Security agencies, CAN disagree on causeMilitary denies role in Boko Haram leader's killingReps want NIGCOMSAT to focus on defenceIT was tragedy in Kaduna yesterday as more than 15 people lost their lives and several others injured following a bomb blast that hit the heart of the city.The incident occurred shortly after the elders in the North ended the Peace and Unity Conference intended to find solution to the insecurity posed by the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the country.In a reaction, the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor urged the Police to get to the bottom of the blast. He said that security agencies should assure Nigerians that what happened was not orchestrated by religious bigots.Meanwhile, the military has, before the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, denied complicity in the July 30, 2009 killing of the leader of the Islamic sect - Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf in the ongoing trial of the five police officers over the act.In a related development, the services of Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) is to be deployed against the various threats to security in the country as against the increasing patronage being given foreign-based firms.It was gathered that the causalities from the Kaduna blast were mostly children and women in a residential building, and traders who were attending to customers in several shops along the busy Ogbomoso Road (Ori Akpata) where the explosion occurred.Besides, the unfortunate incident which occurred at about 9.17 a.m. yesterday, shook several buildings in the vicinity. There was prompt response of security personnel, including soldiers, policemen and officials of Red Cross, National Emergency Agency (NEMA), State Emergency Agency (SEMA), State Security Service (SSS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) as well as the fire fighters who prevented spreading of the fire to other neighbourhood.Evacuation of victims, which began at about 10.00 a.m., lasted several hours, while the entire area was sealed off by security personnel. It took the armed soldiers and police extra effort to control the surging crowd of people that invaded the area to search for their loved ones.The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bala Nasarawa who was at the scene of the explosion, said: 'It is a sad incident. As at now, we are not suspecting any fowl play, you can see that the fire is still burning but if you observe well, it is where they sell batteries and gas, so we are suspecting that it was an explosion from within, not sabotage from outside'. Nasarawa who refused to give official figure of casualties, remarked that 'as at now, there are casualties but I cannot give you certain numbers until after investigations.'Several people who were victims of the blast were seen weeping in groups, among the hundreds of sympathizers, gazing at the Red Cross, NEMA and SEMA officials and other security agents pulling out victims from the rubbles.An eyewitness, Mr. Hycent Nwafor who spoke to journalists, said 'my shop is adjacent the place that the explosion took place. I sell spare parts. We just heard a loud bang and all of a sudden, we started seeing fire and smoke everywhere.'I cannot confirm the number of casualties now, but so many people died. Some of the victims have been evacuated to the hospital,' he added.Malam Abdulwaheed Oyewumi who also spoke on the incident said: 'I am a mechanic around this place. From my shop I saw somebody running and burning and people started pouring water on him. So, we ran to discover that some shops were on flames shortly after we heard a sound of an explosion.'Relating his own account of the incident, Mr. Fabian Ozochukwu, who was a victim of the blast said: 'Two boys came on a motor cycle to my neighbour, may be to buy some goods and as I was coming out from my own shop, I heard a loud sound. It sounded a second time too and up to about five times and shops and houses started crashing.'One of the boys on a motor bike had his body burnt and ran down there. I don't know whether he died or not; I can't tell. There were two people on top of a bike. I was outside and they were carrying something, and that something they were carrying exploded more than five times. There were about four or five generators around there, so immediately the thing exploded, the generators exploded too. They were passing and the thing exploded on the bike.'Also giving his account on the blast, Mr. Emeka Udoji, a trader said: 'I came this morning and just about to settle down for business, I heard a loud blast. I sell motor parts. The blast happened at the back of my shop. There are people living at the back of my shop. No one sells batteries or gas cylinders around here. From my experience and what I saw, there was nothing like explosion of gas or battery, it was bomb explosion.'The Co-ordinator of the Security Task Force in Kaduna (Operation Yaki), Col. Dickson Mamman who was at the scene of the blast, said: 'We need to be very careful ourselves; we must make sure that we comb our environment personally. Like what has happened now, was from somebody's shop.'He came in the morning, opened his shop and this thing happened. I cannot imagine that somebody threw something. The allegation that people came on a bike is still an allegation yet to be confirmed. This thing was inside the shop, the explosion came from the shop. It was an explosion I can confirm.'The Media aide to the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Reuben Buhari, in his reaction said: 'What we heard is that the shop where the explosion started from contained combustible materials that include batteries, generators and gas cylinders, which further expanded the damage.'Buhari however stressed that 'until further investigation reveals other things, the damage was caused by these materials that were contained in the shops.'While calling on the Police to rise above religious, ethnic and other primordial sentiments, Oritsejafor said they should demonstrate their avowed neutrality to the whole world that they are not part of a grand design by a clique who are bent on destabilising the nation on the altar of a particular religion to the disadvantage of the other.'I have continued to urge the elite in the North to ensure that the regime of uncertainty is put behind us so that the country can forge ahead to harness its huge potentials for the benefit of the generations yet unborn,' Oritsejafor said.According to him, 'the problem with this country is that people are often ready to mouth their commitment to peaceful resolution of the multi-faceted problems in the country while their actions outside the glare of klieg lights is at variance with what they say.'Day-in-day-out, people blatantly tell the whole world that the crises in the North is political and economic, but the target of the violence is always the Christian folk. Can't we co-exist in a country given to us by God Almighty' I think the elite class in that part of the nation must stand up to admit that there is the urgent need for them to honestly address these issues frontally,' he stated.Under cross-examination in the trial of policemen over the killing of the Boko Haram leader, a prosecution witness, Col. Ben Ahanotu, told the court presided over by Justice Donatus Okorowo that he arrested and handed over the late Boko Haram leader to the Police in good health.According to the witness, he handed over the late Yusuf to the Police at the 21 Brigade Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State, but did not go with the Police to their station as his operation stopped at the handing over of the sect leader.Ahanotu also told the court that the late Yusuf had over 4,000 men under his command and that the men were armed with sophisticated weapons, pointing out also that the military was moved in to effect the arrest of the sect leader, as the Police alone could not contain the situation.Col. Ahanotu is the third prosecution to give evidence in the trial even as the prosecution told the court that they had three more witnesses to call in the matter.Cross-examination of witnesses continues today.The use of NIGCOMSAT services to boost security was the thrust of an interactive session between NIGCOMSAT and the House of Representatives' Committee on Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Abuja yesterday.During a facility tour of the agency, the committee expressed satisfaction with the equipment and manpower put on ground and declared its readiness to give legislative support to any effort by government to use the agency's facilities and services against the scourge of insecurity in the country.Led by its chairman, Ibrahim Gusau, the House Committee promised increased budgetary allocations to the agency to boost its operations, which the lawmakers described as very relevant in reversing the country's current bitter experience in terms of security.Briefing the committee, the Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Ahmed Rufai, listed the gains, which the agency could achieve for the country in terms of boosting national security.
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