A parcel bomb exploded in the premises of Superscreen, a private television station, in the Onipanu area of Lagos yesterday, ripping off the right hand of the conveyer of the explosive device.
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The incident, which occurred at about 1.30 p.m, sparked fears and apprehension among staffers and other occupants of Logemo House, the multi-storey building occupied by the television station.
Doctors are batling to save the life of the bomb conveyer, while the building has been evacuated.
Daily Sun gathered that the young man, whose mission and sponsors remained shrouded in mystery, had stormed the television house, spotting jeans trousers, T-shirt and canvass with parcel bombs disguised as Christmas gifts.
The agent of death who could not be immediately identified was said to have requested to see the most senior official of the television station.
The security guards on duty, it was learnt, granted him access after questioning him.
Daily Sun gathered that as the man was climbing up the stairs, the parcel of bomb slipped off his hands and exploded, ripping off his hand.
The explosion was said to have attracted the staff of companies occupying the building, as well as others in the neighbourhood who scampered for safety.
The management of Superscreen quickly contacted the police at the Onipanu Police Station who invited the police bomb disposal unit to the scene. The police bomb disposal unit was said to have recovered three unexploded parcel bombs and quickly detonated them.
As at press time, the nine-storey building housing many companies including two churches has been evacuated. However, some armed policemen including those from anti-bomb section were seen manning the gate. Journalists and other sympathisers who thronged the scene were barred from entering the premises.
A senior public officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “Barring people from entering the place was to ensure that the place was safe before allowing people to enter.”
The police officer further revealed that the Commissioner of Police, Mr Marvel Akpoyibo, had directed the anti-bomb unit to comb the premises. The commissioner was equally said to have pleaded with the medical doctors treating the suspect to make sure that he was alright to enable him to assist the police in their investigations.
When contacted, police spokesman, Mr Frank Mbah, confirmed the incident and said the suspect was being treated in a hospital. Though, the bomb disposal unit had certified the building safe, he warned people to stay away from the area till further notice.
Mbah, warned members of the public to be wary of the Christmas gifts especially hampers and parcels they received from strange people. The police spokesman assured that the security agents would unravel the mission of the suspect, his targets and sponsors.
Letter bomb in history
Letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb or post bomb, according to experts is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks in several cities around the world.
Letter bombs are usually designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient (who may or may not be the person to whom the bomb was addressed). A related threat is mail containing unidentified powders or chemicals, as in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
A letter bomb apparently timed to coincide with crucial regional elections exploded on May 16, 2001 in the face of a journalist known for his denunciations of the violent Basque separatist group Eta.
By the afternoon, no one had claimed responsibility for the attack against Gorka Landaburu, a reporter for the Spanish Cambio 16 magazine and a national television station. He suffered face and hand injuries.
Similarly on October 24, 2008, Ivo Pukanic, Editor-in-Chief of Zagreb’s second widest read political weekly, was killed late in a car bomb blast in downtown Zagreb. The attack continues a pattern of organized crime in the eastern European country that could jeopardize its EU accession.
However, one of the world’s first mail bomb was mentioned in the 18th century diary of Danish official and historian Bolle Willum Luxdorph, where he wrote that Edward White, formerly an artist at Madame Tussauds, was alleged to have sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud in June 1889 after being dismissed.
A Swedish man named Martin Ekenberg used a mailbomb August 20, 1904, targeting CEO Karl Fredrik Lundin in Stockholm. It was made of a box loaded with bullets and explosives.
In 1915, vice president of the United States Thomas R. Marshall was the target of an assassination attempt by letter bomb.
Austrian Nazi war criminal, Alois Brunner was sent a letter bomb by the Israeli intelligence services, Mossad, to which he lost an eye and several fingers.
Ruth First, a South African communist anti-apartheid activist was killed by a parcel bomb mailed by the South African government to her home in Mozambique.
Theodore Kaczynski, the “Unabomber”, killed three and injured 23 in a series of mailbombings in the United States from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.
In August 1985, a woman in Rotorua, New Zealand, Michele Sticovich, was instantly killed and a close friend of hers seriously injured after she opened a parcel addressed to her containing a number of sticks of gelignite. Mrs Sticovich’s estranged husband, David Sticovich, was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to her murder.
Robert Smith Vance, a U. S. federal judge, was killed instantly upon opening a letter bomb in the kitchen of his home in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife, Helen, seriously injured. Walter Leroy Moody was later convicted of killing both Vance and Georgia attorney Robbie Robertson by use of letter bombs delivered through the mail.
Franz Fuchs, Austrian mail bomber, killed four and injured 15 with mail bombs and improvised explosive devices in the mid-1990s.
Singer Björk was sent a letter bomb charged with explosives and hydrochloric acid by fan Ricardo López in 1996. The bomb did not reach Björk, having been randomly intercepted by London Police.
In February 2007, a series of mail bombings in the United Kingdom injured nine people, though none of them were critically hurt.
In January and February 2007, a bomber calling himself “The Bishop” sent several unassembled bombs to financial firms in the United States, and was arrested in April 2007.
In August 2007, a Lebanese immigrant was charged in connection with a letter bomb ring in the Toronto-Guelph, ON area; he was responsible for injuring 1 person. He was also responsible for the precautionary closing of a portion of the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto on August 31, 2007.
Dele Giwa, Nigeria’s first victim of parcel bomb
By PHILIP NWOSU
The first incident of letter bomb in Nigeria was recorded on October 19, 1986 in Lagos and the bomb was dispatched to Dele Giwa, a leading Nigerian journalist, editor and founder of Newswatch magazine.
Dele Giwa was killed by the letter bomb in his home located at No. 25, Talabi Street Ikeja, Lagos.
According to reports, the journalist was at home having a late breakfast with a colleague, Kayode Soyinka, when a mail delivery man brought a parcel addressed to him.
The parcel was allegedly delivered to his eldest son, Billy; then 19 years old, who later handed it over to his father.
It was gathered that Dele Giwa allegedly looked at the parcel and commented “this must be from the president,” a statement many said was linked to the seal of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which appeared on the envelope.
Reports said Dele Giwa allegedly tried to open the parcel and a deafening explosion ensued.
According to Giwa’s lawyer, the now late Gani Fawehinmi, State Security Service (SSS) officials had earlier summoned the popular editor to their headquarters on October 17, just 48 hours before he was killed.
The SSS, it was gathered, had accused Giwa of planning a social revolution and of smuggling arms into the country.
Early reports of the incident said government’s coat of arms was sighted on the outside of the package.
Although police investigated the murder, no one was ever prosecuted. In 2001, former Nigerian president Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled the country from 1985 to 1993, refused to testify before a national human rights commission on the Giwa murder.
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