RADICAL Muslim terrorists unleashed another devilish bloodbath in a couple of attacks on Sunday, resulting in the cold-blooded death of about 21 persons, mainly Christians who were targeted and shot to death as they tried to flee from the bullets of the bloodthirsty murderers.
Although no group has yet to come forward to claim responsibility for the attacks, analysts and observers believe it is the handiwork of the Al-Quaeda imitators, popularly known as Boko Haram. The deadlier of Sunday’s apparently coordinated attacks was at the city of Kano’s Bayero University, where at least 16 persons were killed and 22 persons were wounded.
Students of the institution had gathered to worship as usual on Sunday, using the deserted lecture halls to congregate, according to Kano State police commissioner Ibrahim Idris, who said that the gunmen later arrived with explosives which they lobbed at the buildings.
As the initial survivors of the explosions from the bombs tried to flee, the gunmen who were waiting outside met them with gunfire, killing more of the innocent, unarmed students.
Police and soldiers of the Nigerian Army later arrived to secure the area as investigators pored over the attack scene. An official of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Abubakar Jibril, complained about the refusal of the security men to allow them access to the scene to evacuate injured persons. Journalists were also barred from the site of the attack.
Another similar attack in Maiduguri targeted worshippers at a Church of Christ in Nigeria church, killing a pastor in the middle of preparing for communion and four of his fellow congregants.
Witnesses who spoke to journalists in confidence after the incident confirmed that the gunmen had indeed shot congregants as they tried to flee the murderers’ screaming bullets.
The continued attacks orchestrated by the Boko Haram terrorists across parts of Northern Nigeria continue to undermine the federal government, who has largely failed in preventing most of the deadly attacks. Over a thousand people have died since the terrorists intensified their attacks which initially targeted government personnel, before the murders turned their violent campaign on innocent civilians, mainly Christians – an act that many believe is designed to ignite a sectarian war along Nigeria’s religious and ethnic lines.
A similar coordinated assault on government buildings and other sites in Kano by Boko Haram killed at least 185 people. In the time since, the sect has been blamed for attacking police stations and carrying out smaller assaults in the city.
On Thursday, the sect carried out a suicide car bombing at the Abuja offices of the influential newspaper ThisDay and a bombing at an office building it shared with other publications in the city of Kaduna. At least seven people were killed in those attacks. Late Thursday night, gunmen also bombed a building at the campus of Gombe State University, though authorities said no one was injured in the attack.