The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Blast

  • Breaking News: Another blast in Jos

    Breaking News: Another blast in Jos

    Another explosion similar to the type that happened in Jos Terminus market last Tuesday has been reported in the Plateau State capital.

    The heavy sound of the blast was heard at about 9:15pm Saturday night.

    From the direction of the blast, the location was believed to be around Bauchi ring road junction.

    A member of the special task force (STF) who prefers not to be mentioned confirmed the bomb explosion at Bauchi road but could not give further details.

    The security agencies promptly moved to the direction of the blast. It was difficult to ascertain level of casualties since it happened in the night.

    The sound of the blast sent shiver across the state. People who were watching the final of the Champion league at drinking joint quickly rushed home to avoid been trapped.

    Spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)  Manzo Ezekiel and the spokesman of the state government, Pam Ayuba confirmed the fresh blast but could not confirm the causalities.

    There have been rumors of more bomb explosion in Jos since that of last Tuesday.

    Last Tuesday’s twin blast killed 118 people while over 100 were injured.

  • Bomb blasts: 8 suspects held in Abuja

    Security agencies have arrested eight persons in the Federal Capital Territory in connection with the recent bomb blasts in which many innocent persons were killed and scores injured.

    The blasts occurred twice within two weeks at the Nyanya area of the capital city.

    A statement on Saturday  by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade said the eight suspects who were arrested at Kugbo area of the capital city were undergoing interrogation.

    Olukolade said the suspects were arrested during a raid by a combined team of security agencies following Thursday’s bomb blast in the capital city.

    According to him, most of the suspects are foreigners who were picked up close to the site of the bombings.

    “Those confirmed to constitute threat to security will be handed over to appropriate prosecutorial agencies on conclusion of preliminary investigation”, the statement added.

    In a related development, four villagers were on Saturday said to have been killed by suspected terrorists in Margimari village, in the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

    According to Olukolade, the terrorists were swiftly repelled by security agencies at 2 a.m, following a distress call. The statement said there was no terrorist attack in Maiduguri as reported by a foreign television station.

    The statement also denied any fighting or attack around the University of Maiduguri or any barracks in the city.

    The Defence spokesman similarly said troops of the multinational task force had taken custody of a Chadian, Usman Mecheka, operating with terrorists group around Lake Chad. 

    He was said to have been arrested while trying to extract a ransom from herdsmen and farmers in the area, after an earlier attack on the community.

    The statement also said troops of the special task force in the Plateau had  raided a camp maintained by an armed gang operating in a settlement in Shendam local government area of the state.

    “A gun fabricating machine as well as some arms and ammunition from the hideout were recovered during the raid.  Also recovered during the raid, were local single barrel guns, pistols, an automatic rifle, bullet pellets and a large quantity of materials for producing gun powder.

    “The raid has equally yielded vital details to track down the operators of the gun fabricating hideout who are now on the run. The area is also being combed in the search for similar criminal outfits.

    “In another development in Tanabu community in the Barkin Ladi local government area in Plateau state, troops of the Special Task Force have successfully repelled an attack by a gang of cattle rustlers who had invaded the community after a shootout. 

    “The troops had the encounter when they responded to a distress call from herdsmen in the area, leaving one of the cattle rustlers dead while others fled when they were overpowered by the troops.

    “In the meantime, Operation Restore Peace currently being conducted in the North Central States has maintained its operational tempo in the efforts to stamp out the activities of armed gangs in the region”, the statement added.

  • Bomb blast in Borno again

    A double barrel explosion was heard in the outskirts of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state Saturday evening as residents ran helter-skelter around Bulunkutu Maiduguri town.

    It was not very clear if lives were lost but a military source confirmed that the explosion occurred around Ailari Bintu area behind the 707 housing estate of the state capital.

    It was learnt that the blast may have been possibly by a suicide bomber who has succeeded in penetrating the tight security checks mounted in the town.

    Sources say that the twin-bomb explosion caused panic as several persons were alleged to have been killed when a pick-up van loaded with fire woods suddenly exploded and went into flames.

    The people of the area who spoke to reporters on phone said the pick-up van parked very close to the Bulunkutu commercial area where people gathered to take their dinner of fried akara, roasted and fried fish barbecue.

    It is believed that among those killed were those that besieged the commercial area to buy their dinner and some commuters around the ill fated fire wood vehicle.

    Another source said that the twin explosion shook the entire area as if it was an earthquake while it was believed that another bomb may be planted in the area because the police anti bomb squad was yet to arrive as at the time of this report.

  • Jonathan condemns Kano bomb blast

    President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned Monday’s bomb blast in Kano.

    According to a statement issued  by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Rueben Abati, the President said that the barbaric incident will not deter the Federal Government from its strong-willed determination to overcome those who do not mean well for the nation.

    The Federal Government, he said, will not be stampeded, for any reason whatsoever, into abandoning its unrelenting war against terrorists in the country.

    The statement reads in parts: “President Jonathan reassured Nigerians and foreigners in the country that the Nigerian Government will continue to do all that is required to ensure the safety of lives and property, including continued collaboration with local and international partners and stakeholders to check the menace of terrorism.”

    “President Jonathan commiserated with the victims of the Kano explosions, their families and friends, and assured the Kano State government of the Federal Government’s continued support.” It stated

  • Club owners blast Baribote over comment on minister

    Club owners blast Baribote over comment on minister

    Sequel to the comment credited to the sacked chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) board, Chief Rumson Victor Baribote, that the Sports Minister, Honourable Bolaji Abdullahi influenced his removal from the league board, the Club Owners have asked him to prove his allegation.

