The men, said to be repentant Boko Haram members, reportedly sneaked out of Bama to deal in scrap metals with some terrorists in a market known as ‘Daula’ on the outskirts of Goniri village before the incident happened.
Eight persons were on Monday killed after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by the Boko Haram terrorists exploded in the North-East of the Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
The men, said to be repentant Boko Haram members, reportedly sneaked out of Bama to deal in scrap metals with some terrorists in a market known as ‘Daula’ on the outskirts of Goniri village before the incident happened.
The former terrorists, who were among the 1,000 reintegrated into the community and resettled at Government Girls Secondary School in Bama, received the scraps from some Boko Haram fighters hiding in Sambisa forest without knowing that an IED abandoned during a military offensive was among the items they were carrying.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency expert, reportedly got the information about the incident from an intelligence officer.
He added that the former terrorists constantly dealt in exchanging scrap metal for food items like salt, seasoning, maize, and some non-food items like petrol, medicine, and clothing.
“After receiving the items, they will stay in the outskirt of Bama town to dismantle them into pieces known as Ajakuta, before bringing them into the town to sell to their agents.
“They were in the process of dismantling the iron when the bomb exploded, killing eight of them instantly while only one of them survived with injuries.
“Some of them lost two of their legs, some were decapitated beyond recognition while some of them were shattered into pieces by the explosive,” he said.