— Police avert another attack
By Aliyu Askira, Kano, and Chizoba Ogbeche, Abuja
The man who bombed a street in Kano on Sunday night had come with a female companion and both escaped unhurt minutes before the blast, it emerged yesterday.
The blast occurred outside a new hotel at No. 9, Middle Road, off Gold Coast Street in the Sabon Gari area of the metropolis, killing at least 20 people.
Witnesses told Blueprint that shortly after the male bomber had left, the woman that accompanied him also left the vehicle, an ash-colour Sienna bus, shortly before the bomb went off.
Residents suspected that the suicide bomber had meant to destroy the hotel on its opening night.
Our correspondent learnt that the hotel belonged to a 32-year-old Igbo man.
People had converged to celebrate the opening of the hotel on Sunday night.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “We were there when the bomber came in a Sienna vehicle. He went straight to the hotel and parked in front of it, but the security man guarding the hotel asked him to drive back.
“As he was driving back the lady in the passenger seat came out of the car. The bomber put the car in reverse gear and came down.
“Then the car went into flames, killing several people.”
Some eyewitnesses, including an official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, confirmed to reporters yesterday that at least 24 people were killed in the blast.
Police authorities, however, insisted that five people were killed.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adelere Shinaba, who arrived the venue with senior officers by 11 a.m., told reporters that he was there the previous night when the incident happened and could confirm that five people were killed and another seven injured.
Those injured were taken to the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital, the Armed Forces Hospital and other hospitals in town, he said.
Shinaba said: “I read in some papers where it was quoted that ten people were killed. The true figure is five and any journalist that reports more than that to cause tension and mischief will be dealt with.”
However, while the commissioner was issuing his threat to journalists, a resident of the area, Mr. Harry Kanuko, told him that he was at the scene of the event when it happened and that he counted nine bodies, adding that some others died in hospitals. He was told more people were killed, he said.
A Civil Defence official who said he was one of those who arrived the scene immediately the blast happened argued that 20 people were killed while some others were injured.
The Chief of the Igbo community in Kano, Eze Boniface Ibekwe, in his remarks, said he was surprised that the area was bombed for the third time in a year, adding he had thought that since the area had been bombed twice last year there should have been enough security to protect the residents.
What happened on Sunday was proof that the residents were not safe, he added.
Mr Raymond Chidozie, a resident, told reporters that his sister Gloria Ibe, a 32-year-old woman from Anambra state, was among those injured by the blast and that she had been taken to the hospital for treatment.
He said five vehicles were burnt to ashes and a housewife with two of her children were killed.
Chidozie said: “I saw one Hausa man who is selling Suya, his head was cut off. A lady frying fish near the Suya man was blown into pieces.”
Kano state Governor, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, yesterday visited the area and commisserated with victims over their loss.
Meanwhile, the Police in Kano yesterday morning averted what could have been another devastating bomb blast in the ancient city.
Force Public Relations Office (FPRO), Mr. Frank Mba, said in a statement in Abuja that Police operatives in Kano, acting on intelligence, tracked and recovered a Mitsubishi station wagon loaded with assorted gas cylinders, one container of fuel and other electrical components of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The car, ash in colour and with registration number Kano AE 756 GSW, was recovered at Tafawa Balewa Street, Nasarawa area of the city and had been rendered safe by police bomb disposal experts.
Mba added that security agencies in Kano have commenced investigation into both the aborted blast as well as the Sunday night bomb incident.
The police spokesperson further disclosed that four out of the seven persons injured by the Sunday explosion had been treated and discharged, while six vehicles were damaged.
