Officials in northern Nigeria say three young men were killed on Friday when explosions went off at a secret bomb factory in the restive city of Maiduguri, Borno State.
A commander of Nigeria’s anti-terrorism Joint Task Force, Colonel Victor Oheneme, told the VOA the three men were members of the radical sect, Boko Haram.
JTF members rushed to the area after the blasts destroyed a house in the residential Kaleri neighborhood.
There, they discovered the mangled bodies of the men and a stash of homemade bombs.
Photos obtained by VOA show the blasts reduced the house to rubble.
Unexploded bombs at the site show the bomb-makers were constructing their devices out of cans of cooking oil.
Boko Haram group has claimed responsibility for many deadly bombings and shootings across northern Nigeria, including attacks in the city of Kano in January that killed nearly 200 people.
Officials also blame the group for a wave of school burnings in Maiduguri this week.
The group’s name roughly translates to “Western education is a sin.”
Much about Boko Haram remains unknown but the group is believed to be pushing for stricter application of Islamic law in northern Nigeria.
President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to crush the group, but it continues to carry out frequent attacks, often targeting police, government officials, and clergy.
Meanwhile, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, has announced the cancellation of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in the volatile states in northern Nigeria.
Ojerinde said this on Friday at the 58th National Council on Education meeting in Abuja.
He said: “When we reviewed the situation in volatile states, for instance Borno, we realised that some of the schools are being bombed but our investigations showed that only primary schools are affected and not secondary schools.
“The board will be left with no option than to tell the candidates to go elsewhere to write the exams if schools which serve as centres are attacked.”