Igbos massacred in the North again

ad in multiple blasts
Maduabuchi Nmeribe/kano with agency reports
Scores of bus passengers at the New Road Luxury
Terminal, Sabon Gari, Kano northwest Nigeria were
feared dead when two suicide bombers in a VW Golf car
rammed into a Lagos-bound Gobison Luxury bus on
Monday.
Witnesses at the Luxury Bus Terminal said low-profile
Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, planted inside four
other buses exploded simultaneously.
On the whole, two buses owned by Gobison Transport,
two buses marked Ezenwata Transport Limited and one
other owned by Chimezie Transport Limited were
affected in the devastating attack.
an injured victim being stretchered off the bomb scene
in kano
Several calls put across to the Commissioner of Police,
Musa Daura, by P.M.NEWS were not answered, but the
spokesman of the Joint Military Task Force in Kano,
Captain Ikedichi Iweha said it would be too early to
confirm the number of casualties.
However, President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Kano, Chief
Tobias Michael Idika told journalists that the casualty
figure in the attack the casualty figure is about 60, "I
counted up to 60 dead bodies when I visited the scene
of the incident and several people were seriously
injured," Idika said.
The scene has been cordoned off by the police and the
JTF.
Residents of Sabon Gari, an enclave predominantly
inhabited by non-natives are panicked as tension
continues to mount in the Nigeria's city of Kano.
The dead and the wounded have been evacuated to a
government-owned hospital by security operatives.
Initial reports, quoting rescue officials put the death toll
at about 20 as two suicide bombers rammed a car
packed with explosives into a bus at the New Road
station in Sabon Gari, a predominantly Christian
neighbourhood in the majority Muslim city.
Several explosions were heard following the initial blast,
sparking panic as bloodied bystanders including some
with serious injuries fled the scene as soldiers arrived
to cordon off the area.
Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north,
has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist group Boko
Haram, blamed for killing hundreds in the region since
2009.
“I saw three buses on fire. One of them was fully loaded
with passengers waiting to leave the station at the time
of the blasts… There are at least 20 dead,” said the
rescue official who requested anonymity as he was not
authorised to speak to journalists.
“The figure may rise,” he added.
A senior security official in Kano, who also declined to
be named, told AFP he believed the death toll was
“massive”, describing the figure of 20 as an
“understatement”, without giving a precise toll.
Fatima Abdullahi, 30, who had boarded a bus scheduled
to head south, said she saw a car with two men inside
ram into a nearby bus.
another injured person.on the ground
“There was a huge explosion followed by another. The
bus went up in flames,” she told AFP at a hospital in
Kano where she was being treated for her injuries.
Mechanic Tunde Kazeem, who works at the station, said
he saw “people rushing out of the motor park” after the
blasts, “some of them with blood on their clothes”.
There was also no immediate claim of responsibility, but
the seemingly coordinated attack was likely to be
blamed on Boko Haram.
The targeted station primarily services passengers
heading to the mostly Christian south of Nigeria.
It was attacked in January of last year in a blast which
wounded several people and which was blamed on the
radical Islamist group.
That bombing came days after the group’s deadliest
ever attack, also in Kano, when at least 185 people were
killed on January 20, 2012.
“Rescuers and security personnel are yet to determine
the source of explosions…casualty figures not available
at the moment, the seriously injured have been taken to
hospital and bodies evacuated,” said a statement from
the National Emergency Management Agency.
Boko Haram has previously targeted Christians,
including through a series of suicide bombings at
churches packed with worshippers on Sundays.
The group has also been blamed for killing officials,
security personnel and other symbols of authority in an
insurgency it says is aimed at establishing a Muslim
state in northern Nigeria.
The group has also purportedly claimed the kidnapping
of a seven members of a French family, including four
children, abducted last month near in the Nigerian
border in Cameroon.
In an audio recording obtained by AFP on Monday, Boko
Haram demanded the release of its members it says are
being held in Nigeria and Cameroon in exchange for the
release of the hostages.
Boko Haram is believed to include a number of factions
with various interests and shifting demands and experts
say the group may have fostered ties with foreign
extremists, including Al-Qaeda’s north Africa affiliate.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil
producer, where poverty remains rampant, particularly in
the north.