Nigeria: Three Blasts Kill 10 in Borno

Hamza Idris and Yahaya Ibrahim

8 June 2011

Maiduguri — At least ten people died in Maiduguri yesterday while many others sustained serious injuries as a result of several bomb blasts and a gunfight that ensued between the police and gunmen suspected to be members of the Yusufiyya Movement, popularly called Boko Haram.

Police spokesman ASP Lawan Abdullahi said three of the sect members were killed by the police during a gun duel while two civilians died as a result of a bomb blast.

The series of attacks started when two bombs went off in front of the St. Patrick’s Church, opposite the Musa Usman State Secretariat in the heart of the city at 2.30pm. Witnesses said five people were killed at the scene even though the police said only two passersby died when shrapnel the explosion hit them.

Mohammed Sani, a GSM recharge card vendor said he saw the corpses of three other people inside a salon car in front of the church. “Many people have been injured, I saw them with my eyes,” he said.

Our correspondent reports that the bombs went off less than 30 minutes after the Borno State governor Alhaji Kashim Shettima left the nearby secretariat where he went for a familiarization tour.

The second blast took place at the Gwange Divisional Police headquarters along Bama Road when about three explosives were thrown into the premises of the station by alleged members of the sect around 2.40pm. Witnesses who live close to the station said they saw five corpses there. “When the attackers threw the bombs, they took position metres away and started firing,” one of the witnesses, a car dealer across the road, said.

Police spokesman ASP Lawan Abdullahi confirmed that three members of the Boko Haram were killed during an exchange of fire shortly after they threw the bombs into the station.

“Our men were alert when the sect members came in a black Honda Civic car. There was serious exchange of fire and three of the gunmen were killed and many of them injured…we gave the remaining members a hot chase but they fled into the neighbourhood,” the spokesman said.

He said one of the officers in the station ASP Wanbilya Bitrus was hit by one of the explosives even though he did not die.

“We have recovered one AK 47 rifle and handsets and we are now gathering vital information which we believe would be fruitful,” Lawan said. The third bomb was also thrown into the premises of Dandal Divisional Police Station in Maiduguri metropolis around 2.50pm. Authorities said nobody was killed in the attack even though the bomb had destroyed part of the perimeter fence of the station and also damaged a nearby taxi cab. A credible source in one of the federal government agencies in the state told Daily Trust that they have evacuated five dead bodies in front of the St. Patrick’s Church and an additional five bodies from the Gwange police station.

“We have also taken ten people who sustained injuries to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and are now receiving treatment,” the official, who craved for anonymity said.

He said security reports have shown that many bombs have been planted in key places in the state capital and called on residents to be careful as they move around the town.

Hospital officials confirmed that many people are in critical condition. “I think more dead bodies would be brought here because there were coordinated and spontaneous attacks in the metropolis today,” a source at the emergency unit of UMTH said.

There was serious confusion all over Maiduguri yesterday as students quickly fled home from schools while banks and business premises closed for the day.

The attacks came less than 24 hours after a renowned cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Birikuthi was killed on Monday by some suspected gunmen in his house at Biu, about 180 kilometres away from the state capital.

Governor Shettima had shortly after winning election promised to dialogue with the members of the Boko Haram in order to bring a lasting peace in Borno State. The Speaker of the state House of assembly Goni Modu Ali has also promised that legislators would enact an enabling law that would give room for effective implementation of Sharia, a key demand of the sect members. Meanwhile, there were several gunshots in many parts of Maiduguri last night.

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