Two Cameroonians and a Chadian were allegedly arrested at the scene of the Nyanya blast, the second bomb blast at a motor park in Nyanya, a suburd of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
This is even as the death toll on the latest blast hit 19.
Operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) allegedly nabbed the suspects who claimed to be foreign nationals and could not speak nor understand English language at the scene of the incident, few minutes after the first vehicle exploded.
A top official of the service who spoke to our Correspondent in a telephone interview from Abuja, confirmed the latest development and added that, suspicious and incriminating items have been recovered from the trio.
The arrest has once again confirmed another exclusive story by this Magazine which had on Sunday, March 30th that a Cameroonian business mogul has been arrested in connection with terrorist activities in Nigeria.
Security operatives said the Cameroonian businessman was arrested in the middle of a meeting with persons suspected to be members of the Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram.
It was also confirmed that it was a Mazda car that was used for the bombings and that three suspects drove by, parked the car and started running.
“As people started pursuing them, the car exploded creating panic and pandemonium that made them to escape”, the witness said. The witness said three people inside the Golf car parked close to the Mazda died instantly.
Police spokesman, Frank Mba, told reporters who gathered at the scene of the blast that 19 people were injured in the attack.
However, an unexploded bomb that did not detonate after the explosion was found by one of the security men on duty. The whole area was quickly cordoned off to enable bomb experts defuse the bomb, but not without difficulty controlling the crowd and miscreants.
The latest blast, coming 16 days after the first in which at least 70 were killed and 200 injured, will be a big blow to a planned Nigerian Economic Forum scheduled for the capital city next week. Nigeria has been assuring foreign governments that the environment is secure for the conference.
Mba, had earlier confirmed 12 persons as casualties.
He said the latest bomb blast ripped through a taxi park in Nyanya, Abuja, about 8:50pm Thursday evening.
Mr Mba who addressed journalists at the scene of the blast, said so far 12 citizens died and 19 suffered various injuries.
The attack comes days before the capital is due to host the World Economic Forum on Africa, which will attract international leaders, policy makers and entrepreneurs from around the world. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, however it bears all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, an Islamist group seeking to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria.
Boko Haram insurgents had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack which struck the same area on April 14. At least 75 people were killed and an estimated 141 were injured when a bomb was detonated at Nyanya bus station during morning rush hour.
On the same day suspected Boko Haram militants kidnapped at least 234 girls from a high school in the northern Borno State. Around 50 of the girls managed to escape within hours of the abduction, but most are still missing.
Meanwhile, the kidnapping of teenage girls from Government College in Chibok has continued to shock Nigerians and proved to be extremely damaging for the government which has been accused of mishandling its response.
Relatives have staged protests calling for security forces to do more to find the girls, who it is feared have been trafficked across Nigeria’s borders and sold as brides.
The group, whose name means “Western education is sinful,” has been held responsible for hundreds of attacks across the country during its five-year insurgency.
It has stepped up attacks in recent months, with more than 1,500 fatalities this year alone, compared to 3,600 between 2010 and 2013.
The upsurge in violence has discredited government claims that security forces have contained the insurgency to the northeastern corner of the country.
On Thursday President Goodluck Jonathan told a May Day rally in the capital that the government will “triumph over all this evil that wants to debase our humanity or obstruct our progress as a nation. Those who want to redefine our country to be seen as a country of chaos will never succeed,” he said.
