A female suicide bomber, believed to be member of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, early hours of Friday, attacked oil deport belonging to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The bomber died immediately, while 3 tankers laden with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) are currently on flames.
A source disclosed to DAILY POST that the NNPC depot, located along Damboa road, Maiduguri, was attacked by 6.05am on Friday.
The source also disclosed that the body of the female bomber and another burnt body (male) have been so far recovered.
As at the time of filing this report, the men of Federal Fire Service were battling to prevent the inferno from escalating to the main depot building.
A teenager, Amina Yusuf, paraded by the military on Wednesday in Maiduguri said she failed to detonate her explosive because she did not subscribe to Boko Haram ideology.
The 17-year-old told newsmen in Maiduguri that she was abducted five years ago, alongside her parents, in Madagali in Adamawa, after a terror attack on the village.
“I was abducted alongside my parents in Madagali in Adamawa after the terrorists attacked our village. We were taken to a camp in the bush where we were forcefully indoctrinated by the group,” she said.
The suspected suicide bomber alleged that her parents were killed after they had refused to be indoctrinated.
“My parents were executed because they did not join the group.
“I was married off to a Boko Haram militant with whom I lived in the camp,” she said.
“One day I was asked to wear the bombs. I was brought to Maiduguri with an instruction that I detonate the bomb where there is a large crowd of people,” the teenager added.
She said that she declined to detonate the explosive because she did not want to die.
“They said I should press the button but I refused and allowed security men to capture me alive.
“My four siblings are still with the terrorists in the camp,” Yusuf said.
Maj.- Gen. Lucky Irabor the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole had presented her along with two unindentified girls to newsmen during a weekly briefing in Maiduguri.
Video Credits: Olatunji Ololade/The Nation newspaper
A Non-Governmental Organisation(NGO), Girl-Child Rights Awareness Initiative in Africa, has called for urgent action against female suicide bombers in Nigeria.
The group made the call on Tuesday in Osogbo through its Executive Director, Mrs Tope Awe while reacting to latest suicide bombings in Madagali, Adamawa and Maiduguri, the Borno capital, said that the situation required quick action to save the girl-child.
According to her, the challenges facing the girl-child in the Northern part of the country is enormous to the extent that any other one like the present suicide bombing can be catastrophic.
She explained that young girls in northern Nigeria over time had battled the menace of child-marriage and illiteracy, and now had to live as potential suicide bombers.
The rights activist advocated proper and timely orientation of the girl-child “to galvanise them against the tricks of unscrupulous elements who take advantage of their naivety and innocency.
“The latest challenge facing the girl-child in the north eastern part of the country is worrisome and disheartening, the innocency of our girls is being destroyed.
“What is the fate of motherhood in an environment where young girls between the ages of 10 and 12 years carry Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to kill innocent citizens?.
“It is high time the National Orientation Agency (NOA)swings into action and collaborate with traditional institutions in those areas to sensitise vulnerable girls.
“Obviously, the future of any nation depends on the quality of motherhood the nation possess. Nigeria as a nation must strive to put a quick end to female suicide bombings.’’
A female suicide bomber has killed four people at a military checkpoint in a community in Borno State.
A security source who is a leader of the civilian joint task force told SaharaReporters that the bomber alighted from a vehicle at a military checkpoint in the Sabon Gari area of Damboa, a town in Damboa local government area of Borno State, and then detonated her bomb, killing herself as well as four other people. Scores of people sustained varying degrees of injuries. Two of the dead were members of the civilian joint task force that helps to provide security in the terror-plagued northeast zone of Nigeria.
“At about 10:30 this morning, a female bomber wrapped up with explosive devices exploded herself at a checkpoint killing four people, including two members of civilian JTF,” the source said.
The location of today’s bombing is in the southern part of Borno State, about 90 miles away from Maiduguri, the state capital.
Mr. Buhari had ordered the relocation of the military command to Maiduguri in order to achieve greater success in the fight against Islamist insurgents. However, Boko Haram fighters seem to be regaining momentum, launching suicide and gun attacks against civilian and military targets on an almost daily basis.
A police official has said that President Jonathan was not the target of a bomb attack in Gombe yesterday, contrary to speculation.
Fwaje Atajiri, a police spokesperson in Gombe state, has revealed that neither the President nor his convoy were the target of the attack, which was allegedly orchestrated by a female bomber. According to Atajiri, the blast occurred in the Water Board area of the town, far away from the stadium where President Jonathan’s rally had been held.
Atajiri claims that the President and his convoy were long gone when the blast took place and that the bomb allegedly went off prematurely because of the high level of security within the area. The suicide bomber and a passerby are said to be casualties of the attack, while six others were reported as injured, although not fatally.
The Islamic State group said Sunday it executed one of two Japanese hostages it has been holding, in an apparent beheading branded “outrageous and unforgivable” by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The claim comes a day after the release of a video announcing the murder of security contractor Haruna Yukawa by the jihadist group which has beheaded five Western hostages since August last year.
It sought to raise the pressure on Japan by saying the fate of the other captive, freelance journalist Kenji Goto, depended on the release of an Iraqi would-be female bomber who is on death row in Jordan. “The Islamic State has carried out its threat… it has executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the expiry of the deadline given,” the jihadist group said on its Al-Bayan radio.
“The second hostage is calling on his relatives to put pressure on the (Japanese) government for the release of our sister Sajida al-Rishawi, held in the jails of the oppressors in Jordan, in exchange for his release.”
Rishawi was sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in September 2006 in connection with triple hotel bomb attacks in Amman the previous year that killed 60 people. Her name emerged Saturday in an IS video that showed Goto holding what appears to be a photograph of Yukawa’s slain body.
The video came with an audio recording in which a man claiming to be Goto says Yukawa was killed because Japan had failed to pay a $200 million ransom within a 72-hour deadline announced Tuesday. The video unleashed a tide of global revulsion while Yukawa’s father voiced horror and shock. “I thought ‘Ah, this finally happened’ and was filled with regret,” said Shoichi Yukawa.
“I went totally blank, I was only sorry… I had no words,” he said. “In my mind I wish very much that this wasn’t true.”
Abe branded the murder of Yukawa as “outrageous and unforgivable” and called for Goto’s immediate release. “I condemn it strongly and resolutely,” said the Japanese leader.
A teenage female suicide bomber was caught heading toward the Maiduguri market, which has already been hit twice recently by female suicide bombers, said witnesses.
The young woman was stopped at a roadblock run by a civilian defense group and when searched she reluctantly lifted her hijab to reveal explosives strapped to her abdomen, Muhammed Abbas, an official of the Nigeria Vigilante Group in Maiduguri told The Associated Press by phone.
Double suicide bombings at a bustling market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, killed at least 16 people, according to workers at two hospitals who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters. The bodies included those of the two young women who set off the explosions.
Two other young women blew themselves up at the same market last week, killing at least 70 people.
