58 people have been reported killed while 139 were injured following the multiple bombings that hit strategic points of Maiduguri the Borno State capital.
The Borno State Commissioner of Police, Clement Adoda, confirmed this to the media on Saturday.
The Chief Medical Director of Borno State Specialists Hospital, Dr Salisu Kwaya Bra, had earlier told Channels Television that more than 50 people died in the multiple blast.
“So far 50 dead bodies have been received here from the three blasts and 36 injured persons are receiving treatment at our Accident and Emergency Unit,” he disclosed to journalists at the hospital.
At the hospital mortuary, an attendant also confirmed that “more corpses were being brought to the morgue apart from the ones already on ground”.
The anonymous source had also explained that more corpses might be recorded because some victims of the blast had been taken to the University Teaching Hospital and others to Umaru Shehu Hospital.
The first blast which occurred near a local market along Baga road around 12:00 noon was said to have claimed some lives at the scene before the second, which happened at the popular Monday market at about 12:05 noon local time.
Witnesses said that the blast occurred close to the scene of the last November 2014 blast which killed scores of people.
A resident told Channels Television, “A tricycle was about to enter the popular Baga market at about 12 noon and speedily the blast occurred from the tricycle.
“The exploded scene was crowded as there were many merchants there and many people may have died in the explosion,” he said.
Residents said that they heard another heavy sound within the metropolis at about 12:32 noon
Most roads in Maiduguri metropolis were condoned off to avoid further attack as youth volunteers mounted heavy surveillance in many parts of the city.
Saturday’s bombings in Maiduguri, Borno State is the latest since security forces commenced severe operation in the northeast after the shift of the 2015 general election with a view to curtail the activities of the insurgents in the troubled region.