Patriotism!! How Cameraman & Police Saved Lives From Damaturu Suicide Attack

  If not for the extra vigilance of a
cameraman and police officer at the
scene of a suicide attack that killed
eight persons at the outskirts of
Damaturu, the Yobe State capital,
yesterday, more lives would have
been wasted if one of the injured
suicide bombers had succeeded in
igniting a handbag filled with more
bombs.
A group of suspected Boko Haram
suicide bombers yesterday came in a
convoy of two vehicles, a Toyota
Highlander with a Bauchi State
number plate -and a Ford Galaxy mini
bus marked 2B 2108 and approached
from Maiduguri towards Damaturu.
But police officers at the checkpoint
stopped the two vehicle, as they
curiously noticed the car leading the
convoy with a strange tourists
number plate.
Upon interrogation, the visibly
dishevelled looking passengers
claimed to be foreign diplomats
travelling from Maiduguri to
Damaturu.
Dissatisfied with their conduct, the
police officers insisted on taking them
to the station for proper
interrogation.
But within seconds, the Toyota
Highlander went off in massive
explosion and flung most of the
passengers out of the jeep in their
dismembered form.
Only the female passenger survived
the explosion with an injury on her
waist.
Four of the passengers inside the jeep
were killed instantly alongside the
three police officers who were closed
to the jeep.
As more security operatives, aid
workers and journalists arrived at the
scene, the injured woman was seen
on ground lying almost lifeless, as she
intermittently called for help in Hausa
language.
A camera man who was filming the
injured woman that was moving
suddenly sighted her trying to drag a
reg handbag in front of her. But the
cameraman quickly alerted a nearby
police officer over the bid of the
woman to hide the handbag under
the veils she was wearing .
“As we sensed she was up to
something sinister by trying to
conceal the handbag under her veil,
we immediately sensed she was trying
to detonate bombs hidden inside the
handbag”, said a police officer who
sought anonymity.
“All threats to make her hand over
the handbag proved abortive. So one
of our men had to fire a shot at her
from a distance in order to disarm
her.
“And to our dismay, when the bomb
experts from the Explosives Ordnance
Department came and carefully
opened the bag, we found five unit of
live mortar explosives inside the
handbag. It took extra care to defuse
the explosives, because it is capable
of causing massive destruction”.