Police defuse six IEDs, repel insurgents at Yobe market

THE Yobe State Police Command has recovered six units of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from an unmarked Highlander Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) used to attack a police checkpoint at the entry gate of Damaturu, the state capital.

Addressing a news conference in Damaturu on Monday’s suicide bombings, the Police Commissioner Mr. Markus Danladi, said the personnel of Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) of the command recovered six live IEDs in one of the two vehicles used in attacking policemen at the Damaturu gate check-point.

His words: “After a thorough search by men of the EOD of this police command, six more unexplored bombs were discovered in the Highlander vehicle, and they were safely defused without causing any damage to both lives and property.

“Four pieces of 81 mm calibre capable covering a radius of 1,000 metres and two other improvised ones were also recovered and effectively defused at the scene.”

He further disclosed that a women, who was in the Highlander SUV was also carrying with her a bag containing six unexplored mortar bombs, which she was hoarding at the scene of the blast to detonate.

The suspected woman, according to him, was crying for help at the scene of the blast, but she had been aiming to detonate the mortar bomb capable of covering a radius of 500 metres to claim more lives.

But her mission, he said, was however thwarted as she was ignored by police officers and men at the blasts scene and died later.

“The suspected female suicide bomber died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the blast while the mortar bombs in her custody were also recovered and successfully defused,” said Danladi.

In a related development on counter-insurgency in the state, the police commissioner said that policemen on patrol at Bara town in Gulani Local Council clashed with Boko Haram gunmen and liberated a captured village market.

He said after the repulsion, a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), two AK 47 rifles loaded with AK 47 rifles magazine; as well as 60 rounds of ammunition, were recovered from the fleeing insurgents.

Other arms and ammunition recovered, according to him, include an Improvised IED and 500 units of GPMG live ammunition.