A teenage suicide bomber detonated an
explosive device strapped to her body in Damaturu, the Yobe State
capital on Tuesday, killing six people and wounding about 40, the state
police command has said.
No one claimed responsibility for the
blast but Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been blamed for a
series of similar attacks in the region in recent weeks.
Speaking to our correspondent on the
telephone, the head of Damaturu Response Office of the National
Emergency Management Agency, Bashir Idris Garga, said two bomb incidents
happened at the Central Motor park in the centre of the town and at the
Pompomari area.
According to him, the bomb incident at
the motor park occurred at about 7.30am and was caused by a teenage girl
that had an improvised explosive device (IED) strapped on her.
He said, “The girl was accosted by those
manning the entrance to the motor park and while they were trying to
search her she detonated the bomb which had a major impact on an already
loaded bus that was taking off.
“This killed four persons instantly and resulted in the injury of 22 others, six of which were critical.”
He said both the corpses and the injured had been taken to the General Hospital in Damaturu.
In the case of the bomb incident at the
Pompomari area (Pompomari bypass), Garga said a naive boy was the
courier and was accosted by a man who suspected that he might be
carrying an explosive.
The man in the process of getting the boy taken to security personnel was bombed along with the boy, Garga revealed.
Six people, including two suspected
suicide bombers, died in the two bomb explosions that occurred on
Tuesday in Damaturu, Yobe State capital.
The Yobe Police Command Public Relations
Officer, DSP Toyin Gbadegeshin, confirmed the incident to our
correspondent, saying six people including the suicide bomber died in
the blast.
Gbadegeshin said three others were in
critical conditions, while 40 others, who sustained various degrees of
injury, had been taken to hospitals in the area.
“The girl detonated the explosive at the
screening centre of the motor park gate, killing herself and four
others, including a pregnant woman and a baby.
“The other explosive went off at about
the same time with the first one at Pompomari, when a suspected male
suicide bomber, sensing he would be apprehended, ran into a nearby bush
and the explosive went off, killing him alone,” the police spokesman
said.
Meanwhile, the state Governor, Alhaji
Ibrahim Gaidam, has described the twin explosions as “callous, senseless
and condemnable,” even as he called on residents of the state to be
more prayerful and vigilant.
The governor in a statement by his
spokesman, Mallam Abdullahi Bego, said he “has been briefed on the two
suicide bomb explosions in Damaturu on Tuesday in which six people were
confirmed dead and 26 others injured.”
Bego said the governor was heartbroken
and mourned with the families of the victims of these “callous,
senseless and condemnable attacks.”
He added that the governor prayed that
Allah would “grant repose to the souls of those who died and quick
recovery to those who sustained injuries.”
The media aide revealed that the governor
had directed that injured victims be given quick and free treatment at
the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, where they were all taken to for
medical care.
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