‘How my dog foiled suicide bomber at wedding’
Istood by the grave of the great dog, under the searing heat of Nigeria ’s arid region, looking sternly at the leveled, distinctly looking sandy spot. It was in front the house where a wedding ceremony was said to be taking place on Sunday, 2nd April, 2017.
More searing to me, however, was the heat of determining the national honour the Nigerian state would have conferred on the exceptionally committed dog called ‘Teacher’, if it had achieved the feat of surviving the bomb blast, as it saved wedding guests at the house in Balbelu community.
I was startled by Ibrahim Sawab, Daily Trust’s Maiduguri correspondent: “Conduct your interviews so that we get out of this place fast. It’s not safe.” I agreed with him. Except along the MaiduguriDamaturu route, no one would guarantee you any safety from being gunned down by the insurgents 10 kilometres out of Maiduguri metropolis along the routes leading anywhere. Whenever you, a stranger, hazard being out there, you must conduct your business snappily.
The terrain at the outskirts of the city is still lightly infested with ‘bad boys’ and their informants in the surrounding villages and hamlets, who are alleged to notify them of strange entrants into their communities.
Balbelu community is just twelve kilometers outside the metropolis, but like most communities between Maiduguri and Monguno, and between Maiduguri and Damboa, for instance, it is a don’t-stay-therelonger-than-necessary area for strangers.
Already surrounded by a number of youths, and noticing a few more coming out of nooks towards us, perhaps to see what ‘bloody business’ these strangers had ‘trespassed’ into their community to do, I had no choice whatsoever but to conduct my interviews snappily.
“I first beheld the female suicide bomber approaching from that neem tree,” said Alhaji Malum Zarabe, the owner of Teacher the dog. A member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), pointed several metres away, as he began narrating how his beloved pet foiled the attempt to bomb a wedding ceremony on the fateful Saturday. The bomb went off, killing the courageous canine and the female suicide bomber on the 6th of March, 2017.
Zarabe recalled: “I was on guard that day. When I saw [the suicide bomber] approaching, I became suspicious, so I ordered her from a safe distance to lift her veil. She refused, so I repeated the order several times. Still, she refused.”
“So I went closer and tried to forcefully lift it with my staff several times. She struggled to stop me, so I was left with no choice but to order one of my colleagues around then, witnessing our argument, to forcefully untie and raise the veil. And behold! The bomb tied to her waist, coloured green at one side, and yellow at the other. So I asked her, why is this exhibit found on you? Feigning guilt, she offered to give it to me. I told her I did not need it. She insisted I took it from her and keep it. I refused, insisting that I did not need it. By that time, my frightened colleague had scampered away. I did not. I was scolding her for attempting to carry the exhibit to Zabarmari (a nearby town). I said I would not allow her to go any farther into our community en route to Zabarmari, insisting that I took her to our vice chairman [of the community’s civilian JTF],” Zarabe said.
“While trying to persuade her to remove the bomb before I allowed her to proceed, we reached this spot (the scene of the blast); I told her to wait for me here while I went to call my Oga, warning her that if she proceeded into the village she would be shot by our members. She would not heed, insisting that she went with me into the village,” he recalled further.
Zarabe described how Teacher died: “By that time I had already gone a safe distance from her, and in its usual manner, my dog then dashed towards her, intent on stopping her from stepping any farther towards the house. That was when the bomb went off, killing both of them.” Man’s best friend, indeed.
The bereaved member of the civilian JTF admitted: “By God most high, I am severely pained by the death of my dog. I trained it thoroughly on detecting criminals, insurgents and other suspicious elements. Only God knows now how I can train any other dog to be so talented and committed.”
Hassan Alhaji Mustapha, Chairman of the Civilian JTF in the community, said the attack took everyone by surprise. “Before my members called me to the scene, the blast had already taken place,” he recalled. “Teacher was the only dog trained to perform that duty in this community; it knew every member of the community and it could identify everyone by his or her scent; and we all knew it and we were all in awe of it; it never allowed any stranger to enter the village. Teacher was our indefatigable protector; if it were alive, it would not have allowed even you to come into the village today,” the chairman said.
“We will train another dog to protect us like Teacher. We cannot live without a dog; we will not feel secure,” he said, recalling, “when Teacher was alive, whenever we heard it barking at whatever time of the night, we would immediately suspect the entrance of some undesirable elements into our community and we would all emerge from our houses, combatready, and we would certainly vindicate the dog by seeing something undesirable.”
Hassan announced their plan to train about five dogs to guard the community at all the cardinal points.
The arrival of a few more youths startled Sawab, who quickly reminded me: “End of interview. Let’s get out of here!” And so we did.