About twenty children, aged between nine years and 15 were killed in yesterday’s bombing of a Shiite ceremony in Potiskum,Yobe state, the movement’s spiritual head has disclosed.

Malam Mustapha Lawan Nasidi said the bomber detonated his explosives in the midst of a drama team (known as ‘Yan-Tamsiliyya) of the procession.

“I was about leaving the place when we heard a deafening sound, and children started shouting for help. Most of those killed were children between the ages of nine and 15,” he told the Daily Trust newspaper.

Between 27 and 29 people were confirmed killed and 82 others injured. Soldiers who came after the explosion were said to have worsened the death toll by shooting at the Shiite muslims. They killed five persons on the spot.

“We counted 26 dead bodies and 82 injured. It’s the same people that have attacked us three times in the past, and this is the fourth time,” he said, referring to previous attacks on Zakzaky’s followers in Potiskum.

The first attack in May 2012 targeted his home where his younger brother and three others were shot dead, while the second and third attacks happened in July this year at a mosque and school run by the movement.

“It was a deliberate attempt to ridicule our religious rights and obligations in the state and we will not succumb,” Nasidi said.

He said the situation yesterday was worsened by soldiers who arrived and opened fire on the procession soon after the bombing.

“We hold the Nigerian military and government accountable. They openly killed our brothers and sisters,” Nasidi later told the BBC, according to a post on the the movement’s website.

“Bombs are properties of security operatives, and not civilians. Why don’t they investigate bombs that explode in this country to ascertain where they come from? Because they know it is their handiwork, or their agents’.”

There was no immediate reaction from the military on the allegation that soldiers opened fire on the Shi’ites and killed a number of people.

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam condemned the attack as heinous, barbaric and unwarranted.

*Originally reported by Daily Trust