Army: 8 suicide bombers killed by own bombs in Borno

Tuesday, November 1, 2016 4:46 pm

The BEDFORD truck of the suicide bombers

Nigerian Army said eight suicide bombers blew themselves up when soldiers insisted on searching their truck at a checkpoint in Gubio, Gubio Local Government Area of Borno State on Tuesday.

“The suicide bombers who came in a Bedford pick up vehicle primed with Improvised Explosive Devices including suicide vests, attempted to force their way through the checkpoint but met stiff resistance from troops who insisted that the vehicle be thoroughly checked.

“The suicide bombers refused and blew up themselves by detonating one of the suicide vests killing all the 8 Boko Haram terrorists on board,” Colonel Sani Usman, Acting Director, Army Public Relations said in a statement.

According to him, the action of the soldiers at the checkpoint which occurred at about 9.15am on Tuesday morning helped foiled a suicide attack on Gubio town by the eight Boko Haram terrorists.

Remains of the terrorists

Boko Haram has resulted to the use of suicide attack on soft targets since it was displaced from the swathe of territory under its control in North east Nigeria by the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Nine persons were killed early Saturday as two suicide bombers struck in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and the heart of a seven-year-old insurgency by Boko Haram militants.

The first attack by a female suicide bomber occurred at 7 a.m in front of a camp for the internally displaced persons in the Bakassi area as scores of people were coming out of the camp to begin a new day.

Minutes later a second bomb went off near the NNPC mega station.

The attack was carried out by another female bomber, who was inside a tricycle, popularly called KEKE NAPEP.

Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman told NAN that the bomber was tailing a fuel tanker that was about to discharge fuel at the station.

“Miraculously, a car came in between them. The bomber, whether by error or whatever detonated, killing all the three occupants of the tricycle. There was no other person involved”, he said

The bombings, which also left 24 persons injured came 17 days after a car bomb that killed 10 people when a convoy was hit in the outskirt of the city.

The explosion at Muna garage hit the convoy with a military escort as it made its way to Gamboru Ngala.

Another attack was averted when troops deployed behind Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, Damboa road, Maiduguri, on security duty, intercepted and killed a male suicide bomber who had attempted to sneak through the troops’ inner parapet towards the IDP camp on Sunday.

The vigilant sentry sighted the bomber and laid in wait until the suicide bomber came close.

The sniper instantly shot and killed the terrorists as he tried to force his way to the western flank of the IDP camp fence, the military said in a statement.