No fewer than 30 persons, over the weekend, were killed in Borno, Plateau, Kano and Benue states.
The deaths came on the heels of the massacre of at least 200 people in the Yelewata community, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that the killing spree started on Friday morning in Borno’s central town of Konduga, where a female suicide bomber murdered no fewer than 12 people.
Also, a mob attacked and killed eight wedding-bound travellers from Zaria in Kaduna State in the Mangun District of the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State on Friday evening. These happened as a former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chairman and Commander of the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Services, NHFSS, in Tarka Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue State, Aondoakaa Yayough, was assassinated by gunmen on Friday night.
Similarly, a deadly bomb explosion, which killed at least five people and left 10 others injured, occurred at the Yongxing Steel Company, located along Ring Road in the Mariri Quarters area of Kano State capital yesterday.
While residents said the Borno bomber sneaked into the midst of dozens of fruits, vegetables, roasted meat sellers and other consumables, at a local trading area along the major road which passes through the town to neighbouring Bama town, preliminary investigations confirmed that the Plateau victims lost their way en route to the Quan’pan Local Government Area, and residents mistook them for a threat.
Confirming the Kano incident, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Adamu Ibrahim, said: “I received a call about the incident that had happened. When I arrived, I found that it was a suspected explosion, possibly EOD, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, personnel on a military mortar bomb that exploded. Fifteen people were affected and rushed to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. I found out that five died and 10 were receiving treatment.”
The statement clarified that the explosion occurred during the offloading of scrap metal at the factory. The police, upon receiving a distress call from the company’s Marketing Manager, Mr Ibrahim Udazu, immediately deployed personnel and equipment to secure the scene and avert further damage.
“Personnel from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, as well as the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Wears team, successfully recovered seven suspected explosive devices without additional injuries,” Abdullahi noted.
Although the origin of the mortar remains unclear, preliminary findings suggested the explosive might have been unintentionally transported alongside other scrap materials from Yobe State.
