Borno -Five Killed in Another Bomb Explosion

No fewer than five persons lost their lives in Maiduguri ,the Borno state capital Tuesday when the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram ,reportedly threw an explosive at a patrol vehicle of the Joint Military Task Force. It was gathered that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was thrown at a moving military patrol van near Fannah Dori Filling Station along Baga road in Maiduguri at about 8am on Tuesday by persons suspected to be members of Boko Haram during which two soldiers reportedly sustained injuries.
JTF in a statement issued Tuesday claimed "there was an explosion at Baga road this morning targeted at a patrol team of JTF. Three of the attackers died in the blast and two soldiers were injured."
But eyewitnesses said three persons were actually killed by soldiers and not the members of the fundamentalists as claimed by the JTF .
Eyewitnesses also claimed that two more corpses were evacuated by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) near the scene of the incident, two hours after the early morning explosion.
NEMA zonal Information Officer (North East), Ibrahim Farinloye confirmed to journalists that two corpses were picked near the scene of the incident but declined to give further details.
"We were just informed about the corpses but we are trying to assist traders in Baga market who were trapped following the bomb explosion this morning and the gun shots. We were negotiating with the NURTW in the market so as to help people check out of the place," Farinloye explained.
The NEMA spokesman also revealed that another explosion affected a NEMA vehicle when officials of the agency were moving to the scene of the first blast along Baga road.
He said only the agency's vehicle was damaged while none of the personnel was injured.
Also in the JTF press release signed by Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, it was maintained that the claims that the soldiers were shooting indiscriminately was untrue.
The statement read "the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Order in Maiduguri wishes to debunk claims that soldiers are involved in any indiscriminate treatment of law abiding members of the public.

"The claims are baseless and uncalled for at a moment when the state is facing challenging security situation. We want to reassure the general public that members of the JTF will never act in anyway against the peace of the state."
The JTF blamed members of Boko Haram of planting Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) at residential areas which exploded and damaged houses and vehicles, asking for vigilance on the part of the public.
Members of the public are also asked to disregard the rumour going round that people should leave Maiduguri, stressing that it was baseless as the soldiers will soon fish out the fundamentalists and "their sympathizers who resorted to spreading the rumour in order to instill fear in the people."