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20 persons
were feared dead and 56 others injured when a female suicide bomber detonated a
bomb at an ICT market in Azare, Bauchi State, on Sunday.
Confirming
the incident, the Bauchi Police Public Relations Officer, however, said he was
yet to ascertain the number of casualties, but those who were injured had been
rushed to hospitals.
Also an
eyewitness told AFP: “A suicide bomber came into the market as it was closing
and blew herself up in the middle of all the merchants and their customers.”
“I saw at
least eight dead and lots of others wounded,” another witness, Aliyu Habib,
told AFP.
The blast, checks
revealed, occurred at 5.30 pm at the market in the town, known as Kasuwan
Jagol, where people, particularly young men, sell and repair handsets and other
IT accessories. The market is attached to the stadium at Unguwan Gabas.
A resident
Babale Musa, who spoke on the phone, said the explosion was devastating as
Sunday is market day in Azare, which is the commercial nerve centre of the
northern part of Bauchi State.
According to
him, many people were injured in the incident, adding that the injured were
rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in the town.
“It is
unfortunate, this is the third time a bomb has been detonated in Azare in one
month. Just penultimate Friday, there was an explosion at the ATM in First Bank
of Nigeria Plc premises. Today again we experienced another one,” Musa said
Also
speaking, the lawmaker representing Azare/Madagali in the Bauchi State House of
Assembly, Baba Abubakar Suleiman, stated that though he was out of town,
hospital sources informed him that 12 people died in the incident, while 46
others sustained varying degrees of injuries.
Suleiman,
while lamenting that the explosion was the third to occur in the town in a
month, expressed surprised that this was happening to Azare now, saying that
despite the various check points leading into the town, bombers still found
their way into the town to carry out their attacks.
He called on
the federal government to intervene and end the insurgency in the North-east.
Efforts to
get the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State Command, proved abortive at the
time of filing this report.