From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi
Bauchi state police commissioner, Mr. Ikechukwu Ayo Aduba yesterday confirmed the arrest of eight people with weapons and explosives while attempting to attack COCIN Church in Miya Barkatai village in Toro local government area of the state.
Mr. Aduba, who disclosed the incident in a telephone interview with journalists in Bauchi yesterday, said that “it’s true that some people attempted to attack COCIN church on Sunday morning at one village called Miya Barkatai in Toro local government area.
According to him, “they are rival group within the church; they have their own internal problem and the other rival group decided to attack them this morning. When we got the report we sent our men, they have arrested about seven of them. They had something on them that was certified as locally made explosives that are manually ignited.”
He said this was the second time they are recovering such kind of explosives which are similar to the ones used recently in Ganjuwa.
Four of the arrested suspects were identified as Lamba Goma, Filibus Danasa, Joshua and Daniel.
All the four are members of the same COCIN church, Unguwar Rimi, a new and small Christian settlement between Tilden Fulani and Shere Hills.
Also speaking, the North East Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Shuaibu Byal confirmed the incident, saying there was a crisis in the church over the transfer of its headquarters.
While describing the development as "sad", Byal said “Christianity does not allow followers to settle their differences with violence or crisis”.
A resident told our Bauchi correspondent that after the arrest of the suspects there was confusion among residents of the town and Christian worshippers, raising tension in the area as people wanted the security personnel to allow them deal with the suspects.
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