With yesterday’s bomb explosion at a Redeemed Christian Church of God in Potiskum Town, Yobe State by a suspected male suicide bomber killing six persons, death of innocent Nigerians from Boko Haram attack reached an alarming 445 since May 29 inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari on a platform of wiping out the insurgency that had claimed 15,000 lives.
Confirming yesterdays blast the Police Public Relations Officer in Yobe, Toyin Gbadegesin, said the attack happened during church service and that the confirmed dead six persons included the suicide bomber.
Gbadegesin, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said: “A male suicide bomber detonated a bomb at Redeemed Church at Jigawa area of Potisum Killing five on the spot. A female member of the church who sustained injuries also died while receiving treatment in the hospital”.
Responding to the most recent attack, President Muhammadu Buhari called on world leaders to forge bigger consensus against the menace of terrorism even as he condemns the Thursday massacre of innocent citizens in Borno State.
This is because the President believes that no country can afford to be indifferent to the threats of terrorism because of its pervasive and destructive nature.
The President stated this while condemning the latest waves of terrorists attacks in North Eastern part of Nigeria and the killing of about 70 Soldiers including the Attorney General of Egypt, describing the actions as most inhuman and barbaric.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina disclosed that President Buhari considers the murder by the terrorists of up to 150 innocent men, women and children in Kukawa, “a very heinous atrocity which must be unreservedly condemned by all people of conscience.
“The President believes that these last desperate acts of fleeing agents of terrorism underscore the urgent need to bring to early fruition the efforts of his government to form a more effective international coalition against insurgency and terrorism in Nigeria and neighbouring countries”.
President Buhari therefore, urged Muslims in Nigeria and across the world to reject with one voice the attackers’ claim to be acting in the name of Islam, and tell the terrorists to stop the abasement of their religion.
For Potiskum this would be the second attack since May 29, soon after the June 15 attack by suicide bombers, killing 10 persons and injuring several others.
However, not long after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, Boko Haram has made it a trade mark to make deadly strikes as though to remind the president that the counter-insurgency measure adopted so far are not far reaching enough. Part of these measures include relocation of the Military Command to the heart of Boko Haram attack, Maiduguri in Borno State, the multilateral military alliance between Nigeria and neighbouring states of Cameroun, Niger, Chad and the support of G-7 industrialised countries.
On May 30, a day after Buhari’s inauguration, a suicide bomber struck at a mosque in Maiduguri during the afternoon prayer session killing at least 16 people. On the same day, suspected Boko Haram insurgents fired rocket propelled grenades into Dala Lawanti, west of the city, killing about 13 people. Boko Haram’s archipelago of atrocities continued into the second week of Buhari’s government.
On June 2, an improvised explosive device (IED) concealed in a butcher’s table detonated, killing about 30 people at a busy meat market in Maiduguri. Not fazed, the sect struck again the next day, June 3. An IED, the accustomed death device of the insurgents, detonated killing 4 people at a military check-point in Baga, Borno State. And on June 4, a suicide bomber hit Jimeta main market in Yola, Adamawa State, killing at least 50 innocents victims.
Then every week in June, the bombs kept booming with the intensity. On June 7 Boko Haram’s attacks ossified as it unleashed another blood-shiver on a popular “cow market” in Maiduguri, killing an unspecified number of people.
However, in a failed mission on June 11, three female suicide bombers desperate to carry out attacks in Bauchi died by the device of their own hands. Explosives strapped on their bodies detonated prematurely on a highway leading to the city before they could reach their target.
Then on June 15, multiple blasts killed about 11 people at Potiskum in Yobe State, mostly police officers and members of the local vigilante group, who were trying to stop a man carrying an IED and heading for the Potiskum market. This was followed on June 17 with an accidental explosion that killed 15 persons in Monguno.
After a few days’ hiatus, Boko Haram struck at a fish market on June 22. This time, two female suicide bombers disguised as beggars detonated their explosive-laden bodies at the market, killing at least 30 people.
And on June 23, a suicide bomber killed about 15 people at a market at Wagir in Gubja Local Government of Yobe State.
On June 24, the insurgents killed 40 persons in a raid on Borno villages.
On June 27, Boko Haram terrorists on a tricycle had while attempting to gain entry into the Molai General Hospital in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital detonated an improvise explosive device, IED, killing 3 security guards at the gate, as well as 2 of the suicide bombers.
On June 30, 48 were killed in Mussaram I and Mussaram II near Monguno, where the terrorists first descended on Muslim worshippers in various mosques who were observing the Magrib prayers shortly after breaking their fast, they spared nobody and they even took time out to set most of the corpses on fire.
Undeterred by the injunction of the Holy Month of Ramadam, the terrorists’ committed sacrilege by opening July with a deadly attack on July 1, killing 98 persons in Kukawa village. The terrorist surrounded the entire Kukawa village and started shooting sporadically at the time the Muslims fateful were about to break their fast for the day.
And on July 2, 11 persons were killed at Malari Village along Bama/ Konduga Highway when two female suicide bombers, in two separate attacks, struck at Malari village and Allau Dam road along Bama/Konduga Highway, Borno State.
After 48hrs of killing the 98 Nigerians in Kukawa, the terrorists on July 3, killed 54 killed in Mussa Village, Askira-Uba LG including a former council Chairman. The terrorists were said to be running away from assault by Nigerian troops before coming to the village. As at last count, 445 persons have died in Boko Haram attacks since May 29.
Expectedly, ending the insurgency has become the focus of the Buhari government, but as of now it appears there is nothing stopping the bombs from “booming”.
It would be recalled that there was another bomb explosion last week when the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo paid official visit to Maiduguri on assessment tour to the region to find out ways the Federal Government can rehabilitate the insurgency devastated North East region of the country.
According to the Vice President, “President Buhari instructed me to visit the IDPs and re-assess their level of devastation. I am to assess their feeding condition, shelter and whether they have been properly taken care of and to report back to him”.
He added, “I want to assure you that the rehabilitation process will commence immediately after these reports are presented to the President”.
-The Union
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