Bomb Rocks Bauchi Church …Six Killed, 48 Injured

Exactly seven days after about nine persons were killed
while seven others received various degrees of injuries from gunshots as well
as the killing of former Comptroller General of Prisons, Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma
by yet to be identified gun men in Bauchi, tragedy struck again yesterday as six
persons were killed with more than 48 others injured in a suicide bomb
explosion that rocked a church in the city centre.

Our correspondent reports that the suicide bomber struck at
St John’s Catholic Cathedral Church near Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium (ATBS),
Wunti some few minutes after 9.00am as members were leaving the church after
the first service, leaving six people dead, including the suicide bomber and 48
others injured, some in critical condition.

The dead have been deposited at the mortuary while those
injured have been moved to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital
(ATBTH), Bauchi for medical treatment.

A member of the church, who spoke with newsmen on condition
of anonymity, said that the suicide bomber, who came in an Opel Vectra saloon
car, rammed into the gates of St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in the Batyan Gari
area of Bauchi, “when he was sure members of the church were filing out after
the church’s first service but God is in control.”

In another development, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF)
has announced a round-the-clock curfew on restive Yobe State as security forces
hunt for members of a radical Islamist group, the military said yesterday.

The ban on movements in Yobe was imposed late Saturday,
hours before a suicide bomber killed a woman and a child in an attack outside a
church in neighbouring Bauchi State.

No group has claimed responsibility for the church blast,
but it resembled previous attacks by Boko Haram, blamed for killing more than
1,400 people across northern and central Nigeria since 2010.

After the curfew was announced, suspected Boko Haram gunmen
battled security forces in a shootout in the Sabon Fegi area of Damaturu, one
of the Islamist group’s strongholds.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Nigeria’s military of
using heavy-handed tactics in their campaigns against Boko Haram.

Damaturu was already under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, imposed
following running gun battles between the military and suspected Islamists in
June.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has condemned the suicide attack, saying

the attack was ignoble, wicked and horrendous.

The Speaker said the gains recorded by the security agencies
in their battle against terror in the country in recent weeks should be built
upon in order to protect the citizens at all times.