The Nigerian military on Tuesday set up an investigative panel to probe the Easter Sunday attack by Boko Haram insurgents in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Inaugurating the four-member panel to be headed by Brigadier General Henry Wesley, head of the Nigerian military’s operation in the North-East, Major Nicolas Rogers said the setting up of the committee became expedient given the large number of civilian casualties recorded in the deadly attack.

He told reporters in his office that over 10 suicide bombers, accompanied by heavily armed men attempted to infiltrate the city of Maiduguri but in the process of the military trying to repel them, 28 persons lost their lives while about 80 others sustained various degrees of injuries.

He said the panel had been mandated to unravel what went wrong and make recommendations on how to prevent a future occurrence of such dastardly acts.

Rogers said: “The Committee has been inaugurated by the Theatre Command to unravel what happened and to ensure that such occurrences do not happen again.

“We are going to tighten up security and work with the state government to ensure that the various communities assist us with information.”

While expressing sadness over the high casualty figure of the attack, Major Rogers stressed that the situation could have been worse had the military not mobilized quickly to stop the attackers from gaining entry into the city.

The panel, which has Captain Mairuwa as Secretary, Lt.Col. Mohammed and Col. Bassey as members is expected to visit the location of the attack, interact with the locals and the Borno State Government and come up with a report to be submitted to the appropriate security authorities within three days.