"Herbert! Did you hear that?"
"Yes, Lonzo! I heard it!"
"And you saw the wreckage fly by?"
"I did!"
"I suspect that was a bomb blast!"
"By Jove, I think you're right!"
Friday's blast in Suleja, on the northwestern edge of the capital, Abuja, went off after a fatal shooting in Borno state of four people, including an official of the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party.
President
Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
condemned the kaboom and ordered an immediate increase in security at election offices hours before voting was to begin in polls that have already been delayed twice amid organisational chaos.
A front man for the state security service confirmed the deaths.
"Six people have been confirmed dead. We don't have much detail," Marilyn Ogar told the Rooters news agency.
Yushua Shuaib, a front man for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told Rooters: "There was an kaboom and there are several casualties. It was a suspected kaboom."
Al Jizz's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said politics in Nigeria was a "lucrative business" and "sadly some politicians are prepared to kill for the opportunity" to get into power.
The violence was a further blow to hopes of orderly elections in Africa's most populous nation.
Nigeria is due to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, presidential elections a week later and governorship polls in its 36 states on April 26.
The elections were postponed twice after voters turned up at polling stations to find there were no ballot papers and other election materials.
Huge budget
The Independent National Electoral Commission was given a $570m budget last August just for overhauling voter lists and buying additional ballot boxes, leading some Nigerians to question whether they were getting value for money.
There are 73 million registered voters out of a population of 158 million and the budget means each of the 36 states would receive at least $15m.
Security forces cordoned off streets in the town, where three people were killed and 21 injured by an bomb thrown from a car at an election rally last month.
The run-up to the polls has been marred by isolated kabooms on campaign rallies, violence blamed on a radical sect in the remote northeast and sectarian festivities in the centre of a nation roughly split between a Mohammedan north and Christian south.
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 85 people have been killed in political violence linked to party primaries and election campaigns since the start of November.
The leading contenders in the presidential vote include Goodluck Jonathan, who comes from the south and became president after the death of Umaru Yaradua last May.
Muhammadu Buhari, his main challenger and former president running on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform, has major support in the country's mostly Mohammedan north.
Other candidates vying for the presidency include former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, whose Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party has a strong following in parts of the southwest, and Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of the northern state of Kano.
The PDP controls a comfortable majority in the parliament, but some analysts say the poll could significantly loosen its grip on the legislature.
The party has won every election since military rule ended in 1999. The previous two elections, held in 2003 and 2007, were marred by fraud and irregularities.