BEVERLY HILLS, June 27 (THEWILL) – No fewer than five persons were killed Saturday as a suicide attack on the General Hospital, Mule in Borno State was foiled.
A local vigilante member, Modu Grema, who disclosed this in Maiduguri, the state capital, said two female suicide bombers had visited the hospital, Saturday afternoon, disguising as visitors.
Grema said: “What could have been a major disaster was forestalled by two security men at the gate to the hospital who stopped the women and told them they needed to be searched before they could be allowed entrance.”
According to him, it was in the process of searching the women that the explosives on them were triggered, killing them, the two security men as well as one other person.
Grema told THEWILL that several other persons were injured in the explosion. He added that the injured were rushed to the General Hospital, Maiduguri.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a nurse at the hospital, disclosed that 12 injured persons were brought to the accident and emergency ward of the hospital for treatment.
The attack on the hospital came on a day an attempt by another group of female bombers to attack another part of the state was frustrated.
A local vigilante member, Idris Abba, who disclosed this said the two female bombers were on their way to Maiduguri when the improvised explosive device (IED) strapped on one of them got detonated accidentally while waiting for a vehicle at Jakana, a village situated 32 kilometres from Maiduguri.
The loud bang from the explosion attracted the attention of the military at a nearby checkpoint to the area.
As the military men were combing the area, they saw the second suicide bomber who was trying to escape.
According to Abba, “the military was left without any option but to open fire on her before she could detonate the bomb strapped on her.”
