Three separate attacks hit the country at Biu, Potiskum and Okrika on Tuesday, February 17, 2015.
Over 25 people died in Nigeria in separate bomb blasts and other suicide attacks carried out by suspected Boko Haram militants on Tuesday, February 17, 2015, BBC reported.
The attack with the heaviest casualties happened outside the north-eastern town of Biu following explosions at a military checkpoint leading to the killing of 20 people. Troops present at the checkpoint reportedly fired back, killing 17 of the insurgents.
In the second attack on February 17, a suicide bomber killed four people and injured five others at a restaurant near a military checkpoint in Potiskum, north-eastern Nigeria. In the southern part of the country one police officer was killed and four others injured during a rally organized by the main opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC) in Okrika, a small port town south of Port Harcourt in the heart of Nigeria’s oil-producing region. BBC reported that a reporter covering the rally was also stabbed.
APC members were waiting for the rally to begin, witnesses are cited as saying when there were several explosions and gunfire. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, considering that the terrorist group, Boko Haram is not known to operate in the region. However, BBC cited a video purportedly released by the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau who has vowed to disrupt Nigeria's elections at any cost. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election against the main opposition All Progressives Congress candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has been strongly criticised for his handling of the Islamist insurgency.
Despite the continuous suicide attacks mostly on civilians by the Boko Haram terrorist group, government has launched a serious offensive to dislodge and chase away Boko Haram militants from the towns and localities they are occupying in the three north-eastern States of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. The army is said to have successfully retaken the towns of Monguno and Marte from Boko Haram on February 16, 2015.
