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.