NIGERIANS IN Ireland have reacted with horror to last week’s bomb attack on UN offices in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
At press time, at least 23 people were reported dead after a suicide bomber rammed a car through the two front gates of the UN headquarters in Abuja on Friday.
Olajide Ajayi, president of the Association of Nigerian Professionals in Ireland (ANPI), said Nigerians in Ireland had been receiving phone-calls from worried relatives back home following the horrific attack, which is being claimed by Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.
Speaking on the day of the blast, Ajayi said it was “a shocking development” and that this type of terrorist attack is “new to Nigeria”.
He said Nigeria needs “leadership at this point to deal with it decisively” and added that Nigerians don’t need terrorism tagged onto the list of stereotypes they are already associated with.
The Ireland chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (Nidoe) also strongly condemned the bombing of the UN building.
A statement published by chairman Waheed Mudah and public relations officer Anthony Ogochukwu read: “Nigerians are not terrorists and the insignificant and negligible numbers of these enemies of progress who carried out the bombing are cowards and are not true representatives of Nigerians."
Meanwhile, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack describing it as “an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others.”
Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters in New York, he added: “We condemn this terrible act, utterly. ”
At the briefing Ban announced that he was dispatching deputy secretary-general Asha-Rose Migiro to Nigeria immediately and mobilising the UN system to respond to the emergency.
A statement from an advisor to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration would spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
