by Habeeb I. Pindiga, Shehu Abubakar & Isa Sanusi / 2006-03-28

No life was lost but the man suspected to have detonated the grenade was badly wounded.

The police in Abuja confirmed the incident to Daily Trust and said it was not targeted at anybody.

A twist was however, added when Mantu alleged that the explosion emanated from a building belonging to the chief security officer to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and that he was the target.

The blast, according to Mantu, happened at about 1.30pm yesterday.
Witnesses told Daily Trust that a sudden bang was heard from the building, sending smoke billowing into the sky.

Security personnel attached to Mantu rushed into the building and found a man in a pool of blood, apparently wounded by the explosion.
Commissioner of police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Lawrence Alobi, told Daily Trust that “the report I have before me said a construction worker by name Salisu Umar, went to a bush about 1,000 meters away from the deputy Senate president’s house at Asokoro to ease himself. He saw a hand grenade and picked it. He was curious to know what it was. He removed the pin and it exploded and injured him.

“It was not an attack on anybody. It was just an incident and the only casualty was the person who found the grenade in the bush and tried to see what it was. We have recovered the exploded grenade and the victim is re-sponding to treatment.”

But asked why he thought the blast was targeted at him, Mantu said, “My house is my house, who else is important in my house than myself?”

A witness, Malam Yakubu Musa, told Daily Trust at the scene of the incident that contrary to Alobi’s statement, Salisu came with the grenade to the place.

Immediately after the incident, the witness said, the police rushed and took Salisu to a hospital. But he admitted not knowing who Salisu’s target was.

Recounting how he heard the blast, Mantu told newsmen at the National Assembly that “there’s a house adjacent to my house, it’s uncompleted, in fact it’s slated for demolition. I understand that the house belongs to the chief security officer to the vice-president. That’s what they say. And people have been staying in the uncompleted house. There are many people there. The house is overlooking my house. So I went upstairs to keep something. I just heard a blast—bang! Then there was smoke all over the place that’s in the compound where the people are staying and my window is very close, may be in an attempt to throw the thing, it exploded on the man and he is now in the hospital.”

Asked if the purported attack on him had links with his role in the third term agenda, he said “I don’t know. Different things are done for different reasons. Possibly those who think if I give way, maybe I stand before them. I don’t want to blame anybody since God has sent it to the sender.”

The deputy Senate president said he was not moved by the blast. “My security is in the hands of God. I don’t really give a damn about this because I thank God for the life I live.

This will spur me into doing great things for Nigeria,” he said.
Yesterday’s blast is coming in the wake of impeachment moves against Mantu for his role in the alleged extra-budgetary spending as Amirul hajj of 2005.

He is also being investigated in the third term controversy as chairman of the National Assembly Joint Constitution Review Committee.
Reacting an associate of the Vice President, Malam Garba Shehu said “I want to say that the Chief Security Officer to the Vice President does not own a house anywhere in Asokoro.”

Garba Shehu added: “So Mantu should cross check and if this is an attempt to link the incident to the Vice President for political reason, it will not succeed,” adding that “Atiku Abubakar is a civilian democrat and these are not his ways.”

He further said, the bomb may be the commencement of a plan to set up the vice president.