A bomb blast on Tuesday ripped through a packed Government Lodge in Sabon Gari, Zaria, Kaduna State on Tuesday, leaving 25 people dead and 32 others injured.
The explosion occurred at about 9:00am (0800 GMT), as primary schoolteachers and public sector workers were queuing for identity checks, according to witnesses.
It is suspected to be the handiwork of the deadily Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, which has upped attacks in the past week.
Over 200 persons have lost their lives in the past few days to attacks in Yobe, Borno, Plateua and Adamawa state.
The latest attack indicates a growing spread in the attacks by the insurgents, which appear to have resorted to guerilla attacks with heightened military operations in their major base at Sambisa Forest in Borno State.
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, expressing sadness at the mindless attack by Boko Haram terrorists and sympathizing with victims of the blast.
The governor had earlier put the death toll at Tuesday’s attack at 20 but from recent reports, the figure has risen.
“I am sad to confirm that an IED (improvised explosive device) most likely carried by a suicide bomber exploded in the Sabon Gari LG (local government district) and killed 25 people, including a two-year-old,” Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai said.
Mr El-Rufai added in the statement posted on his Facebook account that 32 others were injured and were being treated in hospital.
Red Cross officials and security agencies have evacuated the dead bodies while the 32 injured persons were taking to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria and other hospitals in the city for treatment.
Executed by a suspected suicide bomber, the attack targeted civil servants at the Government Lodge in Sabon Gari,
Zaria which has been the centre for the verification exercise for civil servants.
Mr El-Rufai promised that the government was working with the security agencies to end the wave of militant attacks in the country.
“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 movements to law enforcement agents, traditional rulers and religious leaders.
“The Kaduna State government is working with Federal security agencies that are taking proactive measures to frustrate such terrorists,” El-Rufai said.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai has also visited the scene of the explosion.
Boko Haram has increased the intensity and frequency of its attacks on civilians since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29 vowing to crush the rebels.
But he been unable to stem the bloodshed from guerrilla-style attacks on “soft” targets.
With the latest blast, nearly 550 people have been killed since Buhari’s inauguration, according to AFP reporting.
Local government worker Mahmud Abbas said public sector staff and primary schoolteachers were undergoing screening to identify potential ghost workers on the state payroll.
Another staff member who was waiting outside, Mohammed Abubakar, said: “We were taking turns going into the hall in batches for the screening and also to get our pay cheques.
“The first batch had gone in. There were almost 100 people there, including the staff, the screening committee and accountants from the banks.
“There was a huge explosion inside the hall followed by billows of smoke and dust. Now the area has been cordoned off by security men.
“I can’t give you an exact toll but I believe that dozens must have died given the number of people inside and the sound of the explosion.”
Mr El-Rufai, from Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party, said people in Zaria should be vigilant and avoid crowded places such as mosques, churches and bus stations in the next few weeks.
“We call on our people to report any suspicious persons and movements to law enforcement agents, traditional rulers and religious leaders,” he added in a post on Twitter.
His warning followed a countrywide order from the federal police chief, Solomon Arase, to state commanders to increase security at all places of worship/workshop.
“Adequate security has also been ordered for venues where Muslims break (the Ramadan) fast in the evenings,” he said in a statement late on Monday.
Mr Arase also said street hawking and trading on roads in the capital Abuja had been banned, while unauthorised taxis and buses were not allowed to park in the centre of the city.
Zaria has not been known as a stronghold of Boko Haram, which has been fighting for six years to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, but it has been attacked before.
In March last year, a prominent Salafist cleric who had criticised the group was shot dead with his wife and son as he drove home from teaching a theology class.
An Islamic boarding school that he ran was previously hit by a bomb blast and gunfire in September 2012.
Zaria was also where a French engineer managed to flee his captors in November 2013 after being held for nine months by the Boko Haram offshoot Ansaru.
In June 2012, bomb blasts ripped through two churches in Zaria, killing several worshippers and injuring many others. Boko Haram claimed the attacks.
