Scenes of the Bauchi and Gombe bomb attacks
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.”
