At least five people have been killed and many injured in a late Sunday suicide bombing attack in Nigeria's commercial city of Kano.
"Five people were killed in the blast and several injured," Kano police spokesman Musa Majiya Adelere told Anadolu Agency on Monday morning.
"The dead include the bomber himself," he said.
Adelere said the bombing occurred just a little after 10pm local time.
He added that police are combing the area to find "clues into the unfortunate incident."
Abubakar Jos, a local radio journalist, said the blast occurred near a drinking joint between Gold Coast Road and Middle Road.
"But the suicide bomber apparently was headed elsewhere because the blast occurred while he was on the move," he told AA.
Both roads are in Sabongari, a suburb of Kano largely inhabited by non-indigenes, Muslims and Christians alike.
The word Sabongari itself roughly translates to "visitors' quarters."
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion, as usual, points to Boko Haram.
More than 1500 people have been killed this year alone in attacks blamed on Boko Haram insurgents, most of which have taken place in the northeastern Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, first emerged in the early 2000s preaching against government misrule and corruption.
The group later became violent, however, after the death of its leader in 2009 while in police custody.
In the five years since, the shadowy sect has been blamed for numerous attacks – on places of worship and government institutions – and thousands of deaths.
-Explosion-
The blast in Kano occurred just hours after an explosion near a refinery in Port Harcourt, the capital of southern Rivers State, killed seven people and injured several others.
"The explosion occurred following the activities of illegal bunkerers at a creek near the NNPC jetty in Okrika, Rivers State," Okrika local government chairman Tamuno Williams confirmed to AA.
"For now, I will say seven die, scores injured and they are being treated in hospitals in Rivers State," he said.
Rivers Police spokesman Ahmad Mohammad confirmed the incident to AA.
Nigeria has four refineries which work far below their capacities.
Beside the two in Port Harcourt, the two others are located in Kaduna in the northwest and Warri in the south.
By Rafiu Ajakaye
englishnews@aa.com.tr
