Addressing the media in the Nigerian capital of Abuja late Thursday, Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun said the explosion took place in Maiduguri, the main city of Borno, during the protests that broke out across the country.
Egbetokun said the police predicted the infiltration of the protest scenes across Nigeria, giving credence to the earlier report and warning by the security agencies that alerted citizens to the impending danger of the nationwide demonstrations.
The protests by the youth, which began Thursday, were intended to peacefully call on the government to address the economic hardships amid the serious cost-of-living crisis in Africa's most populous country. The demonstrations, however, turned violent in some major cities.
While issuing a red alert to all police commands and units due to the violent nature of the protests so far, Egbetokun said destructions were carried out in a total of eight out of Nigeria's 36 states on the first day of demonstrations, questioning the real motive of the protesters.
In a separate interaction with the media, Yusuf Lawal, the police chief in Borno, said some elements of the Boko Haram terror group, which is based in the northeastern part of Nigeria and countries in the Lake Chad region, were suspected to have infiltrated the protesters on Thursday.
In a bid to avoid "undesirable outcomes" of the nationwide protests, the Nigerian government had earlier appealed for calm while calling on the youth to shelve the demonstrations and make way for continued robust dialogue to address their grievances.
Last year, the Nigerian government removed the subsidies on petrol or gasoline and floated the local currency in the wake of ongoing economic and fiscal reforms in the country. The inflation rate in Nigeria rose to 34.19 percent in June amid the worst cost of living crisis in the West African country.
MNA/PR