FG says WEF will not be cowed by bombings

Federal Government has urged delegates due for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Abuja this week “not to let terror win” by staying away after a second bombing in the capital in less than three weeks.

A suspected car bomb killed 19 people and wounded 34 on Thursday night in the suburb of Nyanya, about 8 km (five miles) from Abuja city centre and next to the bush station where a rush hour bomb attack killed 75 people on April 14.

The bombs, along with the abduction of 200 girls from a secondary school in the northeastern village of Chibok near the Cameroon border, threaten to overshadow the WEF conference’s emphasis on Africa’s positive growth story.

The girls, who were taking exams, were taken away on trucks on the same day as the bus station bombing. Both attacks showed the powerlessness of Nigerian security forces to protect civilians against the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s government will mount a huge security operation to protect the WEF scheduled for next Wednesday.