Bomb blasts in Kaduna, Borno and Osun states; ...scores killed

A bomb blast rocked Ile-Ife, Osun State, early Wednesday morning. The low small bomb went off in the Onipetu area of the town but nobody was killed. Elsewhere, Osun State police said they deactivated another bomb before it detonated.

Commissioner of Police in Osun State, Ibrahim Maishanu said that the explosion were low calibre grenades. “The first one exploded and the other was deactivated. It happened in an isolated place, so it did not kill nor injure anybody. We have visited the scene but we are investigating the matter,” he explained.

The blast in Osun comes hours after Kaduna was hit by an explosion on Tuesday 1 July night. The blast occurred in the Asikolaye/Bakin Ruwa area, along Kaduna western bypass.
Scores of people were reported dead while many others were injured in the blast.


Halima Suleiman, Kaduna state Information Officer, National Emergency Management Agency confirmed the explosion.

Similarly, Umar Shehu, Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State confirmed the incident but stated that the explosion only injured two people.

Suleiman explained that the bomb was planted near a makeshift shop where provisions were sold. “We don’t have any casualty figure at the moment but rescue operations are still on. Our officials on the ground said there were pieces of shattered windows. We learnt that a bomb was placed near a container shop that sells provisions.

“We were told it occurred when most people had gone to pray. I will inform you of any development later.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a truck exploded in a huge fireball killing at least 15 people on Tuesday in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the latest attack in the area repeatedly hit by Boko Haram Islamists.

The bomb rocked Maiduguri’s busiest roundabout near the popular Monday Market during morning rush hour and its force scattered body parts on the rooftops of surrounding shops, according to witnesses.

Elderly women who line the road selling peanuts and kola nuts to commuters were among the victims, as were children who beg at the roundabout each day.

The defence ministry said in a tweet that an “improvised explosive device” went off in “a van loaded with charcoal” and that the area had been cordoned off.

“It was a gory sight when we got there,” said Karuna Kolo, who lives near the market and arrived at the scene shortly after the blast. “Many people were in flames.”

Unruly crowds tried to attack firefighters deployed to the scene, accusing them of arriving too slowly and hindering their efforts to put out the raging blaze, according to multiple witness accounts.