Police thwart fresh attacks, find over 100 bombs in Kano

Some of the attackers wore police uniforms
KANO  (AFP) – Nigerian police foiled fresh attacks in the city of Kano Monday, discovering eight bomb-laden cars and over 100 unexploded devices around sites attacked last week.

“So far we have discovered over 100 home-made bombs in the operation we have launched in bomb recovery in different parts of the city,” said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.

He said “lots of the unexploded bombs were recovered around the police headquarters” which was one of the targets struck in the deadly Friday attacks.

Earlier Monday police said they found eight explosive-laden cars abandoned by road sides across the city, including one near a police station and another in a market in a densely-populated area of the city.

“We are still facing serious security threats,” he said.

Meanwhile about 200 Muslim clerics and political leaders offered peace prayers in Kano, an ancient holy Muslim city of about 4.5 million people.

“I will pray to God that we should never re-live the catastrophe that resulted in the deaths and maiming in our city,” Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said.

Wole Soyinka implores Nigerians to fellow
Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka appealed to fellow Nigerians to eschew reprisals in the face of the deadly attacks.

“We must not accept the agenda of Boko Haram. Do not consider reprisals, protect your neighbours” Soyinka said. “They (Boko Haram) want… to embark on a programme where neighbours will turn against neighbours.”

Jonathan has said some Boko Haram members have infiltrated government — from the security agencies to the legislature and the executive arm of government.

Senate president David Mark said he and the speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, had ignored security risks to travel to Kano.

“We want to ensure that a few misguided Nigerians who have been led into this action don’t take this country hostage,” he said.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo sought to downplay the crisis.

“Even though it is a big challenge… it is not one that… shakes Nigeria to its foundation,” Obasanjo said in Banjul on Sunday.

Relief workers said the death toll from Friday’s attacks was at least 166 but a doctor at a major hospital said the toll could soar to 250.

Around 50 people gathered Monday outside the main hospital’s morgue waiting to collect remains of their loved ones for burial.

Lying on a bed in a ward at the hospital with a bullet wound in his leg, tannery worker Monday Joseph, 29, said he was driving home from work with four colleagues when one of the bombs went off.

They abandoned the car and started running.

“The four of them died. I am the only one who survived,” he said.

Some of the attackers wore police uniforms

Some of the attackers who carried out coordinated bombings and shootings in the city wore police uniforms as they gunned down officers, police said on Monday.

It was unclear how they obtained the uniforms, but their use led to further confusion on Friday night as the largest city in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north exploded into violence claimed by Islamist group Boko Haram.

“I saw somebody wearing a mobile (police) uniform with an AK-47,” Assistant Police Superintendent Wellington Asiayei said from his hospital bed.

Asiayei said he had just heard a bomb blast and was closing the door to his room in the barracks to run toward the main building at the time.

“I thought it was my colleague, so I now said, ‘Come sir, let’s run to the headquarters. Something is happening.’ So I was about to lock my door … I saw him raise the rifle at me.”

He was shot and his spinal cord was hit, leaving him unable to walk.

Another police source who spoke on condition of anonymity said others were wearing police uniforms as well.

“It was quite difficult for us because some of them wore our uniforms and camouflaged as members of the force,” the source said. “That was what made the situation more difficult.”

The shocking attacks saw more than 20 explosions, with eight locations targeted, including police and immigration offices, as well as widespread shootings and gun battles. Bodies littered the streets the next morning.