WITHIN NIGERIA highlights one major event that occured on April 29 in the history of this country, Nigeria in an effort to create awareness for education and enlightenment purpose.
On this day, April 29 in 2006, militants carried out a car bomb attack on fuel trucks in the Niger Delta and again warned oil companies to evacuate staff from the restive region.
According to reports, the militants also issued a specific threat to Chinese oil workers, warning Beijing not to invest in the Nigerian oil industry.
A spokesman for the Delta State Government, Sunny Areh, confirmed the attack.
He said a Mercedes 190 car had been packed with explosives and the blast had destroyed four nearby parked cars but caused no casualties.
Brigadier General Alfred Ilogho, commander of a military task force deployed in the delta to counter the rebels, said a car had exploded close to parked tanker trucks on the outskirts of the oil port of Warri.
“There was an explosion of a car. There weren’t any casualties. The place has been cordoned off by soldiers,” he said.
He said the blast had happened after dark at a truck stop used by tanker drivers serving Warri’s refinery.
A group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claimed a previous car bomb in Port Harcourt on April 20, said it had detonated 30 kilograms of dynamite using a mobile phone as triggers.
“Today at 2125 hours Nigerian time, our operatives in Delta State in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery,” an email statement said.
“This is the last warning to all oil industry workers.
“This warning goes particularly to tanker drivers and all involved in the petroleum industry in one way or the other.”
Shortly before the explosion, the group had emailed the media to announce that an attack was about to take place.
