- Title: NIGERIA: President visits site of bombing as wounded fill hospitals
- Date: 14th April 2014
- Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (APRIL 14, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NIGERIA'S PRESIDENT, GOODLUCK JONATHAN AT THE SCENE OF BUS STATION BOMBING JOHNATHAN TALKING TO OFFICIAL (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIA'S PRESIDENT, GOODLUCK JONATHAN, SAYING: "We condole with our country men and women, we will continue to work very hard, the issue of Boko Haram attack is (inaudible), within this period of our own development, we will do everything to make sure that we move our country forward. These are unnecessary distractions that are pushing us backward." EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE HOSPITAL PEOPLE TRYING TO LOOK INTO WINDOWS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NYANYA HOSPITAL CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR, FRANK IFECHUKWUDI, SAYING: "As of one hour ago we had 75 plus 80 and then it has been on the counting side. Now we have about 10 left there so I'm giving it roughly about 80, 90." PEOPLE LOOKING INTO WINDOWS INSIDE, IFECHUKWUDI CLOSING DOOR WOUNDED SEEN THROUGH DOOR EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 29th April 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA3PF69ISA9SRU4IW233KB70MGB
- Story Text: Visiting the scene of a morning rush hour bomb that killed at least 71 on Monday (April 14), Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan pointed the finger of suspicion at Boko Haram, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Islamist militants.
At least 71 people were killed and 124 wounded when a bomb exploded at a Nigerian bus station on the outskirts of the capital Abuja. The attack raised concerns about the spread of an Islamist insurgency.
Visiting the scene, Jonathan denounced the activities of those who were trying to move the country backwards.
"We condole with our country men and women, we will continue to work very hard," Goodluck said. "We will do everything to make sure that we move our country forward. These are unnecessary distractions that are pushing us backward."
He also implored Nigerians to be more vigilant in the face of suspicious characters.
Security experts suspect the explosion was inside a vehicle, said Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, director of search and rescue operations. The bus station, 8 km (5 miles) southwest of central Abuja, serves Nyanya, a poor, ethnically and religiously mixed satellite town where many residents work in the city.
The attack underscored the vulnerability of Nigeria's federal capital, built in the 1980s in the geographic centre of the country to replace coastal Lagos as the seat of government for what is now Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer.
Boko Haram militants are increasingly targeting civilians they accuse of collaborating with the government or security forces.
The militants, who want to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, have in the past year mostly concentrated their attacks in the northeast, where their insurgency started.
There had been no such violence near the capital since suicide car bombers targeted the offices of the newspaper This Day in Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna in April 2012.
Security forces at the time said that was because a Boko Haram cell in neighbouring Niger state had been broken up.
A Christmas Day bombing of a church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, killed 37 people in 2011, although the main suspect in that attack is now behind bars. Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the United Nations' Nigeria headquarters that killed 24 people on August 26, 2011.
Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of largely Muslim northern Nigeria means broadly "Western education is sinful", is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, and has forged ties with al Qaeda-linked militants in the Sahara. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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