The bombing destroyed a huge portion of the five-storey building that houses 400 UN employees.
Nigeria today launched an investigation into the suicide attack at the high security UN headquarters here that left 20 people dead and as many as 70 injured, as President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to bring terrorist elements "under control".
Police today confirmed that the car bombing at the United Nation's headquarters yesterday was carried out by a suicide bomber who drove into the building with explosive-rigged car killing himself along with several others.
The bombing destroyed a huge portion of the five-storey building that houses 400 UN employees.
A Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) official who participated in the rescue operations said the casualty figure has risen to 20 while the injured were 70.
Abuja police commissioner Mike Zuokomor told a local television station that he had received the report that radical Islamic sect Boko Haram had taken responsibility for the attack but said he cannot confirm it.
President Jonathan visited the attacked UN building where he called Boko Haram "a local group linked with terrorist acts and we as a government are working to bring it under control".
"One thing is very clear: (a) terrorist attack on any individual or any group is a terrorist attack to the rest of the world," Jonathan said.
"It is not just about the UN office. We will work with the UN and all the world leaders, of course. Many of them have contacted me."
Over 400 UN workers were inside when the bomber drove a Honda SUV through the gates of the heavily-fortified building defying attempts by security operatives to stop him.
A few seconds after that, a blast occurred as the man drove directly into the ground floor setting it on fire. The bombing affected several other floors in the building.
A spokesman for the radical sect spoke to the media few hours after the bombing and vowed to continue such attacks. The claim could not, however, be verified.
Yesterday the toll had been put at 18, including two women and a foreigner.
The building is located in the neighbourhood of several embassies and had a big opening created by the explosives through which emergency workers struggled to rescue survivors.
Hospitals in Abuja, where the injured were taken to, made appeals for people to donate bloods. More than 1000 persons including military personnel turned up to donate blood.
Jonathan earlier described the attack as "barbaric, senseless and cowardly".
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon too condemned the attack and said he was mobilising the UN system to respond to the emergency. He said the attack highlighted how UN was becoming a "soft target" for extremists.
Boko Haram, whose name which translates to 'Western education is sin', operates in northern Nigeria and has claimed responsibility for several bombings.
The building that came under attack yesterday is the UN's main office in Nigeria, where 26 humanitarian and development agencies are based. The people trapped in the damaged building have been evacuated since.
United Nations Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro and UN security chief Greg Starr were rushing to Nigeria in the aftermath of the attack, as the security lapse that allowed the suicide bomber breach the tight security and ram his vehicle into the building came to be questioned.
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