It is by all intents and purposes the worst of ways to welcome the news of the constitution of an Amnesty Committee for Boko Haram members.

News just coming in from the North-Western state of Kano has it that an explosion believed to come from a detonated bomb has rocked the popular Emir’s Mosque in the state capital.

Though details about the tragic development are sketchy, at least one person was confirmed dead and some others injured in the blast. It is not yet clear who is responsible for the terrorist act.

The explosion came just hours after presidential spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati, speaking in the Nigerian capital city Abuja, announced the constitution, by President Goodluck Jonathan, of a 26-member committee headed by a serving senior minister to implement the amnesty programme for the Boko Haram insurgents.

The Boko Haram amnesty committee will be chaired by the Minister of Special Duties, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, with a representative of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation serving as Secretary.

News Express had on April 4 broken the news of the government’s decision to offer amnesty to the violent Islamic sect which has killed thousands of people in a four-year campaign and made parts of the country’s north virtually ungovernable.

Kano is one of the hotbeds of the insurgency, with their last major operation – the bombing of a popular luxury bus park that killed dozens of easterners – sparking fears of war.

•Photo shows the scene of a previous act of terrorism in Kano.