Four shot d*ad at Maiduguri filling station during protest as IED k!lls one, injures 11 others

The Borno Police Command has said that an Improvised Explosive Device in Maiduguri resulted in the d*ath of one male victim, with 11 others sustaining various degrees of injuries.

The Police Commissioner, Yusuf Lawal, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, August 2, 2024, said the incident occurred during the protest against bad governance at Deribe Junction near Federal Government Girls’ College Monguno Annex Bulumkutu area, Maiduguri.

Lawal said that the injured victims were taken to the State Specialist Hospital Maiduguri for treatment while the corpse was given for autopsy.

He said that the police swiftly deployed personnel of the Explosive Ordnance Device, Base 13, who probed the scene and rendered the area around a filling station safe.

However, some residents, who shared a graphic video from the scene, debunked the report of the IED explosion, claiming that four staff of A. A Kime filling station, Bolori Junction in Maiduguri was shot d*ad by security operatives after some protesters ran towards the petrol station. 

A lawyer, Muhammad Adam, said the victims were not protesters but staff of the filling station. 

According to Daily Trust, officials at the petrol station, who identified the deceased as their workers, gave separate accounts of how the victims died. 

“As I’m speaking to you know, they are still lying in the pool of their blood,” said one of the attendants who gave his name as Malam Musa, told the publication. 

Musa who confirmed that he was with the victims said they died from an explosion.

“I nearly got affected, but as God would have it, I escaped unhurt,” he said. 

However, another source, who pleaded for anonymity, said the deceased were hit by stray bullets.

“I was opposite the filling station when the incident happened, there was nothing like blast, we just heard sporadic gunshot and the boys were down. Four of them d!ed instantly,” he said.