A bomb blast occurred on Monday in Gombe State, north-east region of Nigeria, few minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left the venue of a presidential rally held in the state.
The Head Of Operations with the Nigeria Emergency Management Authority in Gombe State, Mr Saidu Minin, confirmed the attack, saying was a ‘suicide bombing’.
Mr Minin said one passer-by was killed while 18 persons were injured in the attack that occurred some 200 meters (220 yards) away from the stadium where the President held his political campaign.
Earlier reports had conflicting figures, as to the number of persons killed in the blast. While some said one person died others said about 18 persons were killed.
The spokesman for the police, Mr Fwaje Atajiri, had earlier said that the female suicide bomber detonated the device from a rickety vehicle parked in an open space as she could not get to her target.
The state police also added that the incident was not close to the venue of Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential campaign and that the president had left before the blast. There was no confirmed number of persons dead as at that time, but two suicide bombers were said to have died in the explosion.
An eyewitness account says the incident occurred less than 30 minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left the town where he held the PDP presidential campaign rally.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a terrorist group, the Boko Haram, are believed to have carried out the attack. The group had attacked Gombe several times.
On Sunday, a suicide bomb blast near a mosque in the market area killed five people and wounded eight.
