More than 36 dead,several injured as explosions rock Biu

There was multiple bomb explosions in Biu, the biggest town in south
of the troubled Borno State on Tuesday, a resident of the town,
Ibrahim Isah, said on the telephone.
Though details of the explosions remain sketchy as the extent of
damages and number of casualty could not be ascertained on Tuesday
afternoon, Isah said the incident occurred at about noon.
He insisted that it was massive and might have led to huge loss of lives.
A member of youth vigilante, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
on the telephone to a source, said the incident happened at a
neighbourhood known as Yamarkumi along Maiduguri Road.
"There were three explosions in Yamarkumi here in Biu town. Many
people have been affected; the casualty figure from what we are seeing
now have surpassed that of the market suicide bombing that occurred on
Thursday. Ambulances are rushing in and out for now. We will give you
details later, "another health worker told the source.
Firstclassnewsline.net
However, one medical source at the General Hospital, Biu told AFP that
36 people were killed while 20 were injured in the blast.
Effort to get a confirmation of the incident from the Police and
military authorities failed. But a security source at the 7th Division
of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, an Army captain, whose name could not
be published as he was not authorised to speak to the press, said the
matter had been reported and the military operatives were already
embarking on a full scale action in the area.
Meanwhile, the Boko Haram insurgents have burnt down the palace of the
Emir of Askira in Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, the
spokesman for the youth vigilante group, Jubrin Gunda, said on
Tuesday.
Speaking to our correspondent on the telephone from Maiduguri, the
state capital, Gunda said the palace was attacked by the insurgents on
Sunday night.
He said during the Sunday's attack the palace was razed by the sect's fighters.
He lamented that after beating a retreat on Sunday, the insurgents
came back to Askira on Monday morning to continue their reign of
terror as they burnt down some other houses and killed many residents
of the town.
He said, "As of now, I cannot tell you the number of people killed but
all I can say is that the palace of the emir was razed on Sunday by
the insurgents at night, they equally returned to burn more houses in
the town on Monday morning."
"At the moment, they are not in the town as they have fled back into
the bushes and as such you cannot say the town was captured."
Firstclassnewsline.net