Female bomber kills 40 at Kaduna verification centre

Confusion enveloped Dogarawa in Sabon Gari Local Government Area, a few kilometres from Zaria City, on Tuesday after a female suicide bomber detonated an Improvised Explosive Device, killing no fewer than 40 people while scores sustained varying degrees of injuries.
The deaths as well as those critically injured were taken to the St. Luke Hospital, Wusasa and the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, both in Zaria.
Eyewitness said a verification of staff was in progress at the secretariat when the explosion occurred.
According to the source, the  female  suicide bomber joined the queue of staff, pretending to be part of the workers before detonating the explosive, killing over 30 people, including herself, instantly.
The exercise, it was gathered, coincided with the inaugural address by the new Chairman, Interim Management Committee of the local government.
Our correspondent also learnt that most of the victims were  female primary school teachers from Kubau,  Lere, Sabon Gari local governments among others.
The State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and  the State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Umar Shehu, visited the scene of the blast for an on-the-spot assessment of the incident.
El-Rufai confirmed the incident on his twitter handle, indicating that 20 people were killed in the blast that rocked the secretariat while staff verification was in progress.
Later in a statement, the governor, through his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said the death toll had risen to 25 people while 50 others sustained varying degrees of injuries.
Chief Medical Director of the ABU Teaching Hospital, Zaria,  Prof. Lawal Khalid,  simple said, “Above a dozen people died.”
Health workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that no fewer than 26 people died.
They said those critically injured were receiving treatment, noting that they needed blood, calling on people to donate blood to the victims.
Bello Hassan, 32, a worker at the secretariat, said the explosion happened while the verification exercise was going on.
“Frankly speaking, there is tension around the area. I can not give the figure (death) now but I saw many bodies that littered the ground,” he added.
Also,  a female employee at the local government, Aisha Mohammed, told our correspondent on the telephone that they were in a 500 capacity hall when “suddenly, we heard a deafening sound of the explosion.”