APC Office Bombed in Southern Rivers State
The office of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, was attacked with explosives yesterday in the oil producing southern state of Rivers less than five weeks before general elections.
The office of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, was attacked with explosives yesterday in the oil producing southern state of Rivers less than five weeks before general elections.
The attackers used dynamite in the town of Okrika, said Christian Asifamaka, the APC’s chairman for the local government area, said in an e-mailed statement. No arrests have been made, Ahmad Muhammad, a police spokesman, said by phone from the state’s capital, Port Harcourt.
“The explosion which occurred at 3:14 a.m. exactly destroyed our secretariat, bringing down the walls,” said Asifamaka. “The damage was quite extensive with the chairman’s office being the worst hit.”
Tensions and violence is rising ahead of the Feb. 14 vote which pits President Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party, which has been in power since the end of army rule in 1999, against a united opposition led by former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan’s campaign buses were attacked on Jan. 10 in the central city of Jos, according to the PDP. In the north, three female suicide bombers, one described as young as 10, set off explosives over the weekend in the city of Maiduguri and northeastern town of Potiskum. Authorities in Africa’s largest economy are struggling to stem raids and bombings by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has killed more than 13,000 people since 2009, according to the government.
