Five People Injured In A Roadside Bomb In Bauchi

A roadside bomb exploded in the city of Bauchi, injuring five people, the latest in a series of attacks to hit the region in recent months, police said Saturday.

“There was a bomb blast in Wuntin-dada suburb of the city in which four people were injured,” Bauchi State police spokesman Mohammed Barau told AFP. He said the incident happened Friday evening as workers were returning home. “The bomb which was planted by the roadside went off as people were closing for the day. Forensic experts have been conducting investigation into the incident and bomb fragments have been taken to Abuja for analysis,” he said.

Doctors at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital Bauchi, where three of the victims were treated, said that their condition was stable. One of the patients, Ishaku, said she stepped on something she could not describe at the site of the blast, adding that it went off and injured her. She added that following the commotion, she was left helpless until a student, Ali Ibrahim, came around.

Mrs Rita Solomon, a nine month old pregnant woman, who was also slightly injured, but not on admission in the hospital, said that she and her three year-old son, Prince Solomon, were hit by the blast outside their house. "I was outside with my son when I heard a loud bang and before I knew it, we were all on the ground, with the hand of my son bleeding profusely." 

Bauchi State Police Command's Public Relations Officer, Mohammed Barau, confirmed the incident. Barau said no arrests had been made and it was too early to blame any group for the incident. The radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb and gun attacks in Nigeria, including the capital, Abuja. 

The sect claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja which killed at least 24 people and coordinated attacks in the country’s northeast last week that left some 150 people dead.