Borno State - Defence Headquarters in Abuja have issued the statement saying four suspected suicide bombers were killed in separate explosions while trying to attack a NNPC facility along Maiduguri-Damboa federal highway.
According to the statement signed by Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, three of the four explosives-laden vehicles were demobilized by soldiers' gunfire at a major checkpoint in Mulai, a community along the Damboa-Biu road. Five soldiers have been reported injured.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse, Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jibrin reported that one car exploded at 7:50 a.m., killing 3 civilians. Ten minutes later, a bomb hit a police vehicle, killing 5 officers and 3 another persons who are yet to be determined either as civilians or Boko Haram insurgents.
Sources at the scene say that the suicide bombers, driving four Volkswagen golf cars laden with improvised explosive devices rammed into two military patrol vehicles. Others indicate the attackers were trying to speed past the checkpoint to set off the blasts at the petrol station, which was backed up with vehicles because of fuel shortages across Nigeria.
Immediately after the blast, 7 Division men of Nigerian Army, mobile policemen and vigilante youths mobilized to the scene and cordoned off the area to prevent any further attacks. Residents of Molai and Damboa road are fleeing their homes.
It would be recalled that an emergency rule has been imposed onto the Northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in May, 2013. Recently, the Nigerian military reclaimed the Maiduguri Giwa Barracks, capturing and killing several members of the Boko Haram sect insurgents.