No fewer than 35 people including five military personnel, three policemen and a local hunter were reportedly killed, while some other 23 sustained injuries, after a bomb exploded on Thursday morning, around Mararaba-Mubi area, Adamawa State, in the troubled North-Eastern Nigeria.
A Police witness told our Correspondent that a combined team of the military and local hunters was on routine patrol of the area, following a successful re-capture of the Mubi town from the insurgents, when the bomb allegedly planted by suspected terrorists, exploded killing 35 people instantly.
According to the witness, the scene of the blast is located in a busy area of the Mararaba-Mubi area of the State. This is because, people were returning to the area after it has been re-captured. “People have started gathering to do one business or the other in the area.”
He added that the explosive might have been planted there overnight and it went off while people gathered there in the morning to transact business.
The witness added, “immediately after the blast, the military converted the scene of the blast to a check point, since there are heavy presence of people at the spot most of the times.
My house is some meters from the scene of the incident. I stood outside my compound watching the suburb and all of a sudden, I heard a loud bang which shook the entire surroundings”, he claimed.
“The few people that were returning to the area started fleeing and the area was immediately cordoned off by the military”, he said.
The explosion prompted the military authorities to declare the area “a no go area” and advised returning villagers and passersby to be extra cautious along the routes.
The authorities also cautioned the people to be wary of strange objects and polythene bags within their reach, advising that they might be explosives fashioned out to look attractive for unknown victims.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Adamawa State Command, Lucky Uyajeme, who confirmed the incident, however would not agree with the casualty figure.
“According to him in a telephone interview, “ I can confirmed there was a bomb blast this morning at Mararaba-Mubi part of the State, but what I cannot say categorically for now, is the number of casualty.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of local hunters keeping vigil with the military in the re-captured areas of Adamawa State, have vowed to ensure that the sect is completely chase out or eliminated.
The hunters, who were returning to the re-captured areas of Mubi and its environs, allegedly stated this on Thursday in Yola. “The local hunters are saying that their major pre-occupation now was to ensure that the area is completely secured for the inhabitants to return to their homes.”
The leader of the Hunters, Young Moris pledged that they will do all they could to ensure that Michika and Madagali are equally cleansed of the insurgents soonest.
