Death Toll From Twin Nigeria Bombings Hits 35

The death toll from two bombings that hit Nigeria's northwestern Kaduna State on Wednesday has reached 35, a Nigerian official has said.



 "So far, we have a total of 35 dead and 41 injured from the two incidents," Musa Illela, coordinator for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency in the northwest zone, told Anadolu Agency.



"This figure is based on our collation at the 44th military hospital in Kaduna," he said.



Earlier in the day, police spokesman Aminu Lawan told AA that a bomb had gone off near a bus stop in the Kawo area, barely two hours after a suicide bomber blew himself up near Murtala Square in the Mando area.



The first blast had targeted popular Muslim Sufi scholar Dahiru Bauchi, while the second narrowly missed Muhammadu Buhari, a prominent Nigerian opposition figure, Lawan said.



The police spokesman said both bombings were being investigated, while Kaduna State Governor Ramalan Yero declared a 24-hour curfew in the state capital.



Buhari, a retired army general and co-founder of the opposition All Progressive Congress, is considered a likely contender in next year's presidential polls.



Bauchi, a Muslim scholar affiliated with the Tijanniyah Sufi order, is a fierce critic of Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group, the activities of which he has repeatedly dismissed as anti-Islamic.



No group has thus far claimed responsibility for Wednesday's twin bombings.



Nigeria's Kaduna State has witnessed a spate of recent attacks, which the authorities blame on longstanding ethnic and political rivalries and land disputes between farmers and herdsmen.



By Rafiu Ajakaye



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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