Nigeria Imposes 24-Hour Curfew in Gombe State After Bombings
February 26, 2012, 2:12 PM ESTBy Ardo Abdullahi Hazzad and Gbenga Akingbule
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nigerian authorities imposed a 24- hour curfew in the northeastern state of Gombe after bomb blasts by suspected members of the Boko Haram movement.
The restrictions were imposed to protect people from further attack, state government spokesman Adamu Musa said yesterday.
The bombings yesterday targeted a divisional police headquarters in Gombe town. Police chief Orubebe Gandhi said some officers were injured without giving any other details.
Gombe is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Maiduguri, the home of Boko Haram, a group that wants imposition of Shariah, or Islamic law, and has been blamed for attacks in northern Nigeria and the capital, Abuja, since 2009.
The group last week issued a statement saying it would carry out attacks in order to secure the release of members held in prison without trial.
--With assistance from Paul Tighe in Sydney. Editor: Paul Tighe, Jim McDonald
To contact the reporters on this story: Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi at ahazzad@bloomberg.net; Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri at gakingbule@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
