INSECURITY: Bomb blast hits Nigerian military checkpoint; radical Islamists suspected

INSECURITY: Bomb blast hits Nigerian military checkpoint; radical Islamists suspected

By Aminu Abubakar (AFP)
KANO, Nigeria — Three soldiers were injured on Wednesday when a bomb hit a military checkpoint in the troubled northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri where attacks by suspected Islamist radicals have killed dozens, the army said.
The blast occurred early morning near a food market in a densely populated low-to-middle class neighbourhood in the heart of the city.
“Two men on motorcycle tossed the bomb at our men which exploded causing panic and fear in the neighbourhood,” Brigadier-General Jack Okechukwu Nwaogbo, the commander of a recently deployed unit, told AFP by phone.
A resident, Mahmud Kumalaia said the bomb appeared to have been hidden in a food flask left close to the checkpoint.
“The bomb was concealed in a food container and kept at an open air eatery close to the checkpoint, disguised as food left by a food vendor,” he said adding it went off with “a very loud blast and smoke enveloped the area.”
“It is not clear if the bomb was timed or remote-controlled. I can’t say if any soldiers died but it is evident many of them were injured,” added Kumalaia.
After the attack, the explosion site and nearby suburbs were cordoned off and the city’s main markets elsewhere were closed by security officials.
Nwaogbo said 25 people have so far been arrested.
“We have cordoned off the …areas and conducting house-to-house search to fish out the attackers who melted into the crowd. We have made 25 arrest and we are still making more arrests.”
A market trader Aliyu Labaran said the market was shut down. “I was turned back and told the market would not open today. Soldiers at checkpoints are firing sporadically into the air. It’s quite scary.”
Attacks have become an almost daily occurrence in the city, and they are claimed by or blamed on Boko Haram, an extremist sect that sprung up in 2004, drawing inspiration from the Afghan Taliban.
Two years ago, Boko Haram launched a short-lived armed uprising in a doomed bid to establish an Islamic state.
Although the rebellion was crushed in a military assault that killed hundreds, mostly sect members, it failed to deter further attacks.
In recent months the attacks have escalated.
Close to 50 people have been killed in the city since June 26 when more than0 two dozen people died in a single attack.
President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the deployment of a special force comprising hundreds of military, navy, air force, police, immigration and customs personnel to end the unrest.
The state security police this week said it had arrested more than 100 suspected militants in the north of the country, but that they were unlikely to be prosecuted.
Political leaders from three northern states have in recent days tendered apologies to the sect over their role in the brutal military crackdown on the Islamist sect in 2009.

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