At least three persons were confirmed dead in two separate suicide bomb attacks that occurred in Maiduguri on Wednesday morning, security sources said.
But for the vigilance and sacrifice of security operatives, more casualties, mostly civilians would have been recorded, witnesses said.
According to a chieftain of the local vigilante, Civilian-JTF, Danbatta Bello, at about midnight, a male suicide bomber was shot dead from an observatory by a military sniper after he was spotted advancing towards a security check post manned by soldiers in Usmanti layout of Maiduguri.
At about 5.30 a.m. another deafening blast echoed in Maiduguri as another suicide bomber, a teenage girl, blew herself up after members of the Civilian-JTF, stopped her from advancing towards a mosque where Muslim worshippers were praying.
The female suicide bomber died alongside one member of the Civilian-JTF that tried to stop her. Two others were injured.
Mr. Bello informed Sources that rescue officials have evacuated the victims from the sites.
“We are just leaving the site of the second blast now, and everything is calm now”, he said.
“We heard the first explosion about some few minutes after midnight but soldiers were able to stop him from carrying out his attack when they shot him near the security check post in Usmanti. His bombs went off not quite 50 meters away from the sandbags at the check post as soon as the soldier sitting on top of a security observation post shot at him,” Mr. Bello said.
“The second one was a young girl who was trying to attack worshippers in a mosque during the early morning prayer time at about 5.30am. Some of our boys tried to stop her so she decided to detonate the bomb, which killed her and one of our members. Two others were injured by the explosion as well”.
Police spokesman, Victor Isuku, confirmed the incident and promised to provide more details at a press briefing by the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Damian Chukwu.
