Mob kills suspected suicide bomber in Gombe

A would-be suicide bomber was on Tuesday beaten to death by an angry mob in Gombe state. Police and eye witnesses said the man was accosted at a bus station in the state capital - the same bus station where at least eight people were killed in a series of blasts last month.

Photo: Moji Delano's blog

The state police commissioner Abdullahi Kudu told reporters: “There was a scuffle. He was overpowered by the onlookers who pounced on him in order to assist in making sure his bag was searched. Mob action overtook the event but we thank God he was not able to detonate the explosives because he had a remote. The remote was equally recovered.”

Kudu said the bombs were five rocket-propelled grenades, two mortars, two cylinders and five detonators. He said the police bomb squad came and took care of it.

But Vanguard spoke to residents and got accounts that were not totally in agreement with that of the police. According to what the paper gathered from witnesses, “the man was killed on the spot and claimed that he was himself wearing explosives, although it was not immediately clear from the police version of events.

“The crowd lynched (beat) him to death,” said Rabiu Wunti, while another witness Badaru Alkali said locals then put a tyre around the man’s body, set it alight and watched from a distance.

“The body exploded. No one was hurt,” he said, without explaining why the mob would risk setting fire to a body known to have explosives on it.

Tuesday’s mob action came the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi gave his public backing to vigilantes fighting Boko Haram and urged others to form civilian militias.