An explosion hit the local headquarters of an opposition party in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta on Thursday shortly after delegates had finished holding state governorship primaries, a senior official said.
The explosion at the Labour Party office in Bayelsa appeared to have been caused by dynamite and marked the latest act of political intimidation in the state ahead of nationwide elections in April, governorship candidate Timi Alaibe said.
“We’d finished meeting but about 20-30 minutes after the police called us and told us that after we left there was an explosion,” Alaibe told Reuters by telephone, adding nobody was injured as party members had already left.
“These things are orchestrated to intimidate and we want to stop them,” said Alaibe, who won the primary vote.
Gunmen killed several supporters of Alaibe, who quit as presidential adviser on the Niger Delta to run in the Bayelsa election, during a gathering at his home last Friday. Two bombs also exploded during a rally in December.
Africa’s most populous nation has been rocked by pockets of violence around the country in recent weeks and there are fears of further unrest as it prepares for presidential, parliamentary and state government elections in April.
The Niger Delta, home to the continent’s biggest oil and gas industry, is a potential flashpoint and Bayelsa — President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state — is particularly volatile.
The region is home to thousands of former militants, responsible for years of kidnapping and attacks on oil facilities, who are meant to be undergoing retraining and reintegration following a 2009 government amnesty.
But it remains awash with weapons and many of the armed gangs behind the unrest were originally sponsored by politicians who used them to help rig elections and intimidate voters.
There is a bitter rivalry between Alaibe, who was the main man on the ground responsible for implementing the amnesty, and Bayelsa governor Timipre Sylva, who saw himself politically overshadowed by Alaibe’s success with the programme.
Alaibe quit the ruling People’s Democratic Party to challenge Sylva for the governorship.