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.”




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