…As Suicide Bombers Kill Another 16 In Maiduguri
Forty-two farmers from Aliero town, Aliero Local Government Area of Kebbi State have reportedly been slaughtered by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State.
Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu who confirmed this, yesterday, when he received World Health Organization (WHO) delegates at Government House on courtesy visit, said the victims went to Borno State for farming before they met their untimely death.
In a separate incident, 16 persons were killed in a suicide bomb attacks in Konduga, about 35 kilometers east of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Bagudu, who also narrated his administration’s challenges in battling epidemic diseases along Benin and Niger Republic that were brought in by the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) said all the farmers except one were killed last week.
“Just last week, I was informed by one of my Commissioner that 42 farmers who are from Aliero were slaughtered by Boko Haram in Borno. They allowed one of them to come home to say what happened to them,” he said.
The governor added that over 7,000 displaced Nigerians who crossed over to Niger Republic were recently re-deported to Kebbi State thereby compounding challenges faced by the state. While he admitted low immunisation of children against diseases in the state, Bagudu said the influx of children from Benin and Niger Republics including IDPs camps in the state posed threat to success of the exercise.
He noted that inability of his government to fully migrate 700 staff of Primary Health Care to local government councils posed threat to health delivery as only 50 of them have been fully integrated.
The governor told the team that his administration had set up committee to combat malaria and invited health outreaches from foreign countries to render free medical treatment and appealed to International agencies to increase their donations to underdeveloped countries.
Earlier, WHO representative in Nigeria, Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alenu informed the governor that they had discovered that there was low immunisation in the state and urged government to embark on routine immunisation of children against diseases.
Alenu, who commended the government for prompt releases of its counterpart funds noted that both governments and international donors must work hard to eradicate polio in the country. A suicide bomb attacks on a mini motor park in Konduga, about 35 kilometers east of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital killed 16 people and injured 82.
Commissioner of Police, Damian Chukwu confirmed to journalists in Maiduguri that a male and two female bombers approached the motor park on Tuesday evening at about 5.30pm and blew up themselves.
“They all detonated IEDs strapped to their bodies, killing themselves and 16 others while about eighty-two 82 persons were injured,” the CP disclosed.
He said victims have been evacuated to the state General Hospital while the police Explosives Ordinance Department (EOD) have been deployed in the area to render the scene and the vicinity safe.
However, hospital and emergency sources said the casualties may have risen as some corpses were discovered early yesterday morning, just as a source at the state Specialists Hospital said some of the injured were responding to treatment.
