YENAGOA: A car bomb exploded in the capital of Nigeria’s oil state of Bayelsa, near two properties owned by the deputy governor who has been embroiled in a row with the governor, officials said Monday.
"There was an explosion in Yenagoa yesterday on a street that houses both the private residence and a hotel belonging to Deputy Governor Peremobowei Ebebi, but no one was hurt," a senior police officer told AFP.
He said Ebebi was in the nation’s capital Abuja at the time of the incident.
Police anti-bomb disposal units went to the scene Monday morning, but no-one was arrested.
Local reporter Segun James told AFP the car exploded about 300 metres (yards) from Ebebi’s house and hotel.
He said it was not immediately clear who planted the explosives inside the Mazda 626 saloon car that was seriously damaged in the blast Sunday night.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, police said.
Tensions have been high for months in the state due to political rivalry between Governor Timipre Sylva and his deputy over who will succeed the governor in next year’s general elections.
Ebebi is hoping to succeed Sylva who is planning to run for a second term at the end of his first four-year term in May 2011.
Sunday’s blast came after two car bombs went off outside the government house in nearby Delta State on March 15 during a ceremony on the government’s amnesty program for repentant rebels in the restive Niger Delta.
The region’s most high-profile armed group MEND claimed responsibility for the attacks which claimed at least two lives.
MEND in January called off a unilateral truce it announced in October following a government amnesty for former rebels in the "oil war" zone.
It blamed the government for lack of progress in implementing the rehabilitation and retraining of former fighters.
