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Police blame Boko Haram for police headquarters attack - 234 next news
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| Security personnel scamper for safety when the explosives went off |
The National Police Headquarters, Abuja was yesterday rocked by a blast from an explosive-laden car that was driven into the compound by a suspected bomber. The attack, which claimed at least two lives, came barely 24 hours after the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, boasted that the violent Islamist sect, Boko Haram, would be suppressed in days.
A traffic warden near the scene who requested anonymity said the explosion took place shortly after Mr Ringim's convoy entered the building. He said the bomber, who was driving an old model Mercedez Benz car, was right behind the IG's incoming convoy, and gained entrance into the building premises despite efforts to dissuade him by policemen riding in the last vehicle in the convoy.
Sources say that as soon as the suspected bomber entered the premises, he attempted to park the car beside that of the inspector general but was stopped by a police superintendent who forced him to move to an adjacent parking garage.
According to police spokesperson, Olusola Amore, "The traffic warden who entered the vehicle of the suicide bomber to direct him to the car park was blown off along with him as soon as they got to the park."
Early visitors to the scene say burning flesh and car parts flew out of the building and landed in adjacent streets, and cars parked metres away from the building had their windows shattered. Mr Amore said that over 700 cars were affected, with half of them destroyed.
When NEXT visited the scene about 30 minutes after the blast, military officers were seen guarding a human body part on a street near Protea Hotel, Asokoro, and there was blood beside the fence of the hotel near the police headquarters. A police cap with bloodstains could be seen by the walls of the police headquarters although the body of the victim was not there.
Only a day earlier, in response to Mr Ringim's statement vowing to end the menace of Boko Haram, the group responded by promising an all out war. It also threatened that it was pulling out of all peace talks with the government. A police officer at the scene of the blast said smugly that his colleagues have no doubt that, "the IG comment in Maiduguri led to this suicide attempt on his life".
Panic everywhere
Although the police claimed that only one person died besides the bomber, the actual figures may be more than that as at least three ambulances were seen arriving and leaving the police headquarters, taking victims to the Asokoro General Hospital. Many of the victims where injured during the stampede that followed the blast, which set off a series of explosions as cars burst into flames.
Doctors battled to save the lives of the 11 people who were rushed to three hospitals following the explosions. Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who went to the National Hospital, Asokoro General Hospital and Garki General Hospital, report that the victims who sustained various degrees of injuries, were in stable conditions, according to doctors.
Breaking News: Suicide bomber bombs Police force headquarter in Abuja - source 234 next news
The driver of the explosive-laden car that blew up at 10.55am this morning at the national headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force drove into the compound in the wake of the convoy of the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, NEXT has learnt.
Unconfirmed police sources said Mr Ringim himself might have been the target of the attack, but the bomber was thwarted when the car was stopped from parking near the disembarking police chief by a traffic officer who on realizing the vehicle was not part of the police IG's convoy, directed the driver to move to the visitor's car park .
The car, eye witness say, was driven by heavyset man who was expensively dressed. According to the witnesses, there was a second man in the car and he was making a phone call as the car drove into the police headquarters. The car is reported to have exploded before it had reached the parking space allotted to it.
The explosion killed the two men in the car as well as the police parking attendant that was trying to lead the car to the right parking space. The police are trying to ascertain the number of other visitors to the building who were caught by the explosion while trying to park their cars. Only after this would the number of those who died in the explosion be clear.
The massive explosion shook the police headquarters building, shattering windows and causing cracks on parts of the wall. Tens of staff of the police headquarters also suffered various degrees of injury in their bid to escape from the building. They are currently being treated by emergency medical staff from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Federal Road Safety Corps and others.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing. It is the second major blast in the city , less than a year following the devastating twin blasts of October 1st last year which left over 20 deadFriday, 10 June 2011
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