Maiduguri bombing: Death toll rises to 43

Death toll in Tuesday’s bomb attack on Maiduguri,
the Borno State capital, has risen from 30 to 43.
Also, about three hours after the Maiduguri
incident, gunmen suspected to be members of the
Boko Haram sect invaded another village in the
state and killed five people.
A mortuary attendant at the Borno State
Specialists Hospital, Maiduguri where the corpses
were deposited, who pleaded anonymity because
he was not allowed to talk to the press on the
incident, said he counted 43 corpses brought to the
hospital’s morgue after the explosion on Tuesday.
The attendant said, “Please, do not mention my
name but let me tell you that 43 mangled and burnt
corpses were brought in at different times on
Tuesday.”
Efforts by journalists to enter the hospital’s
mortuary were frustrated by security men and the
management of the health institution.
The hospital was heavily guided and visitors and
relations of the victims were not given easy
access to the mortuary.
It was however observed that many injured
victims were receiving treatment at various wards
in the State Specialists Hospital and the University
of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
Security men have also cordoned off the scene of
the blast thereby restricting human and vehicular
movements in the area.
The state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who
was not in the state when the explosion happened
on Tuesday, visited the scene on Wednesday.
Shettima could not however control his emotion as
he shed tears.
The governor, who was consoled by his aides,
was silent all through the visit. He could not even
utter a word to journalists.
Shettima, who had earlier planned a state- wide
broadcast, had to postpone it to go to Abuja to brief
President Goodluck Jonathan about the incident.
It was learnt that the broadcast might hold on
Thursday (today).
At Tuba village of Ladin Buta ward of Mafa Local
Government Area of the state, four members of a
vigilance group including a civilian JTF who had
been assisting the security operatives in the fight
against Boko Haram, were reportedly killed.
Another civilian, who was shot in the stomach by
the gunmen, reportedly died while receiving
treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri on Wednesday.
Mafa is about 40 kilometres north of Maiduguri, the
state capital, which had experienced series of
attacks and killings in recent past.
An eyewitness, Tijjani Mohammed, in a telephone
chat with our correspondent said the incident took
place at about 5.30pm on Tuesday when some
gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members
riding on motorcycles opened fire on residents
who were relaxing under a tree.
“We were sitting in front of our house when we
saw a motorcyclist with one person at the back,
initially we thought he was an Okada Rider , (a
commercial motorcycle operator) but all of a
sudden, on reaching their target, they started
shooting. We ran away for our dear lives, but by
the time we came back we met the victims dead in
the pool of their blood as a result of the gunshot
injuries. We alerted security operatives who later
came to our rescue,” Mohammed said.
When contacted, the Spokesman of the 7 Division
of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Mohammed Dole,
said he was not aware of the Tuba incident.