From: Ikenna Okonkwo <biokonkwo1@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 8:58 PM
Subject: PRESIDENCY SACRIFICING INNOCENT HUMAN LIVES TO STAY IN POWER :DOES IT WORTH IT?
To: "okonkwonetworks@googlegroups.com" <OKONKWONETWORKS@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Ikenna Okonkwo <biokonkwo1@gmail.com>
Folks,
PHOTOS from the Abuja Bomb Blast, Body Parts 'all over the place'
ABUJA, Nigeria - Scores of people are feared dead in an explosion that blasted through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, before 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday as people were traveling to work.
Reporters saw rescue workers and police gathering body parts and ambulances rushing the wounded to the hospital.
Reports say the blast came from 2 bombs. The confirmed toll from the twin bombing of a bus station near the capital Abuja on Monday is 71 killed and 124 wounded so far, police spokesman Frank Mba said. But sources say up to 200 may have died.
Suspicion immediately fell on the Boko Haram terrorist network that has been threatening to attack the capital, in the middle of the country and hundreds of miles from its traditional base in the northeast, where it has killed nearly 1,500 people this year. The militants' violent campaign poses the greatest threat to the cohesion and security of Africa's biggest oil producer as the country prepares for elections in February 2015.
Rescue workers work to recover victims at the site of a blast at the Nyanya Motor Park, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the center of Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April 14, 2014. An explosion blasted through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Abuja before 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday as hundreds of people were traveling to work. (AP Photo/Gbemiga Olamikan)
Monday's blast ripped a hole 4 feet deep (1.2 meters) in the ground of Nyanya Motor Park about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the city center and destroyed more than 30 vehicles, causing secondary explosions as their fuel tanks ignited and burned.
People gather at the site of a blast at the Nyanya Motor Park, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the center of Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April 14, 2014. An explosion blasted through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Abuja before 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday as hundreds of people were traveling to work. (AP Photo/Gbemiga Olamikan)
"I can't count the number of people that died. They took them in open vehicles. People were running and there was confusion," said civil servant Ben Nwachukwu.
Security personnel belatedly cordoned off the area and a bomb detonation team was combing it for secondary explosives, a common occurrence here.
The explosion appeared to come from a vehicle at about 6:45 a.m., according to the National Emergency Management Agency. "It affected quite a number of people because it was still very early in the morning and there was a lot of traffic," according to the agency's Air Commodore Charles Otegbade. He did not give a death toll.
There was no immediate claim for Monday's rush-hour explosion though bus stations are a favored target of Nigeria's Islamic extremists.
The Boko Haram terrorist network claimed responsibility for a 2011 suicide bombing by two explosives-laden cars that drove into the lobby of the United Nations office building in Abuja. It killed at least 21 people and wounded 60.
Last week, Boko Haram suspects detained at the State Security Service headquarters in Abuja, next door to the residence and office of President Goodluck Jonathan, staged a failed jailbreak in which it is suspected that they had outside help. The agency said 21 detainees were shot and killed and two agents wounded in a shootout that lasted more than two hours.
The militants are blamed for attacks in northeast Nigeria that have killed more than 50 people in the past five days, including eight teachers living at a boarding school that had been closed because of frequent attacks on schools in which hundreds of students have died.
Boko Haram — the nickname means "Western education is forbidden" — has been attacking schools, villages, market places and military barracks and checkpoints this year in increasingly frequent and deadly attacks. Its mission is to force an Islamic state on Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of some 170 million people divided almost equally between Muslims living mainly in the north and Christians in the south.
The military has claimed that it has the extremists on the run with near-daily air bombardments and ground assaults on hideouts in forests and mountain caves along the border with Cameroon.
UPDATE
The dead victims and the injured were taken to hospital by ambulances and vans belonging to the police, the Vehicle Inspection Office, Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the National Emergency Management Agency.
Dead victims of the blast were taken to the National Hospital Abuja and Asokoro General Hospital. Those injured were taken to nearby Nyanya General Hospital.
Men of the Nigeria Police, Civil Defence and the military cordoned off the scene of the blast.
Eyewitnesses told PM NEWS that some of the dead victims of the blast were ripped apart while some were burnt beyond recognition by the bomb which could be heard several kilometers away. Some eyewitnesses put the number of people killed by the blast at between 50 and 200. But the police spokesman, Mba confirmed only 71 dead.
P.M. NEWS, however, observed emergency workers picking shards of flesh from the high capacity buses damaged beyond repair by the blast. The blood of the victims littered the vehicles and some parts of the garage.
Frank Mba, police spokesman, said that investigation into the incident has already commenced while the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had ordered his men to beef up security in public buildings and other vulnerable spots in the city. Meawhile, President Jonathan has ordered the security agencies to beef up security in Abuja following the bomb blast.
Reuben Abati, spokesperson to President Jonathan, said in a statement he issued on behalf of the President few hours after the blast. "President Jonathan is saddened by the loss of lives in Nyanya, Abuja bombing. He has ordered heightened security in Abuja following the bombing. The President also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and directed the medical services to do their best to save the life of the injured," said Abati.
President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene to assess the damage.
Jonathan has faced mounting criticism over the continuing Boko Haram violence.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has in recent video messages vowed to widen his insurgency outside the group's northeastern stronghold.
An escalation of violence in or near Abuja would pile further pressure on the embattled leader.
Elombah.com
OkonkwoNetworks..........Building NIGERIA of our DREAM
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OkonkwoNetworks" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to okonkwonetworks+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
| 9:29 PM (1 hour ago)  | | ||
| ||||
I know that education and defence has shunk of this year's budget. Defense got the second highest allocation after education. This shows that Government is not sleeping over security issues. We are aware that close to 8 million Nigerians are in Sudan, most of them have been indoctrinated to the extent that nothing is acceptable than complete Islamisation of Nigeria. The source of supply of man power for the perpetration of terrorism in Nigeria is inexhaustible.
I agree with Okenwa when hr said that National Conferenve couldn't have come at a better time. So, if the country is restructured as it was before military intervention destroyed everything, it will give back every region back their destiny in their hands. Any region that feels that western education is evil, may go ahead and destroy whatever that is western civilization in their region while they leave others alone. Those that the situation there do not suit may adapt or migrate. It is like tackling issues from the root cause. Under a strong federal arrangement, regional government does their things as it suits them including internal security. If this government can do this, I believe they have solved security issue. These in my opinion are what Aso Rock has been able to do security wise.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment