Four suspected suicide bombers die in explosion in Borno

Four suicide bombers on Sunday died few kilometres to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in an unsuccessful operation, as their vehicle exploded prematurely, the information officer of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, told one of our correspondents.

Suicide Bomber, Boko Haram

Ibrahim, the information officer of the agency in Maiduguri, in a text message to one of our correspondents on Sunday stated that there was an “aborted suicide bomb attack at Njimtilo today (Sunday), October25, 2015.

“The four suicide bombers came in a car (golf) around some minutes past 1.20pm. The car presumably exploded before they reached their target.

“All the four suicide bombers on board died. No innocent soul was lost. No casualty recorded. Their remains had been deposited in the mortuary at Borno State Specialist Hospital.”

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has differed with the Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, over territories controlled by Boko Haram, saying that no single Nigerian territory is still under the control of the insurgents.

Shettima had said that two local governments in the state were still under the control of the insurgents.

The governor had, while receiving the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawan, who led a six-man committee inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari to pay condolence visits to Borno and Adamawa states after suicide attacks at their mosques last Friday, said, “They (Boko Haram) are presently controlling two local governments in Borno State; Abadam and Mobbar, and partially in Marte.”

But the Chief of Army Staff, who spoke with journalists shortly after addressing troops at the headquarters of 3 Division, Marxwel Khobe Cantonment in Jos late on Saturday, differed with the governor and insisted that the military had recovered all territories previously under the terrorists’ enclave.

He said that the sect had been routed from all their enclaves, saying that if it were not so, the sect would have been boasting and making claims.

Burutai said, “It is not true. No Boko Haram is holding any territory. Have you heard them (Boko Haram) making any claim of recent? We are more determined and we have more professional soldiers on the ground. We have been trained and equipped and ready to face the challenge posed by them.”

Four suspected suicide bombers die in explosion in Borno