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 .
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