30th December, 2010
Twin explosions rocked a political rally in a Nigerian oil-rich southern state on Wednesday, in the latest of a string of attacks ahead of next year’s elections, police said.
A journalist at the scene said “several people sustained minor injuries.”
Police commissioner, Aliyu Musa told AFP on the telephone two explosions went off during the rally.
“It was dynamite they (the attackers) planted,” he said, adding that two people were wounded in the explosion at a ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)Â rally held at a primary school in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state.
The bombs went off minutes before Beinmo Rufus Spiff, who is challenging incumbent governor Timipre Sylva was readying to address supporters and declare his candidacy, a local journalist covering the rally said.
Political tensions have been building up in the run-up to party primaries due early next month in Nigeria ahead of elections in April.
Properties owned by two senior politicians have come under attack in the same state in recent months.
And three properties belonging to a former deputy governor, Peremobowei Ebebi, were hit by explosions in June and July this year.
Last month armed men used explosives to attack the house of Timi Alaibe, a senior adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan and the chief coordinator of the amnesty programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta, the main oil-producing region.
The Niger Delta, the heart of one of the world’s largest oil industries, has been hit by violence and kidnappings in recent years by criminal gangs and militants claiming to be fighting for a fairer distribution of oil revenue.
Militants set off two bombs at Independence Day festivities in the capital Abuja.
Several bombs were detonated on Christmas Eve killing 80 people in the ethno-religious flashpoint of Jos in central Nigeria.
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