Parents 'wanted suicide bombing'

The girl, who was identified as Zahra'u Babangida, was arrested in Kano on December 10 after a double suicide bombing in a market that killed 10 people.

A 13-year-old Nigerian girl who was arrested with explosives strapped to her body told journalists 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 December 10 after a double suicide bombing in a market that killed 10 people.

She was presented to journalists by police yesterday 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 militant leader asked her whether she knew what a suicide bombing was.

Zahra'u told journalists: "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."

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 of those responsible for the December 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.