Bomb blast rocks motor park in Kano

Less than 24 hours after a twin explosion killed hundreds in Kaduna,  the rampaging terrorists have decided to focus on neighbouring Kano yesterday, as an Improvised Explosive Device went off at the New Road Motor Park in Kano .

The police spokesperson for Kano State, Magaji Majiya, told NAIRASTAR that the explosion was caused by a bomb that targeted travellers.

“The blast was actually a bomb blast. The bomber hid it inside a Fridge and placed the fridge on a cart, and detonated it close to a luxurious bus,” Mr. Majiya said.

The affected bus with registration number KTT 164 XA is owned by Ifeanyi Chukwu Industrial Services, he said.

He said the bus was loading passengers heading to Port Harcourt at the time of the blast.

The bombing came a day after two explosions killed more than 40 people in neighbouring Kaduna State.

It was also the second time the Sabon Gari park would be targeted by bombers.

But unlike the Kaduna blasts, which death toll has risen from 70 to 75, five persons died and eight were injured in the latest Kano incident. Some vehicles in the park were also damaged.

The Kano explosion led to a stampede as people struggled to leave the scene where 70 lives were lost in a similar blast last year.

  NAIRASTAR gathered the IED was conveyed in a refrigerator which was smuggled into the park by a cart pusher.
Eyewitness accounts indicated that the cart pusher was able to beat security at the motor gate because he packaged the refrigerator like a passenger luggage.

Kano State Commissioner of Police, Adelenre Shinaba, confirmed to journalists at the scene that five persons, including a woman, lost their lives to the blast.

Adding that ‘‘eight others who were injured were taken to hospital for treatment,” he explained that the expolosive “went off at the point of loading the refrigerator to in a stationary vehicle.”

In Kaduna, the state Commissioner for Information and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ben Bako, told journalists that five injured victims of the Kaduna explosions died on Wednesday night in hospitals where they were admitted.

“We have 37 victims currently receiving treatment in both the 44 Army Reference Hospital and the Yusuf Dantsoho General Hospital, Tudun-wada, also in Kaduna. Thirty five victims are at the 44 Army Reference Hospital while two are at the Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital,” Bako said.

A former Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, were the targets of the attacks carried out by lone bombers.

The incidents forced Governor Mukhtar Yero to impose a 24-hour curfew which was lifted on Thursday.