Credit: CKN Nigeria
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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