Gunmen suspected of beingBoko Haram Islamists killed a dozen people when they razed a policestation after failing to storm a jail in Gombe, police said yesterday.
The city was put under lock-down, with no residentsallowed to leave their homes, after the gun and bomb attacks in abotched attempt to free inmates, just as there was a bomb scare inthe residence of a minister in Abuja.
“The gunmen hadattempted to break into the prison near the police station and theirattempt was unsuccessful, but they succeeded in burning down thepolice station,” police chief for Gombe State Gandhi EbikemeOrubebe told AFP.
“So far 12 people have been killed in thebomb and shooting attack, 10 of them were civilians and twopolicemen,” he said, adding that the police station had beenblown up with bombs.
Eye witnesses said over 40explosions went off about the same time in the town, saying it was acoordinated attack. They said they counted 14 bodies.
The dead bodies of tenpolice men and four civilians, according to them, were sighted at theGombe State Specialist Hospital around 8 a.m., yesterday, while morevictims and corpses were being received in the hospital and otherhealth facilities in the town.
It was also gathered thatsome of the explosions went off while Muslims were observing the 8p.m. prayers at the Gombe Central Mosque situated at the largepremises of Emir of Gombe Palace, adjacent the police division, thescene of the explosion.
A resident of the city,Mallam Adamu, who spoke on phone, said that many people thought thata civil war had ensued when the explosions were heard.
Meanwhile, Governor IbrahimHassan Dankwambo declared a 24-hour curfew in the state.
Dankwambo called for calmand prayers just as he pleaded with the people to be law abiding. Healso sympathized with the families of those who lost their lives andthose that sustained injuries.
The capital city witnessedunusual calm and silence and streets remained completely desertedfollowing the curfew while only police and military personnel wereseen carrying out their duties.
The incident caused acomplete lock down of all business activities in the town.
On January 5, Boko Haramattacked a Deeper Life Church in Gombe killing over 10 persons andleaving over 20 others critical wounded.
Just when the people hadthought that Gombe was becoming safe and peaceful, the explosionsoccurred, Friday night, reminding the people of the uglyincident. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.Islamist sect Boko Haram last week said it was behind a prison raidin central Kogi State, near the capital Abuja, which freed 119inmates.
Boko Haram, blamed for a wave of recent raids in northernand central Nigeria, has repeatedly claimed its members are beingillegally held in state prisons and demanded their release.
Manyof Boko Haram’s recent attacks have targeted the police, butsuspected members of the sect also gunned down five worshipers insidea mosque on Friday as evening prayers ended in Kano.
Boko Haram’sviolent campaign has intensified in recent months and, on Thursday,Nigeria’s top military chief said the group had formed links withAl-Qaeda’s north Africa branch, known as Al-Qaeda in the IslamicMaghreb.
“I have seen at least 14 burnt bodies in and aroundthe police station,” a witness in Gombe said earlier oncondition of anonymity.
He said he counted 10 bodies inside thepolice building, while four others were found dead in a burned outcar outside the station.
Orubebe said the prison raiders were”repelled by our men guarding the place, then they came to onepolice station and fired a lot of guns and also threw bombs.” BokoHaram, whose name means “Western education is sin” in theHausa language, had previously targeted Christian worshipers inGombe.
The sect launched an uprising in 2009 in Africa’s mostpopulous nation, which was put down by a brutal military assault thatleft some 800 people dead.
After lying dormant for about a year,the group has re-emerged with a series of shootings and bomb attacksthat have killed around 1,000 people. Its deadliest assault left 185people dead in Kano last month.
The group also claimedresponsibility for a Christmas Day bomb attack on a Catholic Churchoutside the capital Abuja that claimed at least 44 lives, and asuicide blast at UN headquarters in the city that killed 25 inAugust.
Bomb scare
Inthe meantime, there was pandemonium in Abuja, yesterday, following abomb scare at a private residence of the Federal Capital TerritoryMinister, Senator Bala Mohammed, located at Garki II area of theterritory, when two unidentified youths reportedly dropped anundisclosed item inside a car parked at a private hospital directlyopposite the minister’s residence.
Eyewitnesses said the twoyouths, who drove into the street in the evening in an exotic car,walked into the hospital on the street where they broke thewindscreen of a car belonging to a patient and parked inside thehospital, dropping a substance wrapped in a black polythene baginside the car and bolted away.
The resultant alarm from thedamaged car attracted its owner and other residents in the area who,on sighting the substance inside the car, scampered for fear that itcould be a bomb. Their fears were heightened by the fact that theinvaders immediately drove away after planting the unknown substancein the car.
An eyewitness said within minutes, the whole streetwas deserted as everyone ran for their lives, including the team ofmobile policemen guarding the minister’s residence, and sickpatients inside the hospital.
Shortly after, a police team fromthe anti-bomb unit arrived and sniffed the scene for bombs, afterwhich they made away with yet unidentified substance. The entirestreet was subsequently cordoned by policemen.
When contacted onthe incident, the FCT police public relations officer, Jimoh Moshood,declined to comment on the matter, saying “I am not aware of thatincident”, in spite of reports that his boss FCT commissionerof police, Michael Zuokumor, later visited the residence of theminister, who is currently on official assignment in China, toascertain that all was well
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