President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, visited the scene of a fatal bomb explosion that left no fewer than 150 dead and other severely wounded.
Speaking at the scene, the president urged Nigerians to be more observant of the activities around them
Jonathan, who was accompanied by the Senate President, Sen. David Mark, underscored the need for the media and relevant government and private establishments to initiate security enlightenment programmes.
“We want to use this unique opportunity to plead with the media and our great men and women to come up with enlightenment programme for our people.
“Those countries that face terror, they have developed great awareness.
“If there are unusual movement of vehicles and bags, they call on security and based on this, a lot of incidences are contained.
“So we believe that if people will become observant and all of us become security conscious by the movement of people, we will be able to reduce some of these incidences,” he said.
The president expressed condolences to the families of the victims of the incidence.
He commended the security services for their prompt action.
“Though we lost quite a number of people, we condole with our country men and women,” he said.
The explosion, which was heard some minutes before 7 a.m. on Monday, occurred at the popular El Rufai Park, shocked residents of the densely populated areas of Mararaba, Jikwoyi, Karu, Kpegeyi, Kurudu, One Man Village, New Karu and New Nyanya in Abuja.
The blast which was heard some minutes before 7 a.m. on Monday, occurred at the popular El Rufai Park.
Among the scores of people who lost their lives were workers going to work, traders and commercial motorcycle riders.
The park is terminus for the red and green luxury buses numbering up to 50 and scores of other passenger vehicles which belong to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Eyewitnesses said that most of the other vehicles around the premises were set ablaze as a result of the explosion.
It was not clear how the bomb got into the park, but witnesses suspect that it was planted by a suicide bomber last night.
Some of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition, and several vehicles, including over 10 government-owned high capacity buses operated by the Abuja Mass Transit Company Limited, were destroyed by the blast.
Some of the buses were said to be loaded with passengers when the explosion occurred.
Several dead bodies and injured people littered the park.
As at the time of filling in this report, no official figure about the casualties has been given, but the police, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), civil defence, men of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) and Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) are still battling to contain the situation
