Boko haram kills 50 after shouting Sai Buhari

Firstclass newsline learnt that Prior to the explosion at the popular
Kasuwan Shanu (meat market), residents were rudely woken up at 12:45am
on Monday by gunshots that boomed in parts of the city till 2pm.
No official reason was given by the military authorities for the
gunshots which many of the residents feared were fired by advancing
Boko Haram insurgents.
But when business and other activities were peaking in the city , a
bomb went off in the meat market, sending cattle rustlers, butchers,
their customers and passersby scampering to safety.
Although theNews Agency of Nigeriaquoted the state Commissioner of
Police, Aderemi Opadokun, as saying that five people died in the
blast, Reuters reported 50.
Opadokun said the suspect, "who was shouting "Sai Buhari,'' danced
close to an abattoir in the market, before detonating the bomb
strapped to his body when people had gathered around him.
''Five people, including himself, died, while eight others sustained
injuries,'' he said, adding that policemen were mobilised to the
scene to evacuate the corpses and convey the injured to the hospital.
But Reuters quoted a witness as claiming that "as many as 50 people
were killed.''
It added that Lawal Kawu, a paramedic, said 31 charred bodies were
taken to a teaching hospital in Maiduguri.
Abubakar Mohammed, a college student, also told the news agency that
he had to run away after the blast shook their school building.
A member of the youth vigilante group, who spoke on condition of
anonymity with a source , however said that the suspect dropped a bag
under a table in a stall with an excuse that he wanted to pick up
something somewhere.
He added shortly after he left, the bomb he hid in the bag went off.
The spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency,
North-East, AbdulKadir Ibrahim, put the death toll at 17 while his
Red Cross counterpart in Borno State, Umar Sadiq, said 13.
"Our men working to evacuate the dead corpses have revealed that no
fewer than 17 persons were killed by the explosion, But I cannot give
the number of those injured, " Ibrahim said.
He explained that officials of NEMA and humanitarian agencies
were "still taking the injured to Umaru Shehu General Hospital,
Maiduguri."
But Sadiq said 24 were injured.
The spokesman for the youth vigilante group, Jubrin Gunda,who shed
light on the Monday night gunshots, said, "just like a few days back,
the insurgents tried to invade the town via the same spot, Ajilari
Cross, but they were repelled by the military.
"The insurgents who seem determined to invade Maiduguri were driven
back by the battle-ready soldiers."
He added,"As far as I am concerned, there was no casualty as the
militants were successfully repelled. There was exchange of gunfire
too but the insurgents quickly fled back when they saw that the
military were on the alert."
There were two bomb attacks on the city at the weekend that killed at
least 30 people.
Meanwhile, the nation's service chiefs will in a few days work out the
modalties for the relocation of military's Command Centre to
Maiduguri as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari in his inaugural
speech on Friday.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice- Admiral Usman Jibrin, disclosed this
after the first meeting the military chiefs held with Buhari at the
Defence House, Abuja on Tuesday.
"On the relocation of the command centre, we are the ones to go back
and work on it. Soon it will be carried out, it is a presidential
directive, it must be carried out, and we must do that as quickly as
possible," he told journalists who wanted to know the details of the
meeting held behind closed doors.
Usman said they used the opportunity of the meeting to give Buhari
security briefing of the country.
He said they succeeded in giving the President insight into the
security situation in the country.
The CNS explained that it was the desire of the service chiefs to
maintain the tempo with a view to sustaining the successes so far
recorded until insurgents were completely routed.
He however appealed to all Nigerians to continue to support the
military by providing operatives with the needed intelligence.
The information, he said, should include suspicious movements around them.
"You know as we continue to put pressure on them in the Sambisa area,
they will try to run away from there and then create further problems,
using improvised explosive devices," he said.
Reminded that the terrorists were becoming more daring, he said,"Like
I told you, we are sustaining the tempo and the successes we have
recorded so far. We want to continue to maintain that and if there are
any suggested solutions that require amendments or alteration of what
we're doing, why not? Most especially the more they give us the
intelligence, the better."
Others who attended the meeting were the Chief of Defence Staff,
Alex Badeh; the Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah; the Chief of
Air Staff, Adesola Amosun; and the Inspector-General of Police,
Solomon Arase.
In Motokun, Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State, a clash
between the residents and Fulani herdsmen led to the death of five
people.
A source told journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday that some people were
also wounded during the incident which was confirmed by the LGA
Chairman, Uthman Ndako.
Ndako added that with the intervention of security operatives normalcy
had returned to the troubled community.
According to him the council as well as the Patigi Emirate Council led
by Etsu Patigi, Ibrahim Umar, had peace meetings with leaders of the
Fulani herdsmen and elders of the community to forestall further
hostilities.
He said, "We have on standby, riot policemen now in Patigi. Our
council is peaceful now. Presently Patigi is calm; the neighbouring
village is also calm."
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Okasanmi Ajayi, "I
cannot tell you the actual number of people that died. People were
also injured.
"But the place is now calm and people are going about their normal businesses.
"We are investigating to know the immediate and remote causes of the
violence and how to prevent future clashes."
Firstclassnewsline.net