after some weeks of
surveillance, said the officer, who was involved
in the Sunday arrest.
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.
The 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 allegedly made the explosives used in
the November school attack, the January 10
car bombing and January 11 market blasts, the
source added.
He was 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.
But 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.
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