34 KILLED, 42 INJURED IN MAIDUGURI EXPLOSION

ANOTHER bomb went off yesterday in Maiduguri, the troubled Borno State capital.

The explosion occurred as residents were struggling to free themselves from the hangover of last weekend’s multiple bombings.

The scene of yesterday’s blast is the famous Monday Market where no fewer than 34 people died and 42 others injured.

A commercial driver who dropped passengers just before the El-Kanami Roundabout near the market, Hamisu, said: “I was in my car (a Volkswagen Golf), dropping three passengers that I picked from Gomari straight to Kasuwa through the Post Office peacefully and smoothly. When the last passenger was alighting from the car, I heard a heavy, strange sound that shook everywhere and everything around.”

He went on: “Immediately we saw heavy black smoke opposite us at the small entrance of the Monday Market near the El Kanemi Roundabout by the Mai Nono(fresh cow milk) place where these Fulani women sell nono, fresh cow milk around 4.47 pm.

“I was terribly scared and could not even move an inch from my car, shivering for some minutes before I started my car and drove away.

“When I took the other way out of the scene, I saw soldiers and civilian JTF rushing to the scene. People were running up and down, confused and terrified. Some were pushing others down – all out of confusion and fear.

Mustapha Idi, a civilian JTF member, described the attack as “deadly and terrible”.

He said: “We have so far been able to carry about 30 bodies to the hospital and over 30 seriously injured people, apart from those who ran away from the scene, wounded and those that went to the hospital on their own.”

A hospital source said: We have 34 deaths and 42 wounded people. The ambulance vans are coming.”