SHOCKING: 60 killed, Dozens Injured In Luxurious Bus Explosion In Kano (MORE PHOTOS)

Kano State has been thrown into pandemonium as a bomb just went off at New Road, Sabon Gari area of the city.

A witness told PREMIUM TIMES that the bomb exploded at the hub of a commercial Luxury Bus park usually filled with commuters going from Kano to the South.

Another witness said an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, was planted near the park causing one of the buses to go up in flames.

A recent report showed that four dead bodies have been brought in to the accident and emergency ward of Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and many men, women and children wounded.

Recent report claims that over 60 passengers were killed while dozens got injured following the explosion.

Several other casualties have also been evacuated to other hospitals across the town for emergency treatment.

The blast affected both passengers in the bus that was about to exit the park and many others within the vicinity of the park.

The blast caused a stampede with many people getting hurt and cars crashing.

Details are still sketchy with some sources saying the explosion emanated from a car parked beside the bus while others claim it was from within the bus.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Police in Kano, Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident. He however, said he has not gotten the full details.

The area has now been cordoned off by soldiers and police officers.

At the moment, no one can confirm the status of casualties in this attack as effort to contact the police or JTF was not successful as at the time of compiling this report, however residents say the area was combed by JTF.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Boko Haram, which has frequently attacked the city, was a prime suspect. A spokesman for security forces in Kano state, Ikedehia Iwehia, said dead and wounded were being evacuated.

The sect often targets Christians.

"I ran for my dear life and managed to get out of the park after the second blast. Many people are lying dead. See, my clothes are covered in blood," said witness Ibrahim Bello, holding up a blood-soaked shirt.

A reporter who was at the scene counted 25 bodies. However, Channels TV reports that 60 people were killed and dozens were injured.

A member of Igbo traditional council in Kano, Tobias Idika, who confirmed the explosion to Channels TV said there were over 200 people in the bus.

"IED was kept inside the luxurious bus which was about to leave Kano to Lagos, people were frying like chicken here and you know there are over two hundred people in this bus when the two IEDs exploded," he was quoted as saying.

The area has now been cordoned off by Military and Policemen. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

PHOTOS BELOW: (WARNING: Contains Graphic Images)

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Birdman Pays Lil Wayne a Visit

Lil Wayne's latest hospital visitor was perhaps his most important: his mentor ... Birdman.The rap stars are as close as close can be, so much so that Birdman calls Wayne "his son." Birdman famously gave Wayne $1,000,000 in cash on his 26th birthday. Wayne -- who has been in the hospital since suffering multiple seizures earlier this week -- has also received visits from Drake and Los Angeles Clippers star Chris Paul. Birdman tweeted after Wayne's health scare last night, saying, "My son is feelin Good.will be home real soon."

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Woman Petitions IG, Alleges She Was Raped In Police Custody

A middle-age woman alleged to have been serially raped by four men while in police custody in Abraka, Delta State, has petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin, accusing the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and his men of negligence and failure to protect her.

In the petition by counsel to the woman, Mr. Ejomasuvwe Efe, alleged that following a fight between her and her neighbour, police from Abraka Police Station came to arrest her following a complaint from one Mama Afoke who she had altercation with.

She disclosed that efforts made by her husband to effect her bail was rebuffed by the DPO and DCO, who apart from intimidating and abusing her husband pushed him out of the police station.

She said: "Shortly after Mr. Isaiah left the Abraka Police Station, the Police IPO instructed the Police man at the counter to take his wife to the police cell and delivered her into a cell where there were already two men.

"As soon as the Police locked the gate to the cell, two young boys came into the cell where the woman and the other two mature men were kept, and immediately they started touching her indecently despite her protests that she was a married woman and mother of five children.

"The boys asked her to keep quiet and immediately grabbed her by her neck and gagged her with their hands while the others held her two hands and threw her violently on the floor and started to rape her.

"In the process, she started shouting but the policemen refused to come to her aid until she went into a coma. She only came around the following morning".

She added that when she became conscious, she noticed that her husband was inside the cell opposite where she was held, adding that when asked him what he was doing there, her husband replied that when he came that morning to effect her bail, the police pushed him into the cell for ever asking for her bail.

Mrs. Isaiah informed the AIG that when her husband confronted the DPO and DCO about his wife's allegedly raped and kept in the same cell with men, the DCO ordered that he should be kept behind the counter.

While saying that she was later taken to the Abraka Government hospital where a doctor who treated her confirmed that she was raped, alleged that the IPO begged her not to tell people about the doctor's verdict.

"After our client was discharged from the hospital, one Mr. Kobina Enamuotor who is the father of one of the rapist, Akpevwe and one Mr. Okotie whose son was also involved in the rape, together with the woman IPO and two other police men went to the family of our client begging for settlement and they offered to pay damages of N120,000 to the family.

"Meanwhile, the DPO of Abraka Police Station seeing the seriousness of the offence and the negligence of himself and his men, refused to take any meaningful action and wanting to cover it up, before well wishers started protesting and sending text messages to the Commissioner of Police which led to the transfer of the case to Asaba", the petitioner said.

