Nigeria Content Online

The Nigerian
government yesterday refuted reports indicting its citizen in the
recent bomb blast which claimed the lives of 76 people in Kamapala,
Uganda.

Three viewing
centres were simultaneously bombed in Uganda during the final of the
South Africa 2010 World Football competition between Spain and Holland
on July 11th, leading to 74 deaths and over 50 injured. A Ugandan local
newspaper in Kampala had, on Wednesday and Thursday, reported that a
Nigerian was among the 43 suspects so far arrested over the bombing
incident. The paper however did not mention the name of the Nigerian,
but it was gathered that one Emmanuel Nweke was on Tuesday reported to
have been arrested in Busia, a town not far from Kampala and has since
been transferred to Kampala for interrogation. Other nationalities
listed among the suspects include those of Pakistan, Uganda and Somalia
and seven others whose nationalities are yet to be identified. A group
in Somolia, al-Shabaab militants has already claimed responsibility for
the attack stating that it was a retaliation.

Immigration offence

But the Nigeria
High Commissioner to Uganda, Fidel Ayogu said from his investigation,
Mr. Nweke was arrested over immigration-related offence. “The Nigerian
they arrested in Busai was not linked to the incident and so could not
have been a culprit in that bomb blast. From all indications, the
suspect has immigration problem,” he said. He also noted that the
consular has written officially to the Ugandan government demanding to
know the level of involvement of the said Nigerian and has not gotten
any reply yet.

“We have written to the Ugandan Foreign Ministry to inform us
properly where and how the Nigerian is linked to the bomb blast and we
have not gotten any reply. We took immediate action we wrote to the
Minister of Foreign Affair to inform us on how a Nigerian photographed
in the newspaper was connected,” Mr. Ayogu said. “Our observation is
that the problem he has is immigration and not necessarily linked to
the blast. From the investigations we have done, because we went to
where the suspect is, we interrogated him and we interrogated the
Ugandan immigration officials and he hasn’t been linked to the bomb
blast. We are not pre-empting their investigations. If a Nigerian is
arrested, we should know the charges. We have written for clarification
to know what he has done and until they do that and reply we cannot
accept the report as true.”