Crime
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Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja was again under attack on Thursday, May 1, when suspected suicide bombers of Boko Haram sect, again attacked the place barely three weeks after a similar bomb blast had killed more than 70 innocent Nigerians
| By Vincent Nzemeke | May 12, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
LESS than three weeks after a bomb blast that killed more than 70 people and left many others with various degrees of injuries in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja, another explosion rocked the area on the night of Thursday May 1, 2014.
The blast which took place at about 8:00pm and just a few metres away from where the previous one happened killed about 10 people and left about 60 others injured.
According to those around the vicinity, the blast took place when a man believed to be a suicide bomber drove in a bomb laden Volkswagen Golf car into the make shift park. But as the driver of the car was walking away, there was an explosion from the car, killing him and those around the scene.
Unlike the previous blast, the impact of this blast was minimal. Other than the bomb-laden vehicle, which went up in flames about four other vehicles were burnt. Many other cars around the scene had their wind screen smashed as a result of the impact of the blast.
Police, military personnel, officials of the national emergency management agency, NEMA and the national security and civil defence corps, NSCDC, also arrived early at the scene. They cordoned off the area and moved the dead bodies and injured people in ambulances to nearby hospitals.
The causality rate was also minimal largely because the incident occurred on a public holiday when many workers in the city stayed at home. According to sources, the explosion was a mistake as the suicide bomber intended to park the car overnight and detonate the explosives on Friday morning when many workers would be on their way to work.
Paul Idika, an official of the vehicle inspection office, VIO, who was on his way home from work when the explosion occurred, said no one around the area anticipated it. “I was waiting to cross the road and board a bike to my house. I just heard a loud bang and everybody was running in different directions. I didn’t see the man who drove the car but those who saw him said he looked like an ordinary cab driver,” he said.
Idika’s story was corroborated in a press statement by Emmanuel Okeh, head of the public relations department, NCSDC and Manzo Ezekiel, the press officer of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, who said security officials were working to safeguard the area where the blast took place. Ezekiel said: “Security agencies have cordoned the area of an explosion this evening in Nyanya Abuja, response agencies have moved injured victims to hospitals and at least nine lifeless bodies have been deposited in the mortuary while 11 unconscious victims are receiving medical attention in different hospitals in Abuja. Other injured victims too are being attended to.
“The public is urged to cooperate with security agencies and avoid rushing to the scene to guard against hampering the efforts of the various agencies working together to ensure public safety.”
As a result of blast, security activities have been intensified on the ever busy Maraba-Nyanya road. Soldiers have mounted more checkpoints and searching vehicles thoroughly thereby causing commuters to spend more time on the road.
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