    Spokesperson of the Club Owners, Mike Idoko, in a statement, said allegation that the minister masterminded his removal smacks of ignorance, stressing that Baribote was only looking for who to blame for his inability to perpetuate himself in office.

    According to Idoko, the NPL under the leadership of Baribote eroded all gains made over the years by his predecessors.

    “Baribote missed the point by saying the minister masterminded his removal. As managers of clubs we know what is good and best for us and we realised late that with the Baribote-led board, the Nigerian league is heading to the rocks. And for him to allege that the minister masterminded his removal is to say the least insulting to the honourable minister.

    “The NPL under Baribote was never elected in the first place as no election took place when the court sacked Owumi. The Club Owners gave him the mandate believing he will bring relief to the comatose league. Title sponsorship became a problem and the clubs were made to bear the brunt of the lack of sponsorship,” Idoko said.

    The Club Owners, according to Idoko, would never be stooge to anybody, stating that they would not hesitate to withdraw from the present Interim Management Committee when they start showing trait of underdevelopment.

    “The Club Owners has never done the bidding of anybody and will never do. We were fed up with the management style of the last board. We did what was right in line with the statutes of the NPL and the power given to clubs by FIFA. If the present board starts following in the footsteps of Baribote, we will have no choice than to pull out,” Idoko, who is a member of the Interim Committee, said.

    He declined comment on the purported court case instituted against him and others by Baribote, saying he would talk after the case had been settled in court.

  • Remembering Madallah blast victims

    Remembering Madallah blast victims

    SIR: It’s only a man whose’s consciousness has been riddled with bullet’s of blind mentality and incurable irrationality that can confute the axiomatic submission of Claude Mekay’s magnum opus titled“if we must die”. Claude was right when he told us in his poem that “if we must die, let it not be like dogs, hunted and penned in inglorious spot. If we must die, let us nobly die”.

    Merchants of sudden death and death-defying ogres invaded Saint Theresa Catholic Church last Christmas and killed their fellow men like dogs during Christmas mass. Men and women, boys and girls who left home for the Church to celebrate the birth of Church, never returned to home, as they were sent to Golgotha in unimaginable pieces by despicable death hawkers.

    I understood John F. Kennedy when he said “forgive your enemies but never forget their names”. Others may choose to forgive and forget those monstrous gallow-birds’sflying like vultures in search for harmless prey, but I will never forget. As I urge Nigerians to stay on alert this Christmas, please let’s make it a solemn duty to give useful information about those irredeemable agents of unthinkable criminality to security agents nearest to you. I think the best way to celebrate this season is to assist our security agency with credible and timely information so that we can have a peaceful celebration this year. Remember security is the duty of all.

    We should never submit to fear and together we can defeat our fear. Therefore, I urge you to resist the temptation of forsaking the house of God this Christmas. We should be in church if we wish and do not forsake the church because of those monstrous characters, who come like the biblical thief in the night to kill, steal and destroy.

    Let’s remember the victims of Saints Theresa Catholic Church tragedy in our silent prayers. May God grant them eternal rest and comfort their families left behind. Certainly, the time to end the groundless and senseless violence is now. Since they say “it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war”, because after war-war, we will still go to the table of ‘talk-talk’ to discuss, why not discuss and avoid war-war?

    To Christians I say keep faith, for the abyss of darkness awaits those despicable ‘ganakos’ who invade places of worship.

    • Godfrey Ehi O.

    Benin City

  • Three injured in Kano blast

    Three persons, including a traffic warden, were critically injured in an early morning bomb blast at Kantin Kwari junction near the famous Kantin Kware Textile Market in Kano.

    A witness to the explosion, who preferred anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano that the bomb went off around 8.45 a.m. on Monday.

    It was suspected to have been planted near the traffic junction.

    “The incident happened when most of the people were still at home, otherwise many people, especially traders would have lost their lives,” the witness said.

    It was gathered that soon after the blast, the Joint Task Force operatives arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area.

    When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident.

    He said the bomb was planted near the Eid praying ground very close to the Kantin Kware junction in the metropolis.

    He said the incident happened around 8.30 a.m. and that three persons sustained injuries.

     

  • Hold Bauchi government liable for blast – CAN

    Hold Bauchi government liable for blast – CAN

    The Christian Association of Nigeria on Monday blamed the Bauchi State government for Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a Catholic Church in the state.

    It would be recalled that a suicide bomber attacked Saint John’s Catholic Church in Bauchi, killing two people and injured several others.

    The attack was the third in two weeks.

    The first occurred a week ago where nine people were killed in Zango village by unknown gunmen and the killing last week Monday of former Comptroller General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Ibrahim Jarma, who was shot dead together with his orderly after he came out from the mosque near his house in Azare.

    CAN blame the attacks, which it said is targeted at Christians on the state government.

    A statement issued in Abuja by CAN’s National General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Musa Asake, said the body received the news of the bombing with a mixture of shock and sadness.

    The statement reads:

    “The Christian Association of Nigeria received with shock the bomb explosion at the St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in Bauchi which killed four people when an explosives-packed car reportedly rammed into the line of worshippers waiting to be screened before entering the Church.

    “The government has failed to take precautionary measures and compliment the efforts of Christians in the state. As it is, the state government seems to be unfazed by the calamities happening to Christians.

    “It is sad that after several attacks on Christians in the state we are still unable to put our fingers on the government’s ability to secure the lives, property of Christians and their Churches.”