7 die, 13 injured in Yola IDPs camp explosion
The Adamawa Government confirmed that seven people died and 13 were injured in an explosion that occurred at the Malkohi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp near Yola, on Friday morning.
The state Commissioner for Information, Malam Ahmad Sajoh, confirmed the incident to newsmen after a visit to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, where the injured persons were receiving treatment.
Sajoh said four officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were among the injured persons.
He also said that another blast was reported in Madagali, but that the casualty figure was still unknown.
“I just got the report of another blast in Madagali but as I speak to you, I am still trying to get the actual picture of the situation.
“I got the report from officials of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA),” Sajoh said.
He said the state government would foot the bill of all those injured in the Malkohi incident.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that following the Malkohi blast, security operatives have commenced fresh screening of all IDPs at the camp.
All the IDPs where gathered in one section of the camp as policemen, soldiers and other officials of the camp embarked on the screening.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Gabriel Adaji, who spoke on the development, said security had been beefed up at the camp to forestall a reoccurrence.
Adaji said it was possible that the persons that came with the explosive that rocked the camp joined the IDPs that were brought to the camp on Thursday night from Madagali.
” We suspect one of those IDPs that came newly, possibly they beat the security checks to cause this mayhem.
” It is unfortunate. We are now trying our best to see that such incident does not happen again,” he said.
The NEMA Camp Coordinator in Adamawa, Mr Saad Bello, confirmed that a total of 298 IDPs from Madagali and 17 from Sambisa forest were brought to the camp on Thursday night.
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Our thoughts and prayes are with the victims and their families.
Open Message to President Buhari, President and C-in-C, Federal Republi cof Nigeria:
Your Excellency:
The military’s declaration that all camps of Boko Haram have been destroyed confirms that the outside-game of not ceeding any territory to Boko Haram is being won, the military need to hold the ground so that they are not retaken by Boko Haram; This blast of today confirms that the inside-the-city war need to be firecely fought….we still tether from one blast to the other…which means that the capacity of the evil doers have not even been dimensioned, properly understood, so we can permanently distrupt and degrade/eliminate their capacity to carry out these attacks. I strongly recommend that the FBI and bomb experts from the US be invited to the site of this latest blast, to work with our forensic experts – this could be done under the training agreements you have thankfully renewed with the US – so that the required due dilligence can be done to profile the type of bomb, it’s DNA, it’s sources as well as document properly for analysis the crime scene (as well as the recent ones to the extent relevant). Nigerian Military Intelligence departments should also work harder with their US conuterparties in the training arrangement as well, so that suspects can be identified and tracked – all these with the goal of pre-empting and stopping these bomb blasts of soft targets. While these are going on, please pursue with increased vigour the recovery of our commonwealth, re-organization of the system and recovery of the economy – as these are directly correlated to the winning the war on terror.
Days like today are painful for us, however we will not cower, bend or be deterred, because our cause is just and the cowards are on the wrong side of history. We the people support you in doing whatever it takes to rid our country of terror, kill corruption before it kills Nigeria, and revive the economy. May God Bless you, your administartion and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
General Buratai or Burantashi said boko Haram has been flushed out of every piece of territory they held. Is it not time to move IDPs back to their places of origin? They can go back and start rebuilding instead of sticking to camps and expecting handouts. How can you screening IDPs at
the camp in a country where rags heads have frustrated every attempt to make sure that every Nigerian of age carries an identity card?They want us to stick to assumed and bloated census figures that give the lion share of the ‘national cake’.
We will review and take appropriate action.