Yola, Kano terror attacks death toll hits 49 By Abubakar Mohammed (Abuja), Abba Anwar (Kano) and Emmanuel Ande (Yola)

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has called for
increased vigilance among the civilian population
to help ward off suicide terror attacks on soft
targets around the country.
Reacting to the renewed wave of terror attacks in
some North East states and Kano bombing
yesterday, the President in a statement by his
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, condemned “in strongest terms the
barbaric suicide terrorist attacks which took place
in Yola on the evening of Tuesday and in Kano
yesterday, causing numerous deaths and injuries
among civilians.
The President extended his heartfelt condolence to
the families of the victims as well as to the
government and people of Adamawa and Kano
states respectively.
Buhari reassured Nigerians that his administration
was determined to wipe out Boko Haram in Nigeria
and bring all perpetrators of these heinous crimes
against humanity to justice.
“The President urges all Nigerians not to despair in
the face of cowardly terrorist attacks but to have
confidence in the ability of Nigeria’s reinvigorated,
well-equipped and well-motivated armed forces
and security agencies to overcome Boko Haram
very soon.”
The suicide bombers attacked popular Farm Centre
GSM Market in Kano killing scores of marketers
some minutes before 4 p.m. yesterday.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Tuesday night’s
suicide bomb attack in Yola, the Adamawa State
capital has risen to 34, with 85 other people
seriously injured and undergoing treatment in
different hospitals in the state.
An eyewitness to the Kano suicide bomb attacks
that claimed 15 lives, Sani Umar, who lost a
brother, disclosed that two women entered the
market from different directions, an adult female
and a girl not up to 20 years old.
“One of the suicide bombers had planned to enter
into the market mosque when people raised an
alarm. She detonated the bomb there which killed
so many people,” Umar said.
But according to the Kano Command Police
Commissioner, Muhammad Musa Katsina, only
three people died with eight injured.
“It was around 3:55 p.m. when a Sharon car
dropped two women who were later confirmed to
be suicide bombers. One entered the market and
detonated the explosive, while the other detonated
hers at the gate of the market,” the Police
Commissioner revealed.
Another eyewitness disclosed that people were
running helter skelter for their lives.
Immediately after the blasts security men condoned
the area while more people were seen helping the
officials take control of the area.
Katsina urged the people to remain calm as
everything was being done to return life in the city
to normalcy.
When The Guardian visited the Yola Specialist
Hospital yesterday, the Medical Director, Dr. Bala
Idi Saidu, confirmed that there were 29 bodies in
the hospital mortuary and that 47 injured people
were receiving treatment in the hospital.
“We have 29 bodies in our mortuary and 47
injured victims are now being attended to by a
team of medical officials. For now, there are no
new cases of death from the attack apart from
those that were brought here,” he said.
Bala further disclosed that eight children and seven
women were among the dead in the hospital.