ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — An improvised explosive device has detonated at a suburban school Nigeria capital on Monday, killing two bomb handlers and injuring two others, police said.
The IED was suspected to have been brought to Tsangagyar Sani Uthman Islamiyya School in Bwari council area of Abuja by three men who were visiting the owner of the school, police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said in a statement.
“Tragically, two of the men died in the blast while detonating the improvised explosive device on the veranda of the school, while the third man and a female trader were seriously injured,” Adeh said.
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The remains of the device proved to be an IED and the owner of the school was taken into custody for questioning, the police spokesman said. Police did not elaborate further.
The police did not say who the three men were except that they were visiting the school from the northwestern state of Katsina, one of the states worst hit by armed violence in northern Nigeria.
In recent years, Nigeria's capital, Abuja, has faced security threats and attacks that local authorities often attribute to armed groups from neighboring states, most of whom have been beaten hard with violence.
Northern Nigeria, where Abuja is located, has suffered such an explosion in recent years, including June last year when suicide bombers targeted a wedding, the funeral of the victims and a hospital treating the wounded.
The coordinated attacks took place in Borno state, which has been fighting a decade-long war against extremists who have launched an insurgency that has spread to its northern neighbors Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
