Suicide bomber attacks police command, kills 5

Five persons were feared killed in a suicide attack on the Borno State Police Command Headquarters in Maiduguri on Friday. A suicide bomber had attempted to gain access into the command, but the bombs he bore exploded at the gate and killed the victims. The exact number of policemen affected by the blast could not be immediately ascertained. But the police later confirmed that an inspector and four civilians died in the blast. Police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, a chief superintendent of police, in a statement on Friday, said a lone male suicide bomber driving a light green ToyotaCamry car, loaded with Improvised Explosive Devices, attempted to smash through the gate of the Borno Command HQs at about 11.30 am. According to him, the attempt failed as “vigilant and combat-ready police officers on guard duty” at the gate resisted and prevented him from gaining access into the premises. Mba said, “Obviously actingout of frustration and desperation, he detonated the explosives right outside the gate of the headquarters, killing himselfin the process and one Inspector Ali Bulama.” He said four other civilians,who were passers-by, lost their lives in the incident. “Three other civilians and a few police officers sustained injury of varying degrees. “They are all responding totreatment at various hospitals in Borno,” Mba added. Meanwhile, a combined teamof detectives from the Borno State CID and the Police Bomb Disposal Unit had begun an investigation into the incident. The police appealed to the public to continue to support them and other security agencies by volunteering useful information at all times. No group has claimed responsibility for the attackbut Islamic insurgent group, Boko Haram, had carried out attacks on police stations in the past.
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