Police Headquarters bombed in Abuja

A suspected suicide bomber has been reported dead in this morning‘s twin bomb blasts at the headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja.
The twin blasts went off at the car park of the massive complex knwon as Louis Edet House around 10.40am on Thursday morning.
Unconfirmed reports said the bombs went off shortly after the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, arrived at the complex.
A number of police operational vehicles were destroyed in the incident while the body of the suspected suicide bomber was charred beyond recognition.

The entire area was cordoned off while a traffic jam ensued in the area.

The twin explosions caused a pandemonium as policemen, civilian staff in the building as well as visitors, passers-by and occupants of nearby buildings fled to safety.

The spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency, Yushau Shuaibu, said emergency response teams were swiftly mobilised to the scene of the explosion. He said in an SMS, ”NEMA has successfully cordoned off the parking lot of the police headquarters. A suspected bomber died in the incident. Many vehicles were destroyed.”

THE PUNCH will provide updates as they come.The police headquarters is a minute‘s drive from the gate of the Presidential Villa and three minute‘s drive from the National Assembly. Fear spread through Abuja immediately news of the blasts broke.

On May 29, a bomb exploded in a drinking joint in Zuba, a suburb of Abuja, leading to three deaths.

On October 1, 2010, twin explosions claimed a number of lives near the Eagle Square, Abuja, where President Goodluck Jonathan and other foreign and Nigerian dignitaries were marking the Independence Day at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

There have been a number of explosions in Maduguri, the Borno State capital in North-East Nigeria and some other cities in Northern Nigeria.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, security agents recovered explosive devices from some parts of Kaduna, the capital of Kaduna State in North-West Nigeira.

On Wednesday, there was a bomb scare in Ibadan. On June 6, while Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun was delivering a speech at the inauguration of the state house of assembly, security agents discovered a bomb in a part of the complex and swiftly detonated it.