Eagle-eyed members of Civilian Joint Task Force on Wednesday averted a potential terrorist attack in Medinatu Mosque, Maiduguri, Borno State as Muslims were celebrating Malud.
The bomb suspects loaded five big food coolers on a hand-pushed cart and were heading for Medinatu Mosques in the heart of Maiduguri, Borno state, where adherents of the Tijjaniya Islamic sect were marking the Maulud Nabiyi when they were arrested, according to witnesses.
The arrested bombers claimed the giant food flasks contained hot rice cooked to be given to the celebrating Muslims as gifts.
The spokesman of the Borno State branch of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Muhammed Abba Gava, who confirmed the incident to newsmen said , ” we have over 5000 people converging in Abdulfathi’s mosque and who knows what could have become of them had those bombs detonated”.
He described the arrest of the suspected bombers as an act of God.
Reports quoted a member of the Civilian JTF, Aminu Abdullahi, as saying that they had mistaken the bombers to be normal people who come to give gifts to Maulud celebrants as they carried handpush-cart filled with food flasks.
It was learnt that the suspected bombers could not escape as they surrounded by the JTF before they were consequently handed over to the soldiers.