Loud explosions heard in Maiduguri this morning raising fears of a possible bomb blast

BORNO State capital Maiduguri is feared to have been rocked by a bomb blast early this morning with eyewitnesses reporting loud explosions and the exchange of artillery fire around the city centre.

Like the rest of Nigeria, voters in Borno State are participating in presidential and National Assembly elections today but just about two hours to commencement of voting, fear gripped Maiduguri. While the specific locations that were affected could not be established, some witnesses said the explosions sounded like artillery fire coming from foot soldiers testing their weapons while others said that there were between five and 10 blasts.

One member of the vigilante Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), said: “We heard up to five blasts when we went out to our mosques to pray but our imam insisted we conclude our prayers and wait for proactive response from the security services. We think these are suicide bombers who infiltrated the city before the flag off of the election knowing that this is the only day this year when people will gather in crowded areas to vote.”

Some other residents, however, believed the blasts may have been the military testing their fire power in readiness for today's elections. Similar explosions were heard in Geidam, the hometown of the governor of neighbouring Yobe State who is contesting to become a senator in these elections.

Despite the scares, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) says it has completed the distribution of election materials across Borno State. Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, the Borno State resident electoral commissioner, said that the commission distributed election materials across the 27 local government areas in the state between Thursday and Friday.

He added: “We transported election materials and personnel to long distance council areas on Thursday and we supplied the materials to Maiduguri and nearby areas on Friday. All arrangements for logistics, deployment of over 22,000 workers are completed and ready for the election.

Alhaji Ibrahim explained that election materials were dispatched to the 13 distant local government areas on Thursday, while the materials were transported to the remaining 14 local councils close to the state capital on Friday. He expressed optimism that the elections will go ahead as scheduled today across the state.