She alleged that in Asaba the IPO who was detailed to handle the case started to intimidate her husband, threatening him that if they did not hands off the case, some thing more dangerous will happen to them since the Assistant Commissioner of Police in Asaba was interested in the case and was ready to deal ruthlessly with them.

"Our clients are in a serious trauma and cry for justice with firm instruction to demand and we hereby demand that the AIG should use hid good offices and detail well spirited policemen from his office in Benin to carry out discrete investigation into this heinous crime at the Abraka police Station, Mama Afoke and the rapists involved brought to book."

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Policeman Beats Tenant To A Coma With Hammer

A photographer with the Eti-Osa Local Government, Lagos was allegedly beaten to a coma by a policeman during a demolition exercise in Ikoyi area of the state last Wednesday.

Bolaji Madamidola PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim, Bolaji Madamidola, is an occupant of a building which formerly belonged to a former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank plc, Cecilia Ibru.

It was learnt the building had been acquired by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria and sold off to another individual.

Our correspondent gathered on March 6, 2013, some policemen stormed the building to eject the occupants of the building.

It was in a bid to salvage some of his properties that Madamidola was allegedly beaten up by one of the policemen.

The lawyer to the occupants of the building, Okwarauba Nastor, said the policemen were shooting indiscriminately in a bid to scare off the occupants of the building.

He said the victim did not provoke the policemen but only attempted to evacuate some of his properties when one of the policemen hit him with a sledge hammer.

He said, "The policemen came with guns and started shooting into the air sporadically so that all the occupants of the building will run away. He (Madamidola), on hearing that the policemen were ejecting them (tenants), he rushed back to the house.

"As he ran into his apartment to salvage some of his things, one of the policemen later identified as Sergeant Raimi Aliyu, picked up a sledge hammer and struck the victim with it, causing him to faint immediately."

It was learnt that the policemen, who thought Madamidola had given up the ghost, immediately fled the scene.

Sympathisers were said to have rushed the victim to about four hospitals in the area where he was rejected. He was later taken to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island.

A friend of the victim, who craved anonymity, said Madamidola was still in critical condition and due to the severity Madamidola's condition, he would need at least N1m before proper treatment could begin.

The lawyer said it was unfortunate that AMCON would authorize such a demolition even though the matter was still in court.

He said, "This is not the first time that the occupants of the building will be threatened with eviction. In April 2011, the same policemen attached to the company wanted to eject them but we took the matter to court because the tenants have been paying rent to AMCON.

"The matter is still in court and that is why I'm surprised that such a thing could happen."

It was however learnt that AMCON had promised to offset part of the hospital bill.

When contacted on the telephone, the AMCON spokesman, Mr. Kayode Lambo, denied that the victim was beaten up by a policeman, adding that he only got injured after he slipped and fell.

Lambo said the occupants of the house no longer had the right to live in the house since it had been relinquished by Ibru after her conviction in 2010.

He said, "The property has been sold and the tenants there no longer pay rent. When the policemen went to the house, one of the tenants slipped and fell and sustained a minor injury. We took him to St. Nicholas Hospital and he is fine.

"There is no case pending in court because the property was acquired legally by AMCON."

When contacted on the telephone, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, said she would call back but was yet to do so as at press time.

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I Became A Prostitute At 10 – Victim

An 18-year-old victim of human trafficking, identified simply as Victoria, has told us that she became a prostitute at the age of 10 because she was gullible to trust an elderly woman who promised her a job as shop assistant in Lagos.

Victoria said eight years ago, she was living in Cross River State with her aunty, who was married to a wife beater, adding that the offer from the elderly woman was like a God-sent because she wanted a new life.

She said by the time she got to Lagos, she discovered that she had been deceived and that she was brought to the city to prostitute herself for the kinswoman.

Victoria said, "I was living with my elder sister in Cross River State when I came across the woman in my community. She told me that her mother needed a shop assistant in Lagos. My parents were dead at the time and my sister was in an unhappy marriage with a husband who beat her frequently.

"It seemed better at the time to start a new life than to continue with living with my sister and her husband. I left the house early one morning without telling anyone just as I had been instructed and was brought to Lagos with one other young boy."

Victoria said she was taken to a house somewhere in Ikeja, which, from all appearances, seemed to be an ordinary residential building but, in reality, it was a brothel.

She said at the place so many young women lived and worked, adding that its owner was the mother of the elderly lady who had convinced her to move to Lagos.

She stated, "When it was evening, the old woman gave me a short skirt to wear and explained that I was to work as a prostitute. I was aghast and protested violently so she tried her best to cajole me.

"For a week, I refused to do anything and in the second week, I was able to run away from the house.

"Unfortunately, I was caught, brought back and locked up in a room, where the old woman called in four boys to gang-rape me.

"After that incident, I was forced to earn my living as a prostitute. Every day, they brought different men to sleep with me, and the madam usually collects the money. I never saw a dime.

"I believe some policemen knew what was going on in that house, they never did anything. They would just come to collect money from the madam and go.

