Two women apparently on a suicide bombing mission got
killed by their own devices after failing to get a vehicle to
take them to Damaturu, Yobe state capital, eyewitnesses
said.
The incident, which happened at Ngamdu village, however,
led to the death of two travelers, who were standing in
close proximity to the suspected bombers as they waited
for a bus to convey them to Damaturu, some 35km away.
Witnesses said the two women who showed up in Ngamdu
village both looked strange.
According to one witness, who pleaded anonymity, a
discerning bus driver whom the women flagged down to
convey them to Damaturu, suddenly, became suspicious
after observing how unkempt they both looked and quickly
declined by pretending that he was not getting as far as
Damaturu.
“Some of us were slightly suspicious when we saw them,
but we felt they may not be what we suspected them to
be”, said the witness.
He continued: “But when the driver stopped by to pick
them, he later changed his mind and said he was not
going as far as Damaturu; that he would only get to the
next village about 5km ahead and then turn back to
Maiduguri. One of the women who looked desperate
insisted they should join the driver so that he could take
them back to Maiduguri so that theey could get a vehicle
from there to Damaturu because they had waited all day
without getting a vehicle, The driver declined and drove
off; but we all knew the driver was actually going to
Damaturu.
“Minutes after the driver had left them, one of the women
tried to move a bit then we heard an explosion which
instantly killed her and her colleague as well as two other
innocent travellers who were also waiting for a bus.
Seconds later, another bomb exploded from the body of
the other woman who was with the first suicide bomber.
That was when we realised that the women were actually
on a mission to kill in Damaturu”.