Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa'i of Kaduna State has confirmed 20 persons dead in a bomb attack on civil servants at Sabongari Local Government secretariat in Zaria, Kaduna State.

El-Rufa'i, who suspended government activities to travel to Zaria on Tuesday, said:

"I am sad that a terrorist bomb attack just killed 20 people in Sabongari, Zaria. May the souls of the innocent departed rest in peace, Amen. We call on our citizens to be vigilant and avoid crowded places like markets, Mosques, Churches and motor parks in the next few weeks.

"We call on our people to report any suspicious persons and movement to law enforcement agents, traditional rulers and religious leaders.''

The governor said that the state government was working with federal security agencies taking proactive measures to frustrate such terrorists.''

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, said 15 people were also injured in the attack.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bomb was detonated by a teenager, who went into the secretariat after alighting from a commercial motorcycle.

The civil servants had converged at the secretariat for the ongoing verification of their employment status as directed by the Kaduna State Government.

An eye-witness told NAN that some of the workers had tried to get the police to restrict the boy who was looking suspicious, before he detonated the bomb, which injured many others.

Meanwhile, security operatives comprising police, FRSC, civil defence and fire service had cordoned off the scene while evacuating the victims to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, and other hospitals nearby.

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