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• . Photo: Sun News Publishing |
Ten people were killed and nine injured yesterday evening at a drinking joint in Maiduguri when a bomb believed to have been planted by the Boko Haram men exploded.
Sources said the explosion came just after a man, who bought a soft drink at one of the shops at the popular Wulari Mammy Market left the area. Commander of the Joint Task Force, Major Gen Jack Okechukwu said five people were killed by the bomb blast while nine were injured.
Gen Okechukwu said the victims had been taken to the hospital, while the injured persons would be treated but did not give further details on the incident.
Daily Sun gathered that the incident, which occurred at about 5.30 pm yesterdaycaused panic among the residents in the area as people ran for dear lives. Soldiers were deployed to the area shortly after the blast, even as the place was condoned off immediately.
Three armoured vehicles were seen in the area with two military hilux coming from the scene of the incident when Daily Sun reporter visited the area at dusk yesterday but it could not be ascertained if the hilux buses were carrying corpses of the victims at the scene. There were over 50 troops around the area at about 6.30 pm .
Abdullahi, a resident of the area claimed the bomb exploded at the middle of the market, near one Jummai Watanda shop. “We have seen the security people evacuating victims some dead some wounded. We have also seen the soldiers open fire on a Volkswagen Golf car that refused to stop when he was asked to stop. But I really don’t have the full picture of happenings there because the soldiers have cordoned the whole area.”
Wulari Mammy Market is one of the relaxation centres of the police in the sate but it is also open to non police men and women. It has over 100 temporary shops. Yesterday’s incident marked the second time when bomb would explode in the market. In 2010, a blast was recorded in front of one of the shops at the market but no casualty was recorded.
Ealier attack on Saturday night and yesterday’s afternoon by gunmen suspected to be of Boko Haram had killed four persons and the Caretaker Chairman of Jere Local Government, Alhaji Mustapha Ba’ale respectively.
Ba’ale, who was sworn in as the Jere Local Government caretaker chairman two weeks ago was killed at about 4pm yesterday in his house at Madinatu, old Maiduguri. He had contested the Jere Federal Constituency seat in the last April poll on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP) but lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Details of his killing were sketchy as at press time yesterday.
Sources said residents of Bulabuli-Ngaranaram were shocked at the midnight upon hearing the news of the selective attacks on their neighbours believed to have been carried out by the dreaded Boko Haram men, killing three persons and leaving an ex-soldier badly injured.
“We were horrified by the attack because nobody knew when the gunmen entered the deceased houses. We only heard people crying at about 12 midnight,” a middle age man, who lives in the area told Daily Sun on phone.
He disclosed that the gun men, numbering about three might have jumped fences to enter the residences of their target, adding that nobody would have suspceted that death was lurking around the area. He said the incidents occurred between 11 pm and 12 midnight on Saturday.
The four persons killed included one Abba Panama, a local mason, his two brothers Sani Umar, 35 and Apagu Umar, 30, one Alao, while Pa Joseph, an ex-soldier managed to escape death with bullet wound. He is now receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
Speaking, wife of one of the deceased, Abba Panama disclosed that the three gunmen jumped into their compound at about 11 pm and asked everyone in the house to come out for checks. “We all came out from our rooms and they separated the men from the women. They asked if my husband would stop being a Christian and become one of them (Muslim) and my husband told them no, that he was already a Christian. Then they shot him in the head. I came out after they had left and saw my husband dead,” she disclosed amidst tears.
The mother of nine also said her 27 years old second son would have also been killed, had he not travelled out of the town, noting that her husband’s killers had turned her to a widow suddenly.
Meanwhile, one of the brothers of the Umars said he suspected his brother;s killers were the sect members, who owed him (the deceased) money on petrol, which he sold to them before the 2009 uprising.
According to him: “My brother had told me sometime ago that some of his business associates were those suspected to be Boko Haram men and that since after the attack in 2009, most of them ran away without paying him the money they owed.
“He also told me about three months ago that some of them came back and paid him the money, while some did not pay.” He said he believed the killers were those who did not pay.
Daily Sun gathered reliably that the news of the attack came as a surprise to the men of the Joint Task Force, who had been stationed in every part of the metropolis to keep eyes on the sect.
Source said the gunmen might have used pillows for the killing to disallow the sound of the gunshots from attracting the attention of the security operatives and residents of the area.
Operation Officer of the JTF, Col Victor Ebhaleme confirmed the killing of Pa Joseph but expressed shock that the troop did not hear gunshots. He disclosed that some suspected members of the sect had been arrested and were being interrogated.
(Excerpts from Sunnewspaper)
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