Commissioner of Police Damien Chukwu while briefing newsmen in his office Monday said it took the grace of God for the suicide bombers not to unleash their planned terror on the various Eid grounds in the state.
“This is because we had enough intelligence on what they planned in the state against the sallah festival and we did our best to stop them. So we are really grateful to God that all the intel agencies cooperated and gave a good account of themselves.
“We discovered new praying grounds which they could have penetrated but we were ahead of them by making sure the whole state was safe. Our men were in all the local government areas in all the three senatorial zones to ensure that our people were safe in their praying grounds,” said the CP.
Out of the nine innocent people who lost their lives was a female security who was identified as Bekky Edubi who died while undergoing treatment in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).
The blast from a male suicide bomber, injured two other university security men, at about 10.20pm which led to the death of Edubi due to excessive bleeding.
Two other female suicide bombers detonated their bombs right behind the Entrepreneurship Centre and Works Department of the university killing only themselves at about the same 4.08am.
“According to the CP, yesterday 25th June, 2017 at about 2221hrs, a male suicide bomber, gained entry into the premises of University of Maiduguri, and detonated a PBIED on his body near the Rapid Response Services building.
“The suicide bomber died while three university security personnel on duty were injured. One of the injured security personnel, a female whose identity was given as Becky Edubi, later died while being attended to at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH.
“The suicide bombers spread across the entire outskirts of Maiduguri killing themselves and unleashing terror on some residential areas including Zannari behind London Chiki.”
According to the CP, “At about 2230hrs same night, four female suicide bombers infiltrated Zannari community in Gwange general area of Jere LGA. Two of the suicide bombers detonated PBIEDs on their bodies in two residential buildings.
“The bombers died killing eight other persons while 11 others were injured. The third bomber detonated the explosive killing himself alone. The fourth female suicide bomber, identity unknown, was also arrested, but died the same night as a result of injuries she sustained from beating from locals.
“In all, 16 persons including the suicide bombers died in the multiple explosions while 13 persons were injured in the onslaught,” said the CP.
University of Maiduguri has a porous unfenced land area of about 23 km radius maned by unarmed security personnel.
Responding to questions from reporters, the CP said that he cannot guarantee the fixing of a police post in the university but assured that a team of policemen were in the main campus prepared for any eventuality.
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