BY
NIGERIA CORRESPONDENT ©2014 Morning Star News

Christian sources said an apparent suicide
bombing in a Christian area of northern Nigeria’s city of Kano on May 18 killed
about 20 people, more than the police tally of five.

The police death toll for the bombing at
about 10 p.m. includes the bomber. The Rev. Murtala Marti of the Evangelical
Church Winning All (ECWA) in Kano told Morning
Star News by phone that about 20 people were killed in the attack in the
Christian “foreign quarter” of the Muslim-majority city.

“The bomb attack occurred on Sunday night
along Gold Coast Road in the Sabon Gari area here in Kano,” Marti said. “Twenty
Christians were killed in the bomb blast, but police authorities are saying
only five died.”

The Kano city Christian leader said that
Christians were killed along the road and in nearby restaurants and bars,
though originally the likely targets of the attack were three area churches.

“Most often the plot is to get at churches,
but when it becomes impossible for the terrorists to get there, they usually
detonate their bombs anywhere Christians are gathered, either in churches or
restaurants,” Marti said.

Eyewitnesses told Morning Star News by phone that the lone bomber in the vehicle had
sought directions to some of the churches from area Christians but detonated
the bomb when the Christians became suspicious of his intentions. Area
Christians blame Islamic extremist terrorist group Boko Haram for a suicide
bombing that killed at least 24 people in Kano in July 2013, and 25 people in
the city in March 2013, and one eyewitness assumed the assailant from last
night’s bombing belonged to the group.

“The Boko Haram suicide bomber, on sensing
that these Christians were suspicious about his inquiries on the churches,
detonated the bomb along the road at No. 1 Middle Road, close to three
churches,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The likely original targets, he said, were
the Methodist Church of Nigeria, an Assemblies of God Church, and a Universal
Reformed Christian Church, all located along Middle Road. The explosion
occurred at the junction of Middle and Gold Coast roads.