Twin bomb blasts have killed at least 18 people during pre-dawn prayers at a crowded mosque in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Friday, according to an eyewitness account.
The blasts, according to residents, were carried out by a lone suicide bomber in the Jiddari Polo area around 5am.
While spokesman of the youth vigilante Civilian JTF, Jubrin Gumda, put the toll at 11 people dead, Abdulkadir Ibrahim of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said six people died.
Sources at the State Specialist Hospital said that six bodies were brought to the hospital from the scene of the blast, adding that 15 injured people were under treatment.
A civilian JTF operative, who spoke anonymously from the scene of the incident, confirmed that “so far, we have evacuated 18 bodies to the hospital alongside many injured ones that are almost lifeless”.
“It was a lone male suicide bomber even though we all heard two explosions”, he said.
PRNigeria, an agency that distributes press statements on behalf of Nigerian security and rescue agencies, said the incident occurred during the early Morning Subhi Prayer.
The agency said “the explosion was carried out by a suspected lone suicide bomber whose two accomplices escaped, when some vigilant members of the community accosted them on their suspicious movements”.
It quoted a senior health official as confirming that six bodies had been deposited in the mortuary, while about 17 other injured victims were being treated at the Specialist Hospital and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
No one has claimed responsibility but Ibrahim blamed terror group, Boko Haram, which has been trying to carve out an Islamic state in the North since 2009 for Friday’s attacks.
