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COVER STORIES

Bomb blast:
SSS, police trail link 

By ABDULL-AZEEZ AHMED KADIR, MIDAT JOSEPH, Kaduna
Posted: Saturday, April 9, 2011

THE State Security Service said yesterday in Kaduna that they were on the trail of the link in Thursday's bomb blast which killed one man and seriously injured another. State Director of the SSS, Mr. Abayomi Zamba who disclosed this said operatives were on top of the matter and were collaborating with the police to get at the bottom of what happened.
A bomb went off in the hands of the victim who died while he and his accomplices were discussing where to place bombs in Kaduna metropolis. The other two suspects, Bello Abdullahi and Yusuf Sani were apprehended while the fourth person is on the run.
Zamba said the SSS was working round the clock to ensure Kaduna was secured for today's elections since preliminary investigations showed that the intension of the suspects was "scuttling the electoral process."
Concurring with the assurances of the SSS director, Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Haruna Paul, said that after combing Mahuta, a suburb of Kaduna, where the bomb went off, two other bombs were discovered after breaking into the abode of the suspects.
Two bags with bomb making equipment were also discovered. "We discovered four highly explosive bombs ready for detonation in the house," he said.
"The quality of each of the bombs is strong enough to bring down any major structure in Kaduna. According to our experts, each bag was loaded with more than 30 strands of dynamites and a strand of dynamite is what construction workers need to blast a hill.... If they had succeeded in detonating any of these, it would have been terrible," Paul said.
He explained that following the incident, more security personnel had been mobilised to Kaduna to reinforce those already on ground. Military and para-military personnel have been visible in strategic location in a show of force.
Meanwhile, a 25-year-old prime suspect of the bomb blast, Mallam Mohammad Ahmed yesterday disclosed that the bombs ere brought in by an Iranian citizen from Afghanistan.
He told New Nigerian Weekly on his hospital bed at Saint Gerard Hospital, Kaduna, that he did not regret his action.
According to him, "Yahaya called me to wait for him at the scene. Just as we were discussing, two people, a Nigerian and an Arabian came in a black Mercedes 190 model and handed over the bombs to us.
"The two occupants of the car, a Nigerian and an Arab delivered the explosives to my friend Yahaya who later told me that they normally receive their consignment from Osama Ibn Laden in Afghanistan," he claimed.