• Two arrested over Kano explosion• Govt asks UN body to blacklist B’Haram
• Wike blames Shettima, Sani writes Sultan
• Senate okays extension of emergency rule
A TWIN bomb blast Tuesday occurred on Murtala Muhammed Way close to the old site of University Teaching Hospital in Jos, Plateau State, killing about 46 persons and injuring many others.
President Goodluck Jonathan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, have condemned the Jos blasts, describing the perpetrators of the tragic assault on human freedom as cruel and evil.
Meanwhile, two men have been arrested in connection with a suicide car bombing in Kano that killed four, police said Tuesday.
In a related development, Nigeria has formally asked the United Nations (UN) Security Council al-Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist Boko Haram after the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls, UN diplomats said Tuesday.
In the same vein, the Diocese of Lagos West (Anglican Communion) has ended its third session of the fifth Synod with the theme: “We will serve the Lord” held at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja, Lagos, condemning terrorism and the abduction of Chibok girls.
While sympathising with the nation, parents and relations of the kidnapped girls, the Church said it was solemnly behind the “Bring Back Our Girls, Now and Alive global campaign.
Also, the leader of the Civil Society Coalition in the North, Malam Shehu Sani, has urged the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA), Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, to lead a delegation of other Islamic heads to dialogue with Boko Haram for the release of the abducted Chibok girls and also put an end to their violent activities.
Also, the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, Tuesday said that the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls would have been avoided had the Borno State government heeded his written advice not to conduct the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) in areas facing security threats in the state.
The Senate Tuesday endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to extend emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
The decision was reached during a four-hour closed session after which the Senate President, David Mark, announced at the plenary that lawmakers have reached an agreement to back the extension.
The first blast, which occurred around 3.00 p.m., was in a Peugeot J5 van with the Registration number XG 148 BLD, while the second explosion took place about 26 minutes later in a Toyota van said to have been packed in the area since yesterday’s morning.
Immediately after the explosion, thick smoke enveloped the area and was noticed far away in the city.
Fire fighters, men of the Special Task Force and ambulances were mobilised to the scene and took control thereby preventing the fire from spreading to other areas.
According to a source, “some residents in the area had informed the police about the parked van but nobody did any thing about the vehicle until it exploded some hours later. Many people were injured and have been were rushed to JUTH and Plateau Hospital.”
A survivor, who identified himself as Chong, told The Guardian: “I was at the market when I heard a very loud sound.”
When The Guardian visited the scene of the blast, chunk of human flesh littered the area while many corpses were taken away in wheel-barrows to hospitals.
Meanwhile, the state government has condemned the blasts.
The Commissioner for Information, Olivia Dazyem who addressed journalists in Jos, appealed to all hospitals in the state to treat those injured, saying “full investigation is ongoing in order to unravel those behind the attacks.”
The President, in statement by his Special Adviser, Media, Reuben Abati, assured all Nigerians that government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror, and this administration will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilisation.
Jonathan has also expressed Nigeria’s deepest appreciation to the international community on the success of the recent Summit in Paris on the security situation in Nigeria hosted by the President of France, Francois Hollande.
The statement re-affirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the implementation of the resolutions reached by the Summit, in addition to existing measures already being taken by the administration to combat terrorism and ensure the safety of lives.
President Jonathan states that the Federal Government is prepared to strengthen existing mechanisms to ensure the immediate implementation of the resolutions of the Summit, among which is: That every necessary measure should be taken to find the school girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014.
On the safety of schools, Abati said the President had also reiterated Nigeria’s determination to ensure the safety and security of schools in Borno and other parts of the country and also provide counselling services to affected students to enable them return to school and continue with their academic work.
“Furthermore, the Federal Government will rebuild the Chibok School and fortify security in schools. In collaboration with the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Education, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the private sector, the government will launch the “Safe Schools Initiative” which will address security issues, re-build the destroyed schools and provide equipment and materials.”
“Two suspects are now in custody in connection with Sunday’s bombing in Sabon-Gari,” Kano police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majia, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
Majia said the suspects were arrested by the people at a bus station in the city that was previously attacked by Boko Haram militants after they overheard them talking about the bombing.
“They were apprehended and the police station there alerted, which led to their arrest and transfer to the police headquarters,” he added.
The authorities have not said who was responsible for the blast, which ripped through the Middle Road area of a predominantly Christian district at about 10.00 p.m. on Sunday.
If there is no objection by the 15-member UN council committee, which operates by consensus, Boko Haram will be sanctioned at 3.00 p.m. tomorrow, the council diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The document submitted by Nigeria to support its blacklisting request references a bomb attack on the UN’s Nigeria headquarters on August 26, 2011 that killed 24 people, diplomats said.
It also describes a “campaign of violence against Nigerian schools and students” by the group and references other attacks on schools last year, according to diplomats.
Earlier this month, the UN Security Council threatened to take action against the insurgents and the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, urged the body to work quickly to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group.
Sani, in the letter to the Sultan of Sokoto yesterday, sought his personal intervention and those of other Islamic leaders, pointing out that the responsibility to end the insurgency ravaging the North was not vested on Jonathan alone, but the Islamic leaders whose region is under siege by Boko Haram.
Special Assistant (Media) to the minister, Simeon Nwakaudu, in a statement yesterday said Wike accused the Borno State Government while addressing delegates at the First Conference of Certified Librarians in Abuja.
Wike said that the Federal Government was working alongside other stakeholders to ensure that the abducted girls were rescued and reunited with their families.
According to the media aide, the minister had to open up to Nigerians and the international community on the true position of things because Governor Kashim Shettima has deliberately misinformed the international community through interviews with foreign media organisations.
He noted that rather than play politics with the unfortunate situation, should be courageous enough to admit that he erred by rejecting the written advice of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“The Senate in a closed-door session deliberated on the motion before us on the extension of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states and agreed that we will approve it in the plenary”, Mark said.
He noted that it was agreed during the closed-door session that certain issues be resolved as quickly as possible and that the problem of insurgency was a national one and should not be viewed differently.
He said: “I want to thank you all for this painstaking discussion that took place and the subsequent approval.
“Let me also say emphatically here that we have requested that certain issues be resolved as quickly as possible. We stand shoulder to shoulder and strongly behind our colleagues from all the states affected.
“We take this in the same vein that we are equally affected and that this is a national issue and not an exceptional issue in any form.”
The Senate had on Thursday last week held an executive session with security chiefs on the success of the first phase of emergency rule and the likely reasons for extension.
The motion on the extension of state of emergency in three northeastern states was moved by the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba.
He recalled that the Senate had earlier on November 7, 2013, considered and approved the extension of the period of the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Addressing journalists after adjourning the plenary, which lasted only about 10 minutes, Senate’s spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said seven conditions were given for the approval of the extension.
Speaking when he granted audience to the Botswana High Commissioner in Nigeria, Lt.-Gen. Louis M. Fisher, at the National Assembly yesterday, Tambuwal explained that the request was approved because there was the need to provide a legal framework to wage war against terrorism.
He further explained that the need to consolidate on the successes recorded in recent past informed the main reasons why the House of Representatives extended, for another six months, the emergency rule in the aforementioned states.
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