former president Muhammadu Buhari at a busy market and a
moderate Muslim cleric about to lead a crowd in prayer.
The attacks bore the hallmarks of militant group Boko Haram but
may also have been linked to politics ahead of 2015's elections.
The deadlier blast targeted Buhari's convoy at the crowded Kawo
market, his son told Reuters on the scene. A Red Cross official said
at least 50 people were killed there.
Buhari was the main opposition party contender against President
Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 election and remains a key figure
in the opposition alliance. He was riding in an armour plated sports
utility vehicle and was not wounded.
A crowd gathered at the scene of the incident, until the military
dispersed them by firing shots in the air. Smoke rose from another
vehicle destroyed in the blast.
Earlier, a suicide bomber targeting a moderate cleric killed at
least 32 of his congregation on a busy commercial road.
Thousands were gathered for prayers with Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi in
Murtala Muhammed square, and when his convoy pulled up, the
bomber lunged at him before being stopped by his private security,
witnesses and police said.
"The attack was targeted at the sheikh. No arrest has been made
yet," said police commissioner Shehu Umar.
The bomber did not injure Bauchi, several witnesses told Reuters.
Mustafa Sani, a volunteer for Bauchi's mosque evacuating bodies,
said there were 32 confirmed dead so far.
"Somebody with a bomb vest was blocked. He detonated the bomb
along with the person that tried to block him," Umar said, adding
that police had been able to confirm 25 dead, with 14 wounded.
Police sometimes give lower casualty tolls than workers on the
scene.
The military used pick-up trucks to cordon off the area. Sirens
wailed as fire engines raced to the scene.
An angry crowd started throwing stones at police, who responded
with teargas. Some followers had come from Senegal, Chad and
Niger to see the popular sheikh.
BOKO HARAM SUSPECTED
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast, but
militant group Boko Haram has been staging attacks, especially
with explosives, outside its northeastern heartlands for the past
three months.
Since launching an insurgency in 2009, the militants have often
attacked clerics, such as Bauchi, who take issue with their Salafist
ideology. If Boko Haram is responsible for Wednesday's attack, it
underscores the risks moderate clerics take speaking out against it.
The insurgents, who are fighting to carve out an Islamic state in
Nigeria, have repeatedly targeted civilians, mostly in remote
northeastern Borno state. They killed more than 2,000 civilians
during the first half of this year, Human Rights Watch estimated
a week ago.
The militants attacked the northeastern town of Damboa and
surrounding villages over the weekend, killing at least 50 people.
The rebellion has been in the international spotlight since Boko
Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in
the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14. Jonathan met
parents of the abducted girls, and some other girls who had
escaped, for the first time on Tuesday.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last week claimed
responsibility for two explosions on June 25 at a fuel depot in
Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, that killed at least two people.
A military offensive since May last year that was meant to
dismantle their hold on the northeast has caused the militants to
react in two ways: brutal attacks on civilians in the region have
surged dramatically, and efforts to strike out in areas far from
the rebels' strongholds have resumed.
A blast in the central city of Jos, 170 km (105 miles) east of
Kaduna, killed 118 people in May.
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