Bloody Friday In Kano: Multiple Explosions Kill 90 In ‘Emirs’ Mosque

Three simultane­ous explosions went off on Fri­day at the Kano Central Mosque situ­ated at Kofar Arewa within the city, killing at least 64 worshippers who had converged on the mosque for their Ju­mat prayers.

Acting Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Sanusi N Lemo who gave insight into the casualty figure admit­ted that many people were injured as a result of the explosions. It was however learnt that over 126 persons were injured in the multiple blasts.

The tragic explosions, which went off at about 2pm, just as the Jumat prayer was about to begin, triggered panic, pains and agony across the city.

Both the injured and the dead were moved to various health facilities in the state, particularly the nearby Mur­tala Mohammed Specialist Hospital and the Abdullahi Wase General Hospital in the state.

There were gory sights of mangled bodies and pools of blood around the area of the blast, including a huge dark smoke of explosion that bil­lowed up into the skylines after the blasts.

Eye witnesses told Sat­urday Sun that they heard the firing of gunshots in the wake of the explosions, but it could not be established if the gunshots were coming from suspected insurgents.

The aftermath of the ex­plosions was very chaotic and confusing with hundreds of worshippers including nearby residents running in different directions in search of safety.

Immediate escape from the environment of the blast was not easy as several people were running at the same time, Saturday Sun gathered.

It was reported that a sus­pected member of Boko Ha­ram captured by the youths of the area was immediately set ablaze. But this could not be verified.

Angered by the blasts, the youths in the area gathered in small groups and became restive, angry at the security personnel who came to res­cue the situation.

It took close to an hour before the security person­nel, including soldiers , could successfully take con­trol of the restive situation and restore order.

At the Abdullahi Wase Specialists Hospital in the city, at about 5.00pm, Sat­urday Sun observed several wounded persons who had different forms of injuries while medical workers made frantic efforts to help them.

Traffic to the hospital was also heavy as rela­tives of the injured persons streamed down in numbers to establish if their loved ones were affected and to sympathize with them.

Acting Police Public Re­lations officer, DSP Mus­tapha Abubakar confirmed that the police have restored order in the affected area. It could be recalled that the Kano Central Mosque is lo­cated very close to the pal­ace of Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi.

It is also the mosque where the monarch goes for prayers whenever he is in Kano. Luckily on this occa­sion, he was not in the state as he had travelled abroad a few days ago.