Two suicide bombers targeting University of Maiduguri killed

Police on surveillance duty around the University of Maiduguri on Thursday night gunned down two male suicide bombers who were attempting to sneak into the varsity’s campus to carry out another attack.

The police spokesperson, Victor Isukwu, said the suspected attackers were sighted by police snipers at about 9.50 p.m. when they were creeping towards the fence of the university.

“One of the suicide bomber was shot dead, while the second bomber hurriedly detonated IED strapped to his body, killing himself, to avoid being captured alive,” said the police spokesperson.

“It will interest you to know that the command recently deployed a full unit of PMF (Police Mobile Force) personnel, as well as guard and sniffer police dogs to the University, to compliment the presence of security personnel there.

“These deployments have started yielding the desired results, amongst which are, to prevent and nip in the bud any attempt by these enemies of peace to threaten the lives and safety of the University of Maiduguri community and its environs.

He said police operatives from the Explosives Ordnance Department were drafted “to sanitize the scene and its environ, and normalcy has since been restored.”

The University of Maiduguri has since January this year become a major target of Boko Haram suicide bombers leading to the death of over a dozen people including a professor.

The latest attack on the campus was a coordinated one that took place on June 25 during which three suicide bombers found their way into the campus and killed a female security staff of the institution.

The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, had last week approved N50 million for digging of a trench around the perimeters of the university as a short time measure, wading off the invading suicide bombers.

The Senate had early this week called on the federal government to beef up security on the university which it said has become threatened by Boko Haram.