According to President Buhari, the constitution gives all Nigerians that right and the present administration will deploy all required force and resources to protect citizens’ right to freedom of worship.
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“They killed dozens of people and burned houses after attacking worshipers”, said survivor Mallam Yahi to The Associated Press last week.
Sixty-seven other people were wounded in the attacks Sunday night and were being treated at hospitals, said National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Abdussalam Mohammed.
The second attack targeted the packed Shagalinku restaurant in a shopping complex on the Bauchi Road, which is popular with travellers from the northeast.
Garba said gunmen also opened fire on the mosque from three directions.
One bomb exploded at a restaurant filled with Muslims breaking the Ramadan fast, resident Saminu Attahiru said by phone yesterday.
Sabi’u Bako was picking up a takeout meal when he heard a massive explosion as he walked away with friends.
“The restaurant was destroyed and we saw many people covered in blood”. “We can’t believe that we escaped”.
A bomb blast in Nigeria’s northern university town of Zaria killed 20 people Tuesday, the Kaduna state governor reported, the latest in a string of deadly bombing and shooting attacks by the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.
Musa said the militants looted stores and torched “almost half the village” before subsequently being defeated when soldiers posted reinforcements.
According to an AFP tally, at least 450 people have lost their lives since Buhari’s inauguration.
The U.S. also condemned recent attacks and “continues to provide counterterrorism assistance to help Nigerian authorities… combat the threat posed by Boko Haram“, said a state department spokesman yesterday.
Witnesses and government officials have blamed last week’s attacks on Boko Haram, the terror group that has been fighting the Nigerian government for more than a decade, pushing to bring an extreme version of Islamic law, or Sharia, to the masses. As it stepped up cross-border attacks, Nigeria and its neighbours deployed a multinational army that this year drove them out. He has preached against Boko Haram for five years and has previously survived an assassination attempt at his home.
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“The victims included a woman and her two children, the pastor and another worshipper”, added the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
