Suicide bombers kill scores in Maiduguri multiple blasts

Maiduguri was thrown into pandemonium on Thursday evening, coinciding with the nation’s 55th Independence anniversary, as multiple bomb explosions disrupted the relative peace in the town.

It was gathered that over four suicide bombers attacked the town at about 7.15pm.

A source told our correspondent on the telephone that the attackers entered the Borno State capital at about 7pm from the Zajeri area and spread to other locations marked as targets.

A resident of one of the areas, Yusuf Imam, said one of the suicide attackers targeted a roadside teaseller, where an explosion killed no fewer than 10 persons.

Another blast was said to have targetted the home of the leader of the youth vigilance group in the area.

During the attack on the vigilance group leader’s house, five persons were said to have been killed while the leader was reported to have sustained injuries.

Imam said two other attacks were targeted at other areas of Zajeri with an unspecified number of people killed.

He said the casualties could have been higher but for the soldiers who came to the rescue of the people of the area and were able to gun down two persons believed to be members of the suicide bombers.

These two were said to have delayed in detonating their explosive devices but after being shot by the soldiers, there were blasts from the bombs strapped on them.

The spokesman for the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Col, Tukur Gusau, said there was no attack on the town, explaining that the explosions were heard from the testing of military equipment.

He said, “There is no cause for alarm. We are testfiring our weapons for night operations efficiency.”