The Borno State Police Command has directly challenged the Nigerian Army’s account of a high-profile security operation, asserting that it was police operatives, not troops, who arrested a suspect accused of being a suicide bomber in Bama Local Government Area.
This public contradiction creates a rare inter-agency dispute over operational credit and the facts surrounding a potential terror threat.
On Tuesday, the media office of Operation Hadin Kai, the Joint Task Force in the North-East, announced a “significant operational success.”
In a statement by Lt.-Col. Sani Uba, the Army reported that troops of the 152 Task Force Battalion, collaborating with other agencies, had arrested a suspected suicide bomber, Abubakar Mustapha, near the Banki Central Mosque on Monday evening.
The Army stated that the suspect was apprehended “in possession of materials believed to be components of a primed IED,” indicating an “imminent intent to carry out an attack.” They added that he was undergoing interrogation to uncover his sponsors and terrorist network links.
However, in a sharp reversal, the Borno State Police Command has dismissed the Army’s narrative as “misinformation.”
According to a report by PUNCH, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Daso, on Wednesday claimed that the suspect is in police custody following a police-led operation.
“I personally interviewed him last night. The items recovered from him are not IEDs. It was a police operation,” Daso declared emphatically.
According to a formal police statement issued early Wednesday, operatives on surveillance around a mosque in Banki accosted Abubakar and found his bag contained “electrical wires, old mobile phone batteries, assorted gadget scrap materials and pairs of shoes.”
The police preliminary investigation concluded the items showed “no active IED fabrication or priming,” directly contradicting the Army’s claim of intercepting bomb-making materials.
ASP Daso cautioned the public against spreading unverified information that could cause panic and urged reliance on official police channels.
The suspect remains in police custody at the State Command Headquarters, where a comprehensive investigation is underway to determine the exact circumstances and intent behind the possessed items.
The Nigerian Army has yet to issue a response to the police’s counter-claim.
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