By Laraba MUREY
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has denied claims that it attributed the cause of Monday’s explosion near Mogadishu Cantonment in Abuja to a suicide bombing.
The agency, in a statement by its Press Unit on Wednesday, said it never made any declaration about what caused the blast, and that such responsibility lies with the security agencies.
“NEMA did not say it was a suicide bombing,” the agency said. “Our job during emergencies is to coordinate response efforts, not to investigate causes. That’s the duty of the police and other security bodies.”
There had been posts circulating on social media shortly after the incident, alleging that NEMA had confirmed a suicide bomber was involved. But the agency described those posts as false and possibly linked to a breach of its digital platform.
“Our platform may have been compromised. The matter is under investigation,” NEMA explained.
The agency urged the public and the media to rely only on verified updates and pointed to its official statement, which reported on the response operations without mentioning the cause of the explosion.
“Our press release talked about how we responded at the scene. We did not mention anything about what caused the explosion,” the statement added.
The blast, which occurred at a bus stop close to the cantonment, caused panic among commuters and residents. Security operatives quickly arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area.
Though neither the Nigeria Police nor any other security agency has released an official explanation for the incident, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, today, told journalists that the explosion was not a suicide bombing but an accidental explosion caused by a quarry worker.
Wike said the victim of the explosion had ignorantly carried an explosive device from a quarry site which exploded in his pocket, fatally injuring him.
According to Wike, “What happened there was that somebody went to where we have these quarries, where they blast all these rocks and took the explosive and put it in his pocket. Of course some of them may not even understand the implication of that. And so it exploded on him. So that does not mean that it is a suicide bomber.”
