Gwoza bomb blasts ‘error we didn’t see coming,’ laments Borno Govt

This view shows the Bakassi IDPs Camp in Maiduguri on November 30, 2021 as Internally displaced persons in Maiduguri have vacated their camps ahead of today, dateline for the closure of all Displaced Persons camps by the Borno Government. - Some of the IDPs from Gwoza, Monguno and Guzamala Local Government Areas facilitate their home return. The state’s Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, said the development was part of government commitment to close all IDP camps in Maiduguri in line with its resettlement programme. (Photo by Audu MARTE / AFP)

The Borno State Government has lamented the recent multiple bombings which took place in the Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA), saying it is an ‘error we didn’t see coming’.

The attacks, carried out by four suicide bombers on Saturday, resulted in the loss of 18 lives and injured over 30 others.

Reacting, the Borno State Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Usman Tar, expressed shock over the multiple bombings.

READ ALSO: Tinubu, US condemn Borno bomb attacks, vow to bring perpetrators to justice

“It is not an intelligence failure. It is an error that we did not see coming,” Tar said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast show Sunrise Daily.

The commissioner further explained that the attackers may have exploited the state’s porous borders to carry out their operations.

“If terrorists want to attack and they use a particular route that you don’t know, what can you do? As you know our boundaries are porous that is internationally. Even our local boundaries are porous,” he said.

READ ALSO: CUPP condemns Gwoza bombing, slams government’s inaction

“If terrorists want to attack, they do it using the frontlines. That was what probably happened.”

The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) reported that four suicide bombers detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Gwoza.

More than 30 people were injured in the attack, which was one of the most deadly in Borno in recent months. The severity of injuries ranges from abdominal ruptures to skull and limb fractures.

Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu and the United States Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria on Sunday condemned the Gwoza bomb attacks.

Tinubu, in a statement by his spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, commiserated with the victims of the attacks, the families of the deceased, as well as the government and people of the state.

He said the attack is a clear manifestation of the pressure mounted against terrorists and the success achieved in degrading their capacity to launch offensives.

Tinubu, however, vowed that the purveyors of wanton violence would have a certain encounter with justice and that these cowardly attacks were only an isolated episode.

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