Adamawa, Kano attacks: Don’t succumb to terrorists’ blackmail – Atiku; No political or ideological objective whatsoever justifies attacks – U.N

The United Nations and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubaka, have separately condemned the recent wave of suicide bomb attacks targeted at Yola in Adamawa State and Kano city in Kano State.

Reacting to Wednesday’s twin suicide bomb attacks at a popular mobile phone market in Kano, as well as the Yola vegetable market attack, Tuesday, Atiku Abubakar said that no society should surrender to anarchy because of terrorist harassment.

On his part, Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban KI-moon said ‘no political or ideological objective whatsoever justifies the loss of life and terror to which civilians are being subjected.’

Two female suicide bombers, Wednesday afternoon, attacked the Farm Centre, a popular mobile phone market in Kano, Kano State, with 13 reported fatal casualties.

The explosion which was said to have happened at about past 3pm, Wednesday, follows a similar suicide bomb attack at another popular vegetable market in the Jimeta district of Yola, the Adamawa state capital, Tuesday night, which killed 32 people.

Several people have reportedly been rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment with no official casualty figure released by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but militant Islamist group Boko Haram has previously attacked Kano.

Two blasts were said to have hit the market in the afternoon with an unconfirmed 13 fatalities.

Residents of the northern commercial city say one of the bombs went off inside the market, called Farm Centre, and the other outside.

On Tuesday, a night-time suicide bomber killed 32 people and wounded 80 at a popular market in Yola, Adamawa.

The explosion occurred at a fruit and vegetable market beside a main road in the Jimeta district of Yola, the Adamawa’s state capital around 8pm.

The terror attack has been linked to Boko Haram extremists.

Tuesday night’s blast breaks a three-week hiatus in bombings after a string of suicide attacks culminated in twin explosions in mosques in two north-eastern cities that killed 42 people and wounded more than 100 on October 23.

One of the mosques attacked was in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where the insurgents struck again.

It was the third suicide bombing in as many months in a city overflowing with some of the 2.3 million refugees driven from their homes by the extremist Islamic uprising.

“At least 32 people were killed and about 80 wounded victims were evacuated to nearby hospitals after the blast,” coordinator Sa’ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed.

Most victims were vendors and passers-by, said Deputy Superintendent Othman Abubakar, the police spokesman for Adamawa state.

Reacting to the attacks in Yola, Adamawa State and Kano, Tuesday, the former Vice President in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, said the Boko Haram terrorists are increasingly desperate as “they lost one captured territory after another, and the massive attack on their hideout (Sambisa forest) by Nigerian troops”.

According to the former Vice President, the terrorists are looking for soft targets to unleash their frustrations, adding that such methods of targeting defenceless people will not help the terrorists achieve their ambition to establish the reign of terror.

The Turaki Adamawa said he is highly disturbed by these senseless and purposeless attacks on innocent people, explaining that “killing innocent people is the worst injustice and human rights violation”.

According to Atiku, there is no moral, legal or economic reason to justify the killing of the innocent by any group of people anywhere.

The former Vice President, however, advised the people not to despair but to be vigilant because “terrorism would ultimately collapse from its own weak moral foundation of injustice and indiscriminate murder of the innocent.”

He urged the security agencies to step up their intelligence gathering initiatives and to establish listening posts to track and nip in the bud the murderous plots of the insurgents.

He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in both the Yola and Kano attacks even as he urged emergency agencies to ensure that the wounded get adequate medical attention.

Also, reacting, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, condemned the bomb attack on 17 November in the city of Yola, in the north-eastern state of Adamawa, Nigeria, which resulted in dozens dead and scores injured.

He extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the Government and people of Nigeria, and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.

The Secretary-General reiterates that no political or ideological objective whatsoever justifies the loss of life and terror to which civilians are being subjected. He also reiterates the UN’s support to the Nigerian government in its fight against terrorism, which – to be effective – should also be grounded in international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law.

President Muhammadu Buhari had condemned the recent Jimeta bomb blast, describing it as ‘callous’, just as he also condoled with the families of victims of the terror attack.

‘The enemies of humanity will never win. Hand in hand, we will rid our land of terrorism,’ President Buhari said in a tweet via his Twitter handle, @Mbuhari, Tuesday night.

“Pres @Mbuhari extends sincere condolences to the families of the victims of tonight’s callous attacks on Yola.”