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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Three weeks ago, gunmen attacked the Aninri Divisional Police Station, Enugu State, killed two policemen and injured three others including a female police officer.
The gunmen did not only leave a tale of sorrow at the station but went ahead to set fire on all police patrol vans sighted within the vicinity at the time of their operation, which was reportedly executed in commando style.
It was learnt that the gunmen stormed Aninri Police Station in exotic vehicles including a jeep and unleashed their superior firepower on policemen, who were on duty as of the time of the attack.
Two of the policemen were caught by the bullets and they died instantly while others including the female police officer escaped with bullet wounds.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Eneh, narrowly escaped from the gunmen.
The gang, after setting the police patrol vehicles at the station on fire, escaped. However, a source linked the shooting at Aninri Police Station to a disagreement between two rival groups in Mpu community, the home of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
It was learnt that a self-acclaimed witch doctor in one group allegedly charmed a young man belonging to the rival group. In reprisal, the other group took laws into their hands and killed the said witch doctor.
Following the killing, the police moved into Mpu town and rounded up some young men, believed to have participated in the killing and who it was gathered, were loyalists of some politicians in the area.
Even as controversy over the killing was raging, a report came to the police station that robbers were operating in a nearby community. The police reportedly swung into action and gave the robbers a hot pursuit but the bandits abandoned their operational vehicles at a point in the same Mpu community and escaped.
When the policemen could not get the robbers, they forcefully arrested some youths of the community and took them to the station.
The arrest of the youths reportedly stirred up the shooting at the police station that led to the death of the two policemen.
However Amaraizu said that only one policeman died in the Mpu incident. The police spokesperson told Daily Independent on phone that the manhunt for the perpetrators was ongoing.
About the same period, Enugu State Focal Person of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Uche Ani, was also abducted from his Enugu residence by suspected kidnappers.
It was gathered that Ani who rode on his official Land Cruiser jeep, was returning to his residence at No 38 Igbariam Street, Achalla Layout, Enugu, when he was waylaid by the kidnappers, who operated on a 604 Peugeot vehicle.
The incident occurred around 9.pm.
Just as the victim parked in front of his gate, the hoodlums parked their car beside his jeep, swiftly alighted and ordered him to come down from the jeep at gun point.
As Ani came down from the vehicle, he was reportedly beaten up and forced into the Peugoet car before the vehicle sped off.
Ani regained his freedom after spending a week in the den of his abductors.
Daily Independent gathered that he has re-united with his family but the details of his release were yet to be disclosed by Police.
The UNDP official added to the long list of those who had fallen victim to kidnappers in Enugu in the past six months.
Other notable victims include Francis Edemobi, younger brother of Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili; South East Regional Manager of Guarantee Trust Bank, Kingsley Osuala; son of Ifeanyi Ononiba, an Enugu-based hotelier and Ngozi Ngene, the wife of chairman of Enugu South Local Government Area, Sam Ngene.
Apart from Ononiba, who allegedly paid N5 million ransom to secure his son's freedom, police lived up to expectation in most other cases, setting the victims free and apprehending suspected kidnappers.
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A group of armed supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Techiman, a town in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana on May 28, 2009 besieged the premises of privately-owned Classic FM physically attacked three persons and vandalised the station.A group of armed supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Techiman, a town in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana on May 28, 2009besieged the premises of privately-owned Classic FM physically attackedthree persons and vandalised the station.Kofi Doe Lawson, a producer, Michael Amankwah, marketing manager of the station and a food vendor were violently attacked by the angry supporters wielding machetes. Amankwah was hospitalised, treated and later discharged.Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)'s correspondent reported that theattack was as a result of an alleged voice recording of Simon Addai, a member of parliament (MP) of Techiman South constituency, who during a meeting with NDC members allegedly threatened to 'deal' with some members of the opposition, including prosecuting his immediate predecessor, for an acts of corruption.The correspondent said but for the vigilance of the station security, the youth, who destroyed the entrance of the station would have also vandalised the studio. It took the intervention of the patrol team of military and police to bring the situation under control.When MFWA contacted the MP, he denied making the statements attributed to him by the station. He accused the station of bias and unprofessionalism. The MP said the attack had not been officially reported to him.
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