Fresh facts emerged yesterday, on how members of Boko Haram, were able to perpetrate Friday's dastardly bombing that claimed about 12 lives and injuring many more at the Internally Displaced Persons camp in Yola, Adamawa State.
Ongoing investigations have revealed possibly loopholes through which suspected members of the Jamaatu Ahliss-Sunnah Liddaawati Wal Jihadotherwise, popularly known as Boko haram terrorist smuggled explosive devices into the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), camp in Malkohi, Yola, Adamawa State on Friday which claimed the lives of 12 people and injuring several others (
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According to the Vanguard, eye witnesses and returnees, resident in the camp, said some Boko Haram members masquerading as IDPs were inadvertently brought into the camp on Thursday, some 24 hours before the camp bombing.They revealed that some of the persons, brought into the camp from Sambisa Forest, were the prime suspects in the bombing.
One of the eye witnesses, Mr. Sunday Musa, told Sunday Vanguard that camp inmates were preparing to have breakfast when the blast occurred. Musa explained that he and other inmates who had stayed long enough in Malkohi camp, had not been comfortable whenever new inmates were, brought in, confirming that there was a protest in the camp, sometime in March, when some IDPs were brought from Sambisa Forest.
“Our fears were that we in camp know one another; we know where we came from; and for the military to just bring unknown faces to join us, especially from Sambisa Forest, has always been very disturbing to us”.
“Now”, he continued, “see what has happened. Unknown IDPs were brought in yesterday and there is bomb blast today. Who do you think is responsible?”
Sunday Vanguard discovered that the influx of IDPs, who may not have been properly screened before being allowed into the camp, was a possibility.
Another inmate, who preferred anonymity, disclosed that the bombing was not carried out by the usual drive-by instance or a suicide bomber who drove straight into the camp. He added, “From the way the bomb exploded and the very stern nature of the work of the military here, it may have been smuggled into the camp much earlier.”
NEMA Camp Coordinator in Adamawa State, Sa’ad Bello, suspected that the blast might have originated from the over 300 IDPs brought into the camp that Thursday morning from Madagali and 70 others from Sambisa Forest.