As violence continued in some parts
of Kaduna State on Monday and fresh attacks were reported in Damaturu, Yobe
State, President Goodluck Jonathan, will depart for Brazil today.
Jonathan is going to the Brazilian
commercial capital city, Rio de Janeiro, to take part in this year’s United
Nations’ Earth Summit.
While in Rio de Janeiro, Jonathan is
expected to participate in the summit’s four plenary sessions at Rio Centro
Convention Centre on Wednesday and Thursday. He will also attend a reception
hosted by the Brazilian President for Heads of Government at the summit.
The President is expected to travel
with his wife, Patience; Governors Ibrahim Shema and Seriake Dickson of Katsina
and Bayelsa states respectively.
Other people on the President’s
entourage are the Ministers of Environment, Mrs Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafiya; Water
Resources, Mrs Sarah Ohekpe; Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga; and
Senator Benedict Ayade.
However, while the President will be
in the South American country, security forces will be working to contain the
crisis in Kaduna State where the death toll in Sunday’s multiple bombing and
consequent reprisal is said to have risen to 74.
Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday, officials of the Red
Cross said that 140 victims of the attacks had been taken to hospitals for
treatment. Some of the hospitals where the victims are being treated are the
Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital, Shika; Barau Dikko Hospital,
Kaduna; St. Luke’s Hospital, Wusasa; and St. Gerard’s Catholic Hospital,
Kakuri.
Three churches were attacked by
suicide bombers on Sunday, triggering reprisals by Christian youths.
Unconfirmed reports on Monday say
there were skirmishes at the Barnawa market area of the state,
occupied mainly by Muslims. Soldiers and policemen patrolled the streets to
maintain peace. Also in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, there was pandemonium
on Monday as explosions and gunshots rocked the city.
Reports indicate that the attacks
believed to have been launched by members of the Boko Haram sect started at the
Sabon Pegi area of the city in the evening.
An unconfirmed report says that the
gunmen attempted to take over the government house, and the Potiskum Prison.
Channels TV reports that the Joint Task Force Commander in the state,
Col. Dahiru Abdulsalam, said his men had moved into the town and the situation
had been brought under control.
Our correspondent on Monday reported
that hundreds of Kaduna residents besieged various hospitals in the state in
search of their relatives caught in the attacks.
Medical personnel and workers at the
St. Gerard Catholic Hospital and the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, reports
say had hectic time treating scores of people that sustained various degrees of
injuries even as they coped with worried relatives in search of their loved
ones.
Spokesman for the St.Gerard Catholic
Hospital, Mr. John Ali, said that the number of victims who died in the
hospital had risen to 39 while those who sustained injuries and were being
treated in the hospital were 72.
Ali said the corpses had been
evacuated by the state government.
A source who did not want his name
mentioned told our correspondent at the Barau Dikko Specialist
Hospital that 12 deaths were recorded while two others were
receiving treatment in the hospital.
At ABUTH, a worker who did not want
his name in print said the number of dead victims at the hospital was 32.
Suleiman Mani, a 20-year-old wood
cutter, said he was cutting firewood when a resident of the area
told him to leave the work and go away because the town was not safe.
Narrating how he was attacked, Mani
said, “They hit me again and I fell down. The wanted to cut my head but the
machete landed on my hand as I tried to protect myself. They carried a big
stone and wanted to drop it on my head, but one woman who is also my customer
came to intervene as I lay on the ground.
“They wanted to beat her but one man
came and intervened and they took me on a bike to this hospital.”
Another victim, Aliyu Musa, 27, who
is a commercial motorcyclist, said he was attacked at the Sabon Tasha area of
the state.
“I just dropped a passenger and I was
going back when I saw some people stopping motorbikes. They stopped many of us
and asked us to lie down and started beating us and smashing blocks on us.
“They said that they will kill
us because Boko Haram is killing Christians. They beat me so much that I became
unconscious. I don’t even know how I got here,” he said
A photo journalist with Daily
Independent Newspaper, Mr. Nathaniel Jibrin, said, “My colleague from Thisday
newspaper called me that there was bomb blast in Trikania, and that he was
going there to take pictures. It was not long I closed from the Church,
so immediately I picked a commercial motorcycle and headed for the place, but
somewhere within the area, some people stopped us.
“I cannot remember what they were
saying, all of a sudden I found myself on the ground, with blood flowing all
over my body. It was two good Samaritans that brought me to this hospital.
Thank God I am getting better.”
Meanwhile, tension rose in the Kaduna
metropolis on Monday as the state government relaxed the 24 hours curfew
imposed on the state following the outbreak of violence on Sunday.