Adamawa State Police Command has put the death toll in yesterday’s Mubi mosque suicide attack at 50.
Also, 20 people died in a clash between farmers and herdsmen in Numan, Adamawa State, yesterday.
The command’s public relations officer, SP Othman Abubakar, confirmed the development, as he said that a young boy was responsible for the blast, which occurred during early morning prayer in the mosque.
“We have 50 dead and we are now trying to get the exact number of those injured,” Abubakar said.
The attack happened in Dazala area of Mubi town in Adamawa State on Tuesday, around 5am when Muslims were observing the early morning prayer.
The incident was the first in three years since the liberation of Mubi town from Boko Haram insurgents in 2014.
Meanwhile, details are still emerging about the bomb blast, which suggest that the death toll is expected to rise as many of the victims of the attack are said to be critically injured.
The Adamawa State Commissioner for Information, Ahmed Sajoh, said: “There is no official figure as to the number of deaths because most of bodies have been mutilated beyond recognition but we have estimated it to be about 20 or more.
“Right now, the state government has dispatched a medical team to Mubi, led by the Adamawa State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Fatima Atiku. They have drugs, medical supplies and personnel to help the victims of the attack.
“We have also made arrangements to move cases that are beyond Mubi hospitals to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola. We cannot move everyone to Yola. There are cases that are too fragile and cannot survive the rigours of the journey; those ones will be treated in Mubi until they gain stability.”
A witness, Alhaji Danladi Chambers, a resident of Mubi and the vice chairman of the Police Public Relations Committee, told Daily Sun: “I go to pray in that mosque every day. It is just about 100 metres from my house. I was awake late into the night reading a book, so I couldn’t wake up early. I woke up around 4:30am but before I could get ready, they had started the prayers.
“Between the commencement of the prayers and the bomb blast, it was just about two minutes. I just heard the explosion. I quickly called Lt. Col. Haruna Bala and Suleiman, the DPO of Mubi North, together we went there. It was total carnage and chaos. I counted about 25 mutilated bodies and 49 injured persons.
“We called for three ambulances belonging to religious bodies and one belonging to the hospital, which helped in evacuating the bodies and the injured to the hospital.”
Danladi explained that since the Boko Haram nightmare came to an end, Mubi has witnessed the influx of people in a way it has not experienced in the last 40 years.
He noted that “we would have said it was a blessing that our city has come back to life, but so many of the people are foreigners from Niger, Chadians and people we don’t know their origin.
“Last year, I alerted the Customs about them. They have secluded themselves from the main residents of Mubi in this area called Dazala, in Yelwa ward. When the Customs came, they arrested about 102 illegal immigrants in that area. The emirate council, local government officials, and members of the state House of Assembly have to look into this. More than 50 per cent of the residents of Dazala area are these people.
“We have also observed that, when they want to travel, they avoid going to the public parks. They always call for the vehicle to come to the area, where they load only what God knows into the vehicle. So, security in this respect has to be improved.”
Chairman of Mubi North Local Government Area, Musa Ahmed Bello, confirmed to Daily Sun that they were making arrangements to move most of the injured to the hospital in Yola with the help of Red Cross, Rescue International and other partners.
Governor Muhammed Umar Jibrilla Bindow has condemned the incident in a statement signed by his special assistant on press and media affairs, Martins Dickson. He described the incident as “an act of wickedness perpetrated by criminals who are bent on destroying the hard-earned peace in Mubi and other parts of the state.”
Bindow said: “We will continue to ensure that our people are protected and given a sense of security, which is the most important responsibility of any government. We have also engaged all security agencies to ensure that this type of wicked act does not repeat itself in any part of the state.”
The governor also called for calm, saying security has been stepped up in Mubi and its environs and his government would not rest until those behind the wicked act are brought to book.
Bindow promised that those injured in the incident would be given medical attention, as he commiserated with the families of those who lost their lives.
|Sun