"It was after a team of policemen from Force Criminal Investigation Department, annex, Alagbon, Lagos raided the brothel that I got my freedom and was handed over to the officials of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons."

WE gathered that at NAPTIP, Victoria underwent a six-year-nine-month rehabilitation course programme. She is one of the seven recipients of an empowerment programme by the agency.

She underwent training in fashion designing. After the training, she was equipped with sewing machines, other tools and money.

Victoria said, "I am determined to be self sufficient. These are things our parents could not afford. We are truly thankful and grateful."

Another victim, Sarah, who took up hairdressing during her stay with NAPTIP, told US that she was sold as a s*x slave by a pastor who headed a local church.

She said, "My mum and I lived in Ondo State. One day, a pastor who was very cordial with my mum suggested I came to Lagos to work for his sister as a sales girl. Although we did not attend his church, he was quite respected in the community and my mum was persuaded that it was a better option than staying back in the village as a farmer.

"My mother gave her consent and along with four other girls, I got into a bus with the pastor and we supposedly headed for Lagos."

Unknown to Sarah and the other girls, they were headed for Burkina Faso where they were to be sold as s*x slaves.

She said, "Till today, I cannot say what really happened. All I remember now is that we awoke to find ourselves in Burkina Faso.

Luckily for Sarah, one of her companions befriended a Burkinabe citizen who frequented the brothel. It was this new friend who aided their escape after they took him into confidence.

To give the impression that they were still within the neighbourhood, all the five girls strolled out of the brothel with just a piece of wrapper tied across their chests. They met up with their new friend who took them to the Nigerian Embassy.

Sarah said, "I was later brought to Nigeria and handed over to NAPTIP. I was able to call my mum and tell her my ordeal. Somehow, the pastor got wind of my escape and fled the community before he could be arrested."

The Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Mr. Famakin Joseph, handing over the sewing machines and hairdryers to the seven victims said, "Vocational training is not the only option available to victims of human trafficking. We currently have a victim who is an undergraduate at the University of Markudi and NAPTIP is footing the bill.

"We will continue to monitor the progress of these young women because we want them to become useful members of the society. They are assured of our continued support even as they are being reintegrated back into society."

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Breached Public Peace: Lovers Fight Over S*x Fee In Hotel Room

Two lovers, Godwin Agu, 35, and Amaka Njoku, 30, have landed in trouble after they engaged in public fighting over sex fee in a hotel in Ajegunle, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria.

They were charged before an Apapa Magistrate's court and remanded in prison custody at Kirikiri, Lagos.

They are facing charge of conduct that breached public peace for fighting in the hotel.

The lovers had ealier agreed to have short time sex for a fee of N500 and went to a popular hotel in Ajegunle, Lagos.

It was gathered that after they checked into a room, Amaka, who had earlier agreed to collect N500 suddenly changed her mind after Agu spent a longer time during the s*x romp. Amaka reportedly told Agu that since he had stayed too long with her in the room he had to pay additional N500. Agu agreed and after he finished, he refused to add more money, insisting he only had a round of s*x as they agreed.

This caused serious aurgment that resulted in fighting between them in the hotel. The fighting disrupted the activities in the hotel that evening before the hotel management intervened. The management contacted the police who arrested them and charged them to court for engaging in a public fight.

According to Agu, "I pleaded with Amaka before she agreed on the price and at the middle of the action, she wanted to discontinue, insisting that I must add more money."

Amaka said he promised to complete the money when she complained that he had stayed too long. When they were arraigned in court, they pleaded not guilty.

The presiding Magistrate, Mr. P. A. Adekomaya granted them bail in the sum of N10,000 with one surety in like sum. Also, the defendants were asked to bring a letter from a community leader to show they will be of good conduct in future. They were, however, remanded in prison custody pending when they perfect their bail conditions.

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Robbers Invade Lagos Airport, Kill Two Policemen

Heavily armed robbers on Wednesday night invaded the International Wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos, killed two policemen and made away with a huge amount of foreign currencies from some bureau-de-change operators at nation's premier gateway, officials said.

The dare devil robbers, who arrived the airport some few minutes to nine, headed for the BDC operators centre near the car park and started shooting sporadically, eyewitnesses said.

The robbers, numbering over 10, were said to have been engaged in a gun duel for about 30 minutes by policemen attached to the airport.

The gunfight, it was learnt, resulted in the death of two policemen and one armed robber, who was said to have tied local magical bands all over his arms and body.

As at a few minutes past 9pm, the two dead policemen were being conveyed in a van to the mortuary, according to eyewitnesses.

The Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Mr. Bayo Ajileye, could not be reached for comments. His telephone line was switched off when our correspondent made a call.

However, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Dati, confirmed the robbery.

He, however, said he could only confirm the death of one of the robbers. He said the level of casualties was being ascertained.

He added, "The situation has since been brought under control by the swift intervention of joint security force. They were apparently attempting to rob a bureau de change operator near the airport. Normal operations and flight have not been affected by the incident."

The event has exposed the porous security network of the nation's flagship airport.

Last year, robbers came to the airport and made away with millions of dollars from BDC operators.

An eyewitness said the robbers came into the airport through the car park.

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