The United Nations has reopened its building in Abuja, eight years after the property was destroyed in an attack by a Boko Haram suicide bomber.
The Nigerian government undertook the rebuilding of the property and handed it over to UN officials on Thursday.
On August 21, 2011, a car filled with explosives rammed into the building, setting off an explosion that killed 23 UN staff, including Nigerians, in the first suicide bomb attack in Nigeria.
Witnesses said the car ran through various gates leading to the UN main building as armed guards opened fire to stop it.
Days later, the then spokesperson of Boko Haram, Abu Kaka, who is believed to have been killed by the military, claimed credit for the attack on behalf of his group.
The bombing which levelled the lower floor of the facility, left 76 people injured.
Boko Haram’s Abu Kaka said in a teleconference with journalists that the attack was carried out to force the government to release the group’s detained members.
“The government must release all our members detained across the country unconditionally before we accept dialogue with the government,” said Mr Kaka who also used the same medium to “warn security agencies in Kano to stop persecuting” their members.
The then president, Goodluck Jonathan, described the attack as “the most despicable assault on the United Nation’s Objectives of global peace and security, and the sanctity of life to which Nigeria wholly subscribes.”
