By Kolajo Olarewaju
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AA) – A suicide bomber attacked a government building in Nigeria’s northeast city of Maiduguri on Thursday, killing five people – including two policemen and himself, witnesses say.
Colonel Mohammed Anka, a spokesman for the military, said the male bomber had attempted to force his way into the Borno State Secretariat complex in the busy business district of the city at about noon local time [1100 GMT] but was intercepted by a policeman.
Anka said the officer who accosted the bomber “died instantly” while his other, critically injured colleague died later in hospital.
However, an Anadolu Agency reporter who visited the scene shortly after the blast saw five bodies being taken to hospital.
Two senior medics at the state specialist hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity told Anadolu Agency that five bodies, including the two policemen and the bomber, were in the morgue.
Maiduguri has been experiencing bomb attacks in recent times, including a suicide attack at a mosque on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday. That attack killed only the bomber.
