SUICIDE BOMBER ROCKS GOMBE AGAIN

A suicide bomber killed at least twenty six people and wounded 40 on Friday near a marketplace in north-eastern Nigeria. "It was a suicide bombing," said Saidu Ahmed Minin, head of operation of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Gombe. "twenty six people were killed including the bomber and 40 others were injured. We evacuated them to the hospital." Witnesses said the blast went off at 7:25pm in the packed market neighbourhood of Kasuwar Arawa, close to the public university in Gombe, which is capital of Gombe state. "The bomber went into the crowd of people waiting to recharge their telephones at a public charging station and then set off the explosive," said Idris Babandada, a taxi driver. "The explosion shook the whole neighbourhood." No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but Boko Haram militants are increasingly powerful in the north-east of Nigeria and Gombe has been hit by several suicide bombers recently, most of them at bus stations and near military installations. Meanwhile unknown assailants threw dynamite at opposition coalition offices in Nigeria's oil- producing Niger Delta on Friday, destroying the building but not claiming any casualties. "Around 3am today the youths attacked the APC secretariat at Ngor. The entire building was razed to the ground in the fire. Nigeria holds presidential and governorship elections on Feb. 14 that are likely to be its closest since the end of military rule in 1999, with President Goodluck Jonathan facing off against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the APC. Nigeria has a history of political thuggery and intimidation that have often marred its polls. Violence by Islamist group Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, is also surging ahead of the election.