No fewer than 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, police and other officials told Reuters.

Pakistan is grappling with a surge in strikes by separatist ethnic militants in the south and Islamist militants in its northwest.

Inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, said 24 people have died from the blast so far.

The target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” he said, with many of the injured in critical condition.

“So far 44 injured people have been brought to civil hospital,” Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, told Reuters.

Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were underway for more information.

“The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination,” Baloch said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast at Quetta’s main railway station, which is usually busy early in the day.

In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan province after separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways.

The assaults in August were the most widespread in years by militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

Operatives of the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested two Chinese siblings: Wang Jiang and Wang Richard for allegedly making efforts to export some solid minerals without requisite permit.

While Jiang was arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport ,Enugu, the rest, including two Nigerians, Donatus Agupusi and Michael Benneth Agu, were arrested at the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the EFCC.

Their arrest followed an intelligence received by the Commission through the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN on November 3, 2024 involving Jiang who was intercepted at the hold baggage screening point, where unidentified suspicious stones believed to be solid minerals wrapped in three different pieces were discovered in his luggage.

Preliminary investigations into the matter revealed that Agupusi, owner of Great Wall Construction Limited, is the employer of the remaining suspects. Investigation also revealed that Jiang was attempting to travel out of the country with the solid minerals in order to carry out some tests on them in China.

Investigations further revealed that none of the four suspects had a permit to export the solid minerals to China.

The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.

Despite ravaging hunger and ongoing economic challenges and escalating inflation affecting millions of Nigerians, the Federal Government has come under scrutiny for allocating a significant N5 billion towards the renovation of the Vice President’s official residence in Lagos.

In November 2023, the Federal Government outlined a supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion, which included N3 billion specifically allocated for refurbishing the Vice President’s Lagos residence and an additional N2.5 billion for his official quarters at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja. These expenditures were part of an effort to upgrade government infrastructure, yet they have sparked widespread concern among citizens facing economic hardships.

According to findings from GovSpend, a civic technology platform that monitors federal expenditures, the actual amount spent on the Vice President’s Lagos residence renovations in 2024 totaled N5,034,077,063.

This sum, spent between May and September, exceeded the initial budgetary estimates, raising questions about the use of public funds amid broader financial constraints.

A closer look at the spending details shows that on May 31, 2024, the State House disbursed N2,827,119,051 to Denderi Investment Limited, an engineering firm, to undertake renovations on the Vice President’s Lagos residence.

Later, on September 5, 2024, additional payments were made for further work on the property, including N726,748,686 from the Office of the Chief of Staff for additional renovations, and N1,480,209,326 for a second phase of the project.

The substantial scale of these allocations has drawn attention from both the public and civil society organizations advocating for fiscal responsibility.

In addition to the Lagos renovation costs, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) announced in November 2023 a plan to construct a new residence for the Vice President in Abuja, at an estimated cost of N15 billion. FCT Minister Nyesom Wike presented this plan during a House of Representatives committee session to justify the FCTA’s supplementary budget of N61.5 billion.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a prominent civil rights organization, criticized these expenditures, labeling them as misaligned with the nation’s current financial challenges and a violation of constitutional principles. SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, highlighted the strain that debt servicing places on the country’s budget, with an estimated 30 percent (N8.25 trillion) of the 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion earmarked for debt payments. Oluwadare argued that allocating billions for a new vice-presidential residence in such times represents a breach of public trust.

Other advocates have voiced similar concerns. Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, questioned the sincerity of the government’s commitment to reducing governance costs, pointing out that budget allocations for executive expenses have seen minimal cuts in the past 16 months. Likewise, Debo Adeniran, Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, emphasized the need for a constitutional framework to control government spending, suggesting that a new, more restrictive constitution could help curb excessive financial allocations in the future.

These calls for restraint underscore the pressing need for policy decisions that prioritize public welfare, particularly as citizens face economic pressures on a daily basis.