A suicide bomber, suspected to be a member of the outlawed Boko Haram sect, yesterday, killed at least 23 people in a procession of Shiite Muslims marking the ritual of Ashoura in Potiskum, Yobe State.
The suicide bomber was said to have joined the line of the Muslims in processing in Potiskum, before setting off his device as they marched through a market in the town, a resident, Yusuf Abdullahi, was quoted by agency reports as saying.
“I heard a very heavy explosion as if it happened in my room. It took place just 200 meters from my house,” said Abdullahi, adding that another person carrying an explosive that did not go off was arrested at the scene thereafter.
Mohammed Gana, whose brother was said to have been killed in the attack, confirmed that he counted 23 bodies at the scene after the explosion.
Also, Abubakar Saliu, another Potiskum resident, said soldiers started shooting immediately after the explosion, but it was not clear who they fired at or if anyone was hit by the gunfire.
The persistent attacks in Potiskum, populated by Shiite Muslims, by Sunni Muslim Boko Haram rebels is seen more as a sect war within the Muslim faith.
Indeed, Ashoura, marked by the Shiite Muslims, is in remembrance of the death in battle more than 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.
The ferocity of the Boko Haram operations may appear to have made nonsense of the ceasefire deal which the Federal Government announced last month it was making with the sect through the Chadian government, including the release of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted in April by the insurgents.
Although, the mediator, Chad, has insisted the negotiations were still on, a spate of recent attacks across the North-East zone by suspected Boko Haram fighters, including the latest in Potiskum, has raised serious doubts about whether the agreement had any substance and effect.
Prospects for this took another hit at the end of last week when a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video recording that the kidnapped girls were “married off” to his fighters, contradicting Nigerian government statements that they would soon be freed.
The military had insisted it killed Shekau a year ago, and authorities said in September they had killed an impostor posing as him in videos.
Indeed, the increased spate of attacks by the sect is seen in some quarters as targeted at hindering the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan, in elections due in February, 2015.
In a statement yesterday, opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) accused President Jonathan’s government of misleading the public over the reported peace deal.
“The president has failed in his most sacred duty of protecting the safety and well being of the citizens,” the APC said.
Post a Comment