SEVEN EXPLOSIONS ROCK BORNO AFTER PRESIDENTS VISIT

Terrorists were back in ‘business’ in Maiduguri yesterday just five hours after President Goodluck Jonathan rounded off his two-day visit to  Borno and Yobe states to try to galvanize support for his battle against Islamist insurgents.

  Seven loud explosions shook the city at about 6pm.

The explosions happened within minutes of each other, suggesting the kind of co-ordinated strike that used to be the hallmark of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, before a military campaign weakened them.

There was no immediate report of any casualty.

The blasts were reported at Bumdum,Customs area and Gamboru parts of the city .

 The sect  remains the main security headache to the federal government

President Jonathan spent Thursday  night in Maiduguri, the epicenter of the insurgency.

It was his first trip to the troubled area since assuming office.

The president had met with stakeholders  in the state yesterday to discuss possible solutions to the crisis.

“I heard seven explosions successively. They were huge, but I have no way of knowing whether the explosions hurt anybody,” a Maiduguri resident, Usman Abubakar, said on the telephone.

At yesterday’s  town hall meeting, President Jonathan urged the stakeholders   to wheedle out the fundamentalists  in their midst.

“Unless the elders of Borno condemn and fight Boko Haram, the people of the state shall continue to suffer from their attacks,” he added.