Africa

Africa

Police blame Muslim sect for Nigeria suicide bomb

16 June 2011 17:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A suicide bombing blamed on radical Islamist militants killed at least two people in the parking lot of police headquarters in Nigeria’s capital Thursday, police said, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Olusola Amore, national police spokesman, said police blame the radical Muslim sect locally known as Boko Haram.
"They have been issuing threat upon threat," Amore said.
In a leaflet attributed to Boko Haram and distributed to journalists in Maiduguri Wednesday, a man claiming to be a Boko Haram spokesman warned that the group would launch more attacks after being angered by comments from the national police chief. Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim said during a visit to the northeastern city of Maiduguri Tuesday that "the days of Boko Haram are numbered." His office is at the police headquarters in Abuja.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement that also warned Maiduguri residents to stay indoors to avoid getting caught in the violence. Maiduguri is about 540 miles (872 kilometers) from Abuja.
Boko Haram, whose name in Hausa means "Western education is sacrilege," has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law. The group is responsible for a rash of killings which have targeted security officers, politicians and clerics in Nigeria’s restive north over the last year.
Amore said Thursday’s blast killed the suicide bomber and a traffic warden who rode in the car to show the driver where to park. He said the police had recovered the body of the suicide bomber and started a full investigation into the attack.
Nigeria has experienced a rise in bomb attacks in public spaces over the last year, but suicide bombings are practically unheard of in Africa’s most populous nation.
Umar Mairiga, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said that seven injured people were taken to a hospital for treatment and two had already been discharged. He said it was difficult to confirm how many people had died in a blast that left bodies dismembered in the parking lot outside the building of the police headquarters Thursday morning.
Police said 33 cars had been damaged beyond repair and 40 more had been partially damaged by the explosion. Thick black smoke could be seen from far away at the time of the blast, and fire services have since put out the fire. Army, police and emergency workers were also at the blast site.
The police headquarters building was not affected by the blast.
Boko Haram’s attacks had been restricted to Nigeria’s northeast until last month when one of the alleged spokesmen claimed responsibility for three blasts that hit the northeastern city of Bauchi, the north-central city of Zaria and a town near the capital.
Police have been a primary target for the group in its stronghold of Maiduguri. Boko Haram has, however, not be known to attack the capital city in the past.
A bomb exploded on New Year’s Eve in an open-air beer garden and market at an army barracks in the capital, killing at least four and wounding at least 21, police said.
Dual car bombings killed at least 12 people during Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary celebrations in Abuja on Oct. 1. One bomb detonated, with another exploding about five minutes later, targeting police, firefighters and curious onlookers gathered there. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the dominant militant group in the Niger delta region, claimed responsibility for the anniversary attacks.