Nigerian girl, 14, recounts would-be suicide bombing

Zahra'u Babangida (centre), a 14-year-old Nigerian girl arrested with explosives strapped to her body in Kano on Dec 10 following a double suicide bombing in a market that killed 10 people, is assisted by police at the Kano state police headquarters in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Dec 24, 2014, after she was presented to journalists.

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) - A 14-year-old Nigerian
girl who was arrested with explosives strapped
to her body told journalists Wednesday that
her parents volunteered her to take part in a
suicide attack.
The girl, who was identified as Zahra'u
Babangida, was arrested in Kano on Dec 10
following a double suicide bombing in a
market that killed 10 people.
She was presented to journalists by police and
instructed to recount how Islamist militants
allegedly forced her to take part in the attack.
She said her mother and father, both Boko
Haram sympathisers, took her to an insurgent
hideout in a forest near the town of Gidan
Zana in Kano state.
She said one alleged militant leader asked her
whether she knew what a suicide bombing
was.
"They said, 'Can you do it?' I said no.
"They said, 'You will go to heaven if you do it.'
I said 'No I can't.' They said they would shoot
me or throw me into a dungeon," Zahra'u told
journalists.
There was no way to independently verify her
story and she had no lawyer present.
No information was available concerning the
whereabouts of her parents.
Police said they had instructed the girl to tell
her story to boost public awareness about
those responsible for the Dec 10 attack.
Faced with the threat of death, Zahra'u said
she finally agreed to take part in the attack
but "never had any intention of doing it".
Several days later, Zahra'u said, she and three
other girls, all wearing explosives, were
brought to the Kantin Kwari market by
unidentified men.
Zahra'u said she was injured when one of the
girls detonated her bomb and then she fled
the scene, ending up at a hospital on the
outskirts of Kano where she was discovered to
be carrying explosives.
Boko Haram has increasingly used female
suicide bombers, including teenagers, as part
of their five-year insurgency.
Kano, the largest city in the mainly Muslim
north, saw four such attacks in one week in
July, while similar bombings have hit the
states of Bauchi and Niger.
Experts say the group has used girls as
bombers to demonstrate the range of tactics
they have available to sow fear across
Nigeria.
If confirmed, Zahra'u's story would be the first
known case of parents volunteering their
daughter to take part in a deadly attack.
Violence in northern Nigeria has intensified in
recent months, raising security fears ahead of
Feb 14 elections.