The Nigeria Police Force in Niger state has confirmed that a letter bomb was delivered to a certain Ms Justina Udeh, an oil dealer in Minna, the Niger state capital.

But the explosives in the parcel were detonated by the police officers following the suspicion about the source of letter by the receiver.

The letter which was addressed with an envelope branded with the name of one of the new generation banks that was recently acquired by another bank was dropped by some unknown persons at a shop belonging to Mr. Emmanuel Emugo, a welder who later received a phone call to help deliver the parcel to the undersigned.

The Niger state Police Public Relation Officer, Mr. Richard Ogunche told Channels Television that it was Ms Udeh’s curiosity about the letter that made contact the bank before trying to open it.

“When the letter got to Ms Udeh, she suspected foul play and sought clarification from the bank on the true position of the letter only for the bank to deny sending any such letter to her.”

“She immediately alerted Tunga Police station and upon investigation by the officers of the police command, the parcel was found to contain some explosives which were later detonated” he explained.

The Police boss said the case had been transferred to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for proper investigation.

Niger state has recorded a number of bombings in the last one year by the fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram. This is however the first time a letter bomb device is used.

Foremost journalist, Dele Giwa was killed in his residence in Lagos by a blast from a letter bomb in 1986.