A power bike belonging to a police escort hit by the blast.
rammed into the convoy of the Commissioner of Police in Jalingo early today, killing at
least two civilians, including himself.
•Okada riders killed this morning during the Jalingo bomb blast. Photo: Ben Adaji.
But the police officer escaped unharmed.
Some accounts said no fewer than 10 people died, but there was no official
confirmation of the figure.
The explosion, which injured many people, resonated around the usually calm town,
which is the capital of the north eastern state of Taraba.
An eyewitness said the bomb explosion occurred at the Government
House roundabout when the suicide bomber rammed into the convoy of the state
Commissioner of Police, Sule Mamani, who was passing through the area to his
office at about 9 a.m.
As at press time, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at Federal Medical
Centre, Jalingo were working feverishly to save the lives of the injured victims.
The explosion, which is the first since the incident of Boko Haram bombings in many
parts of the North forced the residents of Jalingo to run helter skelter.
Security operatives comprising the army and police have been moved to the scene of
the bombing and investigation has commenced into the incident.
While the commissioner of police and his convoy escaped narrowly the bomb attack,
his official vehicle, a new model of BMW car, in which he was driving, was badly
damaged and his pilot rider was badly injured and he is one of the victims receiving
treatment in the hospital.
Taraba’s police authorities confirmed three persons dead. Spokesman, Ibiang Mbaseki
told AFP: “the bomber died with two others, who were passersby.
Meanwhile, to commiserate with the families of victims who lost their lives when Bayero University, BUK, Kano, Kano State, Northwest Nigeria, was bombed yesterday, authorities of the University have declared today as a day of mourning.
A power bike belonging to a police escort hit by the blast.
The spokesman of BUK, Mustapha Zahradeen confirmed this morning to our
correspondent the position of the university.
He said the institution will be mourning throughout the day and as such there will be no
lectures or work.
The corpse of Professor Andrew Leo Ogbonyomi, an indigene of Kogi State who died
in the bomb attack is still in the mortuary. His colleague, Professor Jerome Ayodele
Faniyi from Ekiti State is alive but was injured during the explosion.
Yesterday morning, 16 persons including Prof. Leo Ogbonyemi were killed while
Christians were worshipping at a lecture theatre at Bayero University, Kano.
Several people were injured and were later rushed to the hospital.
The Christians were first attacked with gunshots which was followed by Improvised
Explosive Device, IED, which was thrown into the hall by unknown assailants believed
to be members of Boko Haram.
The victims included lecturers, students, non-academic staff of BUK and worshippers.
In another attack, Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram killed four people at a Sunday
church service in the northeast town of Maiduguri, police said on Monday, adding to the
death toll from a separate shooting in the country’s second largest city Kano.
Gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded many more at a Christian service in
Kano on Sunday, the latest round of violence which has seen hundreds killed in the
mostly-Muslim north of Nigeria this year.
No group took responsibility for either attack and it was not clear if they were
coordinated. But both strikes bore the hallmarks of the Boko Haram sect, which has
used bomb and gun attacks in its push to carve out an Islamic state in Africa’s most
populous nation.
“Boko Haram who were six in number came in a Volkswagen Golf car and shot the
pastor and three others while they were about to administer the Holy Communion to
worshippers,” Maiduguri police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said.
Maiduguri is the capital of northeast Borno state, Boko Haram’s home region and the
location of the majority of its attacks, which mostly target the police and military but
have also hit churches and drinking spots.
In the attack in Kano on Sunday, gunmen arrived on motorbikes at a university lecture
theatre used for Christian services and threw small homemade bombs into the building
before shooting fleeing worshippers. nL5E8FT05E
“President Goodluck Jonathan condemns the murderous terrorist attack on the Bayero
University Campus in Kano yesterday and the brutal killing of innocent worshippers at
the University by vicious assailants,” a presidency statement said.
Jonathan has been criticized by Nigerians and foreign diplomats for failing to get a grip
on the sect’s wave of violence, which has gained momentum since his presidential
election victory a year ago.
Most of Boko Haram’s attacks focus on authority figures it believes have wronged the
group by arresting or killing its members.
Nigeria’s more than 160 million population is split roughly equally between a largely
Christian south and a mostly Muslim north.
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