A powerful explosion rocked an auto spare parts sales area in Kaduna yesterday, killing at least 10 people and injuring many others.Eleven shops and rooms were destroyed by the blast, while many people were trapped in the affected buildings where some families were residing. It took men of National Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross, Federal Road Safety Corps, Police and Army hours to evacuate decapitated bodies of people.The explosion created tension in Kaduna, which was among centres of deadly post-election violence in April. Commercial and other activities were disrupted as thick smoke billowed from the centre of the blast into the skyline of the city.Witnesses and police gave conflicting accounts of the blast, which happened at Ogbomosho Road at about 9.18am and also destroyed many shops in the area.Some witnesses said the explosion happened when two men riding a motor bike hurled a carton suspected to be a containing a bomb into the shops at No. 38 Ogbomosho Road, opposite the defunct Scala Cinema.But the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Ballah M. Nasarawa, said the explosion was caused by reactive devices in the shops and that no bomb was thrown into the area.'Our bomb experts who rushed to the scene confirmed to me that it was not a bomb that caused the blast but the explosion occurred as a result of reactive agents in the shops. They sell batteries, acid and other reactive agents in the shops. We don't have statistics of the death and injuries but there were casualties,' Nasarawa told Daily Trust.He urged the people of the state to go back to their normal business and to disregard the rumours going round about the explosion.A spare part dealer near the shops, who gave his name as Abdul, said he saw the two men on the motorcycle before they threw the explosive device.'I was sweeping my shop when I saw them. They stopped and were asking somebody of the directions to a place. I was far from them but as soon as the person they were asking left, smoke started coming out of the carton they were carrying and after few seconds I started hearing sound and I took to my heels,' he said.Abdul, who refused to give his second name, said the two suspected bombers died in the explosion. 'They can never survive it because when I was running, I turned back and saw them on flames,' he added.Sunday Anigubo, one of the shop owners, said anyone who claimed that the explosion was not caused by bomb was telling lies.'We don't sell cylinders and explosive chemicals. I did not see the bombers because I was inside my shop when it happened, but it was a bomb. The sound of the explosion was too thick for a cylinder and we are spare parts dealers not dealers of gas cylinders. My neighbours Onyeka, Egbuka and one other boy died,' he said.Fabian Uzochukwu, who owns one of the burnt shops, said he was outside when two persons came on bike with a carton 'around 9:00 am. Two persons riding on a motorbike along the road suddenly stopped near our shop, they were discussing. I was attracted to them because they stopped on the road. Few seconds afterwards, smoke started coming from the carton they were carrying and he threw it to our shops.'I ran away, immediately, from where I was standing scampering for safety. When the bomb exploded, the generators in our shops went on flames. I believe we are not their target because it was when the smoke started coming out from the carton that they threw it to our shops. I lost all I have laboured for; my goods worth over six million (naira) have turned to ashes. Many people died because it is only one entrance that leads to the house,' he said.NEMA confirmed that seven persons including a 3-year-old boy died in the explosion.The spokesperson for the agency, Yushau Shu'aibu, in a statement said corpses of the deceased have been deposited at morgues of different hospitals of the city but that the family of the 3-year-old boy has taken his corpse for burial.'So far, seven bodies were taken to mortuary while many injured victims are receiving medical attention in the hospital,' he saidThere was pandemonium at the scene of the blast when security men drafted to the area made attempt to disperse hundreds of onlookers from the scene of the incident. While the armed security men were making moves to cordon the area, the onlookers started hurling stones on them.
Click here to read full news..
