A blast ripped through a car park outside a stadium where  President Goodluck Jonathan had addressed a re-election campaign rally on Monday, minutes after he left, witnesses said.

Mohammed Bolari, who was at the rally in Gombe, said the explosion happened at 3:10 pm  just three minutes after Jonathan’s departure.

A local reporter added: “The president had just passed the parking lot and we were trailing behind his convoy when the explosion happened… just 100 metres (yards) from the bus we were driving in.”