NEMA confirms 29 deaths in Gombe explosions

Scene of an explosion

The National Emergency Management Agency on Thursday confirmed that 29 persons were killed in Wednesday’s attacks at two motor parks in Gombe.

The information officer of the agency in Gombe State, Umar Madigawa, in a message to our correspondent, said the explosion at Dadin Kowa motor park occurred at 7:15pm on Wednesday and that of Dukku motor park happened shortly after that, at 8:30pm.

He said 17 of the bodies recovered from the explosion sites were deposited at Federal Medical Centre, Gombe, and 67 injured persons taken for treatment.

At the Specialists Hospital in Gombe, according to him, 12 other corpses were deposited with 38 persons taken there to be treated.

He said 29 persons were killed in the explosions that left 105 injured.

 No fewer than 40 persons were feared killed on Wednesday evening in Gombe State following three-bomb explosions at two bus station in the state.

Eyewitnesses told AFP that the first two explosions occurred at about 7pm at Dadin-Kowa Motor Park, the busiest bus station in the state.

The blasts suspected to be from Improvised Explosive Devices were said to have occurred minutes apart.

The third blast occurred about two hours later at Tashan Dukku Motor Park.

Sources said there was pandemonium as residents went searching in hospitals for their loved ones.

The Police Public Relations in the Gombe State, Fwaje Atajiri, confirmed the attack to The Cable but said the fatality figure had yet to be confirmed.

He added that the police had cordoned off the areas to prevent hoodlums from looting in the areas.

Atajiri “It is true that there were bomb attacks in the motor park but the casualty figure is not yet known. The injured have been taken to the hospital and the area has been cordoned off to prevent hoodlums from taking advantage of the situation to loot people’s property.”

Meanwhile, the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party under the aegis of PDP Governors’ Forum on Wednesday night in Abuja expressed concerns over the current spate of Boko Haram attacks in the North-East and asked the military to wake up.

The governors, after their meeting, expressed concerns that in spite of the security measures by the Armed Forces, the sect seems to be intensifying its attacks.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said even as they met, the Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo, received a call over another attack in his state.

Emmanuel, while calling on the country’s Armed Forces to step up their operations, also lamented the state of the Internally Displaced Persons.

He said, “We actually call on the Armed Forces to step up their security measures to see how they can stem the tide of this menace.

“It’s really a thing of concern to the PDP government that in spite of all the efforts in the Armed Forces these guys are still proving to be more formidable.”