Two explosions shook the state governor’s office in Nigeria’s southern oil city of Warri on Monday where amnesty talks were due to be held, minutes after a bomb threat from the region’s main militant group.
The Movement for the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an emailed statement it had planted three explosive devices in and around Delta State Government House in Warri.
Witnesses said the first explosion happened opposite the compound, the second at the gates of the building, where talks were due to be held about reviving an amnesty programme in the heartland of Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.
“There was a huge explosion a few minutes ago at the venue of the programme. Every one of us started running helter skelter,” said a Delta state government official who asked not to be named.
Gbenga Ahmed, a local television journalist who witnessed the explosions, said the first outside the compound appeared to have been a car bomb. The second, about 30 minutes later, was about 100 metres away from the governor’s office.