Another Bomb Blasts Hit Yobe, Many Students Feared Dead
Latest news emanating from Yobe State, northern Nigeria, indicates that no fewer than 47 people have been confirmed dead from a bomb explosion that happened early this morning inside the All Boys Government Technical Secondary School in Potiskum.
According to tweets posted on the official twitter account of the Nigerian Police Force, 47 people were killed while 79 others were injured in the bomb explosion.
Below are the tweets posted moments ago on the official Twitter account of the Nigeria Police Force:
It was gathered that the bomb blast occurred when students of the affected school gathered for their routine morning assembly around 7:50am.
The Force spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu confirmed the reports saying the bomber passed unnoticed at the school in Potiskum, Yobe state, to detonate the explosives as students gathered for morning assembly.
Another source informed that the attack was carried out by a student suicide bomber and that Police bomb experts are already at the crime scene.
Speaking with AFP reporter, a teacher from the school said: “The students had gathered for the morning assembly when something exploded in their midst with a thunderous sound at exactly 7:50 am (0650 GMT).
“The explosion has affected many students but I can’t say how many because we are now evacuating the victims to the hospital which is just 100 metres (yards) away."
A medic at the Potiskum General Hospital where the victims were taken said that scores of students had been admitted.
“We are still receiving casualties from the school which is a stone’s throw from here,” the medic said.
“Our priority now is to save the injured, so we have not started a headcount of the victims.”
A local resident, Adamu Alkassim, said there was confusion in and around the school but the scene was a mass of abandoned footwear and blood.
Meanwhile, a resident of Potiskum told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN: “I am currently at the hospital; many dead bodies have been deposited.”
Parents and guardians have thronged Potiskum General Hospital searching for their wards as the bodies and those injured were moved to the hospital, the source added.
Confirming the attack to Premium Times, the spokesperson of the Yobe State Command of the Nigeria Police, Nansak Chegwam, declined to comment on the incident, saying the military is in charge of operations at the scene of the incident.
Also, a military source told Sahara Reporters that over 30 bodies of students and teachers lay at the scene of the incident with many others sustaining injuries.
It was also gathered that other schools in the area have been closed down.
Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, it is believed it was carried attack ny the Islamist group Boko Haram.
READ ALSO: Nigerian Military Arrest 57 Boko Haram Suspects in Yobe
This is because the terrorists sect has severally claimed responsibility for such attacks in the area.
In February, gunmen killed at least 40 students when they opened fire on students and threw explosives into the dormitory of a government boarding school in Buni Yadi, also in Yobe state.
In July last year 42 students were killed when Boko Haram gunmen attacked dormitories with guns and explosives in a government boarding school in the village of Mamudo, near Potiskum.
Potiskum, the commercial hub of Yobe state, has been repeatedly targeted by deadly attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Yobe is one of three northeastern states that has been under a state of emergency since May last year to try to quell the bloody insurgency.
But violence has continued unabated and Boko Haram has seized at least two dozen towns and villages in recent months, raising fears of the government’s ability to control the region.
It would be recalled that about 30 people were killed and 89 others injured when a bomb went off as Shia Muslims were celebrating the Day of Ashura in Potiskum, Yobe State, on November 3, 2014.
READ ALSO: Boko Haram Insurgents Kill Christians In Adamawa
The suicide bomb attack which was reportedly targeted at the members of the Islamic Brotherhood of Nigeria left many innocent women and children dead.
Source: Legit.ng
