From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Four policemen were injured in a suicide bomb attack in a suburb of Maiduguri, Borno State, yesterday. Residents of the area said two suicide bombers infiltrated Muna Garage area, on the outskirts of the city yesterday afternoon.
Chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Ahmed Satomi, told Daily Sun that one of the suicide bombers approached a police patrol vehicle parked along the road. Some police personnel of the anti-robbery squad were said to be in the vehicle when the bomber approached and blew up herself.
The second bomber came from a market nearby and attempted to grab a staff of SEMA who was engaged in the rescue operation and evacuation of victims of the earlier explosion. The staff, however, ran in another direction after sensing danger even as the bomber also fled the scene.
Witnesses said the bomber was gunned down after a chase by the troops in the area. The Police Explosive Ordinance Department was mobilized to the scene later to detonate the IEDs strapped to the bomber’s body.
Boko Haram has been carrying out several bomb attacks around the Muna Garage area, a commercially active area located some five kilometres from the city centre, where vehicles conveying people and goods to border communities along Cameroon and Chad usually take off.