At least 29 people were killed and
more than 65 others wounded on
Monday in two separate attacks by
suspected Boko Haram insurgents
on the capitals of Gombe and
Bauchi states.
The Gombe State attack was by a
female bomber who struck at the
Dukku Motor Park in Gombe. She
killed 19 and left 40 others injured
at about 10.58am.
Almost five hours and 28 minutes
after, another insurgent
detonated a bomb hidden in a shop
at the ever-busy Central Market in
Bauchi.
It could not be ascertained if the
bomber was a male or a female.
The Gombe bomber was said to
have disguised as a passenger
carrying her lethal weapon hidden
in a sack .
Eyewitness said she detonated the
explosive near a bus loaded with
passengers.
“The bomber chose her target
carefully. She probably was
standing by and observing when
some of the buses in the park
were fully loaded before setting off
the bomb.”
The witness, who said that two
buses were completely burnt,
added that majority of the victims
were passengers and hawkers .
The Police Public Relations Officer
of the state police command, Fwaji
Atajri, and the National Emergency
Management Agency confirmed
the death of 19 people .
While Atajri said 25 were injured,
NEMA, in a statement by its
Information Officer, Manzo Ezekiel,
gave 39 as the figure.
The PPRO said that the injured
were being treated at the Gombe
Specialist Hospital.
The statement by Ezekiel read,
“Following the explosion in Dukku
Motor Park in Gombe on Monday,
the NEMA-led rescue operations
evacuated all persons affected by
the incident to the hospital while
the area has been cordoned off.
“Most of those evacuated were
taken to the Gombe State Specialist
Hospital where they are now
receiving treatment from injuries
sustained in the explosion.”
At about 5.28pm on Monday,
another bomber struck at the
Central Market in Bauchi when
traders were preparing to close for
the day.
When The PUNCH correspondent in
the state visited the scene,
tension was high as some angry
youths ordered journalists to
leave or be attacked .
Gunshots were fired by security
agencies at the scene to scare away
the youths but they responded
with stones and other dangerous
objects.
An eyewitness, Mu’azu Musa, said
he saw bodies of the victims being
evacuated from the scene of the
blast.
Musa, a commercial motorcyclist,
added that he found himself in the
hospital after losing consciousness
on seeing the charred bodies of the
victims.
At the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Teaching Hospital, one of our
correspondents saw injured
victims taken there by Red Cross
officials.
The Deputy Chairman, Medical
Advisory Council of the hospital,
Saidu Kadas, told journalists that
the actual casualty figure could
not be ascertained as more victims
were being brought in.
Also, the Chairman of the ATBUTH
branch of the Nigerian Union of
Allied Health Professionals, Mr. Idris
Ado, said that striking health
workers had been called upon to
report for work on Tuesday(today)
to help in treating the wounded
victims.
Governor Isa Yuguda, in a
statement, condemned the blast
as most unfortunate and barbaric.
The governor, according to the
statement by his Chief Press
Secretary, Ishola Adeyemi, said
those behind the attack were
cowards.
He told the people that his
administration would not relent in
its efforts to ensure that their lives
and property were protected .
Southern hunters to join anti-
Boko Haram campaign
Meanwhile, hunters in Southern
Nigeria on Monday announced that
they would join their colleagues
in the North-East in ending what
they described as the “senseless
war” against Boko Haram.
The hunters, under the Association
of Animal Hunters of Nigeria, told
journalists in Benin, Edo State, that
the war in the North-East had
persisted for too long.
The President of the association,
Mr. Raymond Macaulay, said, “We
just want to be there, and put this
nonsense behind us. We want to let
our fellow hunters there know that
they are not alone. As hunters, what
hurts one hurts all.
“We are feeling what they are
feeling. And now, we are going
there in our thousands to end this
nonsense. Their business is our
business. It’s time for action.”
While arguing that no country
could end insurgency through the
military alone, Macaulay advised
the Federal Government and other
well-meaning Nigerians to
urgently empower his group with
logistics to enable them to “move
immediately to the North-East,
especially in view of the renewed
bombings and abductions of
women and girls.
He said, “Hunters out-number
insurgents and even security
agents. We can no longer allow
antelopes to harass our people in
the North. We are ready to join our
brother-hunters in the North-East
to stop the mindless destruction
of our people.”
The President of the Senate, David
Mark, has challenged security
operatives to bring their intellect
and investigative skills to bear in
finding out those behind the
insurgency in Nigeria.
He also implored community
leaders and other Nigerians to
collaborate with the security
agencies in order to expose the
financiers of the criminals
forthwith.
Mark, according to a statement by
his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul
Mumeh, stated this in Abuja after
decorating his Aide-camp, Mr. Abel
Miri, with his new rank of Assistant
Commissioner of Police.
The Senate President reasoned
that one of the ways to end
insurgency was to unmask their
sponsors within and outside the
country.
Mark said, “The unabating situation
demands extra-ordinary measures
to handle. All of us, irrespective of
status must be alert to our
responsibilities.
“Let us rise as one people faced
with a common problem to say no
to these harbingers of death . Let’s
come together and work hard to
free ourselves .
“All Nigerians, must see these
terrorists as a threat to our
existence. Nobody should sit on the
fence any more. It is a choice we
have to make in chasing these
terrorists away or wait to be
consumed by them.
“This is not about politics, religion
or ethnicity. It is about our survival
as a nation.”
Mark told his newly decorated
security aide that his new rank
“demands higher responsibility
and dedication to the service of his
fatherland.”
Blaming Jonathan for
insurgency won’t exonerate APC
The Peoples Democratic Party also
said on Monday that no amount of
allegations against President
Goodluck Jonathan can exonerate
the All Progressives Congress of
blame for the wave of violence in
the North-East.
The PDP, in a statement by its
National Publicity Secretary, Olisa
Metuh, alleged that the body
language and inciting utterances of
APC leaders, had served as fuel to
the raging flame of terrorism.
It said that by going to the
international media recently to
distance themselves from
complicity and in turning round to
blame it (PDP), the APC was asking
Nigerians to suddenly forget the
barrage of earlier statements by its
leaders
The PDP statement reads,
“Nigerians have not forgotten the
spontaneous violence and mayhem
on innocent citizens following a
statements by(Muhammadu)
Buhari and other APC leaders in the
defunct Congress for Progressive
Change , upon losing the 2011
presidential election.
“The APC leaders have so far left no
Nigerian in doubt of their party’s
violent disposition as Gen.Buhari in
May 2012, remorselessly stated that
‘the monkey and baboon will be
soaked in blood’ should he lose the
election.
“Nigerians have also read and
heard other ricocheting calls for
violence and threats of parallel
government from other leaders of
this same party. These are not just
mere slips but incontrovertible
snips from the agenda of the APC to
sustain insurgency and set the
stage for carnage after they lose in
the 2015 general elections.”
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
