Nigeria: Federal judge allows secret police to hold 4 for extra questioning over car bombings

Nigeria: Judge allows 4 held over car bombings

ABUJA, Nigeria — A federal judge has allowed Nigeria’s secret police to hold four suspects for an additional two weeks of questioning over the car bombs that struck the nation’s capital during an independence ceremony.

Chief Magistrate Oyeyeola Oyewumi’s decision Friday gives Nigeria’s secretive State Security Service more time to question the suspects about the Oct. 1 bombings that struck Abuja. The decision did not name the suspects and the agency declined to identify them.

The dual car bombings killed at least 12 people and injured more only a short distance from where President Goodluck Jonathan and other dignitaries watched the ceremony marking Nigeria’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.

A militant group in the country’s oil-rich and restive south claimed responsibility for the attack.