BOMB THREAT IN ANAMBRA

By NBF News

Anxiety and fear have gripped residents of Awka, the Anambra State capital following the alarm raised yesterday by the state government over a threat by some unknown persons to bomb the state in the next 60 hours.

This is coming barely 48 hours after a bomb explosion in Abuja, which claimed over 10 lives.

The threat came in a text message, warning that explosives would be detonated in Awka if Governor Peter Obi, who is the chairman of South- East Governors Forum, failed to resolve the issue of the strike embarked upon by the lecturers of the state owned universities in the South-east.

The text message, which is being circulated within Awka and its environs, warned that the Government House, Awka,  would be attacked within the next 60 hours if the Anambra State University (ANSU), which  had been closed since the strike was not re-opened by the governor.

It reads: 'The bomb blast that happened at Abuja yesterday will explode in Government House Complex, Awka, in the next 60 hours from now if ANSU strike is not called off. Tell Pita Obi.' Since July 22, 2010, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) South-east have been on strike, following non implementation of agreement between Federal Government and ASUU by the South-east governments.

South-east governors had been urged by students and prominent personalities to implement the agreement reached between the Federal Government and the national body of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over welfare matters, but the governors had insisted that the Federal Government had advised lecturers in state and private universities to negotiate with the individual states.