Officials: Nigerian refinery bombed

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria – An explosion rocked the outside of a government building in Nigeria’s southern oil hub Saturday, soon after the military reported an overnight bombing of a water pipeline leading into a refinery.

The attacks came at the end of a week of violent strikes against petroleum companies in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation. Militant groups say people in the oil region aren’t benefiting enough from the wealth.

There was no immediate confirmation that the explosion at the government building in Port Harcourt was a bomb, but the incident occurred less than hour after a militant group said it had put two car bombs in the oil-rich Niger River delta and threatened to detonate them “shortly.”

Pieces of a car were scattered around the explosion site when an Associated Press reporter arrived shortly after the blast. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Earlier, Brig. Gen. Alfred Ilogho said dynamite had been set off under a water pipe leading to a refinery in the town of Warri, but the blast did not affect production at the government-owned refinery.

AP