* Attacks in crowded market place on Friday night
* Bombers not yet identified
* Defence minister says 4 dead, 26 wounded
By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said on Saturday the authorities would track down the "pure criminals" behind a New Year's Eve bombing in Abuja that killed at least four people.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack and the president said the perpetrators had not yet been identified.
"The security people are on it. We will get to the root of the matter. I urge Nigerians to remain calm," Jonathan said speaking at a New Year's Day church service in Abuja.
"To me they are pure criminals that demons are using these days, not only in Nigeria but also in acts of terrorism across the whole world."
Jonathan had said on Friday that those behind the Abuja blast were the same as those behind Christmas Eve bombings in the central city of Jos, which were claimed by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
But on Saturday, the presidency said Boko Haram had not at this stage been linked to the Abuja bomb.
The Abuja blast occurred at Mami market, a busy area where people congregate to socialise on the edge of the Sani Abacha, or Mogadishu, army barracks.
"Three men and one pregnant lady have been confirmed dead, while 26 other injured people are receiving treatment," Nigeria's defence minister Tokunbo Olukayode said.
Abuja was shaken by car bomb attacks in October that killed at least 10 people. Responsibility was claimed by a rebel group in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
There has been a resurgence in bombings and violent attacks since Dec. 24.
BOKO HARAM
On Christmas Eve, bombings in central Nigeria and ensuing violence between Christian and Muslim youths led to the deaths of at least 80 people. [ID:nLDE6BR0FB]
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombs and police said the group also caused the deaths of at least 16 people in three attacks last week in the northern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. [ID:nLDE6BT0Y6]
The group, whose name means "western education is sinful" in the Hausa language spoken across northern Nigeria, is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. It demands the introduction of Islamic law across Nigeria.
The flare-up of violence has come at a bad time for Jonathan, who inherited the office when President Umaru Yar'Adua died in May and will contest ruling party primaries in January in a step towards April's presidential election.
Jonathan can ill afford a security crisis, as any unrest in Africa's most populous nation is likely to be used by his rivals to undermine his credibility.
Nigerian elections usually favour the incumbent and Jonathan is still the frontrunner, but his campaign is controversial.
An unofficial party pact says that power within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.
Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term, and some northern factions are opposed to the candidacy of Jonathan, a southerner. He faces a northern challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the party nomination. (Writing by Joe Brock; editing by Matthew Jones)
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