Kaduna Blast: Death Toll Hits 26

L-R: Acting Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Dan’Azumi Ibrahim, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita and the outgoing Director-General, Mr Umar Bindir, at the inauguration of NOTAP office in Abuja recently.

The Chief Medical Director, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, Prof. Lawal Khalid,  yesterday, said the death toll in the Zaria suicide attack now stood at 26.
Khalid told journalists in Zaria, Kaduna State,  that 31 injured persons in the attack were brought to the hospital and one of them was in critical condition.
He said the remaining 30 victims on admission at the hospital were in stable condition and responding to treatment.
The CMD lauded the people of the area for their massive donation of blood, saying the gesture had helped to save the lives of the victims.
It would be recalled, that a teenage suicide bomber attacked the secretariat of Sabongari Local Government Area, where hundreds of workers had turned up for verification of their service records.
The verification was ordered by the Kaduna State Government to weed out non existing workers from its pay roll and conserve funds for development.
However, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufa’i has confirmed 20 persons dead in a bomb attack on civil servants at Sabongari Local Government secretariat in Zaria, Kaduna State.
El-Rufa’i, who suspended government activities to travel to Zaria yesterday, said:“ I am sad that a terrorist bomb attack just killed 20 people in Sabongari, Zaria.
“May the souls of the innocent departed rest in peace, Amen. We call on our citizens to be vigilant and avoid crowded places like markets, Mosques, churches and motor parks in the next few weeks.
.“We call on our people to report any suspicious persons and movement to law enforcement agents, traditional rulers and religious leaders.”
The governor said that the state government was working with federal security agencies taking proactive measures to frustrate such terrorists.’’
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, said 15 people were also injured in the attack.
The civil servants had converged at the secretariat for the ongoing verification of their employment status as directed by the Kaduna State Government.
An eye-witness told newsmen that some of the workers had tried to get the police to restrict the boy who was looking suspicious, before he detonated the bomb, which injured many others.
Meanwhile, security operatives comprising police, FRSC, civil defence and fire service had cordoned off the scene while evacuating the victims to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, and other hospitals nearby.