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Aftermath of terror attacks: Azare still counting its losses

Published by Tribune on Sun, 23 Nov 2014


The dust raised by the Friday, November 7 twin-bomb explosion at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of the Azare branch of FirstBank Plc had hardly settled when another agents of death visited the town penultimate Sunday and detonated another bomb, killing many people and injuring many others. SALIU GBADAMOSI writes.THE explosion which rocked Azare ' the commercial nerve centre of the northern part of Bauchi State, penultimate Sunday ' was the third to occur within a spate of one month, beginning from the night of Wednesday, October 22, when an explosion rocked a roundabout near the motor park in the town. Like the previous ones, the latest bomb attack on the town left death and gnashing of teeth on its trail.The attackers careful selected a market day in the town to strike again. This time around, it was at the popular GSM market in the town, Kasuwan Jagol, where people, mostly youths, gather to buy, sell and repair handsets and accessories that was attacked at about 5:30pm last Sunday. The market is attached to a stadium at Unguwan Gabas.No fewer than 13 people, including the suspected female suicide bomber and two of her accomplices lynched by the irate mob, lost their lives on the spot, while about 64 others sustained varying degrees of injuries in the attack.A resident of the town, Babale Musa, told Sunday Tribune during the week that the latest explosion was more devastating than the two previous ones, declaring that people of Azare were tired of incessant attacks carried out by insurgents on them. He stated that he missed the attack by a whisker as he left the market 20 minutes before the explosion.'This is very unfortunate. The explosion was more devastating that the ones that occurred here before. This is so because it happened on a market day. I could have been involved in it but God saved me. I was there to collect my wife's phone which I had taken there for repairs.'As I was going to my younger brother's house, I met a friend and we started discussing wide range of issues, including politics. When I saw that time was going, I excused myself and went to the house of my brother whose wife put to bed two days earlier. It was at his house that we heard a very loud bang from the direction of the market. That was about 20 minutes after I left the place,' Babale told Sunday Tribune.On his part, the lawmaker representing Azare/Madagali state constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Honourable Baba Abubakar Suleiman, lamented that that was the third time his constituents would be attacked within one month, saying the penultimate Sunday's bomb explosion was one attack too many for the people of the town.He expressed surprised that despite the many check points leading into the town, bombers still found their ways into it to carry out this heinous act, saying all these portrayed Nigeria as a failed country.According to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Bauchi State police command, Haruna Mohammed, 13 people died, 65 were injured victims, saying 43 of them were treated and discharged, while 22 others were responding to treatment at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Azare, where they were rushed to.DSP Mohammed, however, assured that normalcy had been restored by the combined team of security forces, while patrols were being intensified within and outside the town, adding that the police were carrying out investigation into the bomb explosion.Narrating what happened that day, a lecturer at the College of Education, Azare, who pleaded not to be named, stated that it was a female suicide bomber who carried out the attack, adding that the head of the attacker was severed from her body.'The female suicide bomber was seen by the people discussing with her accomplices before she approached the GSM market and detonated the bomb on her body. As soon as the bomb went off, her accomplices took to their heels. The youth chased two suspected accomplices whom they had seen with the suicide bomber, caught up with them and lynched them,' he said.We could have been overstretchedDespite the ongoing nationwide strike embarked upon by members of the Joint Medical Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), victims of the latest explosion were taken to the FMC, Azare, where doctors and nurses are working round the clock, doing everything possible to ensure that the victims were saved.Confirming this, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr Abdullahi Ibrahim Bichi, told journalists that doctors and nurses in the hospital were doing the best to give the victims of the latest bomb explosion and those of the previous explosions in the town the best of treatment despite the JOHESU strike.The hospital has been an action spot with the recent explosions in the town and Potiskum in Yobe State, where students of Government Secondary School were attacked by insurgents, killing not less than 50 of them. The injured students and the victims from the three bomb explosions in Azare were taken to the FMC for treatment.Sunday Tribune gathered that 48 students were brought in to the centre for treatment from Potiskum. These joined the victims of the Wednesday, October 22 and Friday, November 7 bomb explosions in Azare who were already receiving treatment in the hospital.Sources informed that 64 victims were brought in last Sunday to add to the explosion victims in the hospital. Thirty-two of the latest victims were treated and discharged, while 32 others, whose conditions were very critical, were on admission as of the time of visit by Sunday Tribune.The CMD, Dr Bichi, told journalists that the hospital facilities were over stretched with the recent happenings, adding the FMC heaved a sigh of relief with the arrival of the Red Cross Society of Nigeria, which brought in surgeons, adding that, 'If not for the Red Cross arrival, we could have been over stretched to a breaking point.'There is palpable fear, distrust in AzareOne thing incessant bomb attacks have succeeded in creating in Azare is palpable fear and distrust among the residents. This was noticeable in the residents of the town when Sunday Tribune visited it recently. Visitors were being viewed with suspicion, while residents could no longer trust one another.A resident, who identified himself as Baban Ahmed, told Sunday Tribune that the recent bomb explosions in the town had caused panic and fear among the people, saying that people were now afraid of going to places where there was large gathering of people.'We are now afraid as no one knows what would happen in the next minute. As a result of the three bomb explosions we experienced in this town, people are being very careful now as regards going to places where there is large gathering of people,' Ahmed said, adding that he had learnt not to stay long outside now.Another resident, who refused to mention his name, noted that the Katagum people were very accommodating people and loved strangers in their midst, declaring that with the recent explosions in Azare, which is the headquarters of the Katagum people, visitors and strangers were now being viewed with suspicion.'I am sure those who perpetrated this dastardly act are not from here. No person living here would want to cause havoc here. That is why people are being cautious with strangers and visitors. If you did not identify yourself as a journalist, I wouldn't have spoken with you. Things are this bad here,' he said.Meanwhile, Bauchi State governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, has described the latest bomb explosion in Azare as an act of terror, which was most unfortunate.The governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Deacon Ishola Michael Adeyemi, reassured that government would collaborate with security agents in the state to ensure that lives and property of the people were protected, saying that he had confidence in the capabilities of the security agencies to control the situation in the state.The governor stated that the people, too, had complimentary roles to play in the fight against insurgency, calling on them to be vigilant particularly in areas where people were gathered for their legitimate duties as well as other social gatherings, considering the fact that the act of insurgency had now taken a new dimension.On his part, the Senator representing Bauchi North in the National Assembly, Babayo Garba Gamawa, also condemned the bomb attacks on Azare, saying that the recent bomb attacks were inhuman and satanic. He called on the people, particularly the youth of the town, to be vigilant in view of the incessant bomb attacks in the town.Senator Gamawa tasked the youth not to be deterred by what had happened, saying while they went about pursuing their legitimate businesses, they should make vigilance their watchword and report any suspicious character amongst them to security operatives for prompt action.Despite the avalanche of assurances of government's protection for the people of Azare, one thing, however, is very clear ' the residents may no longer sleep with their eyes closed, owing to their unsavoury experiences of suicide bomb attacks in the last few years.
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