Nigeria bomb blasts point to bloody electoral season
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ABUJA — They seemed designed to kill: two car bomb blasts within minutes of one another, on a busy road near the area where the country’s leaders and foreign dignitaries had gathered on independence day.
The attack on Friday, the first of its kind in the capital, left at least 12 persons dead, and it may have also signaled a bloody campaign season ahead for Nigeria, where elections have so often been tainted by violence.
“The election campaign has started on a very violent note, and I don’t see this stopping,” said Anyakwee Nsirimovu, head of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
Even in a country that has grown weary with violence, the scale and boldness of the attack were shocking. Celebrations marking 50 years of Nigerian independence were occurring a short walk away at Eagle Square.
The bombs went off along a road that leads to the square from the Hilton hotel, the haunt of both Nigerian and visiting politicians, though none were apparently in the immediate area at the time..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101008com3.html
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