2 suicide bombers blow self up in failed Maiduguri mosque attack..

MAIDUGURI—Two suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers blew themselves up near Sulemanti Mosque in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State, in the early hours of yesterday.

The suspects, according to Borno State Police Command, strapped with Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, targeted a mosque in Sulemanti.

However, the bombs went off, killing the two suspects during midnight Ramadan prayers.

Spokesman of Borno Police Command, Isuku Victor, confirmed the incident yesterday in Maiduguri, stating that “a team of Police Explosives Ordinance Department, EOD, has been deployed to the scene this morning (yesterday) near Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, depot.” A civilian Joint Task Force member, Bukar Fantami, said the suicide bombers were intercepted near a mosque premises, where they blew themselves up.

Fantami said: “The people in the mosque took to their heels, while we challenged the explosives-strapped suspects on their mission to the mosque, before the explosives exploded near the mosque, under this tree. “It was God that saved us. We would have been killed in the dawn suicide bombings. One of our members was injured by a shrapnel from the explosives.

A woman also sustained a leg injury. She has been taken to a nearby clinic for treatment.” On how the suspected terrorists sneaked into Maiduguri, Fantami said: “Sulemanti ward and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, quarters, south of the metropolis, is porous with no military posts and patrols at the south flank.”

Meanwhile, the mosque has been condoned off by soldiers and policemen to prevent any further attacks on mosques and other public places in the metropolis. /