The Nigeria Police Force, Rivers State Command, has confirmed the arrest of persons suspected to be responsible for the detonation of dynamite at Governor Wike’s father’s church, Christian Universal Church International, located at Azikiwe Street, Mile 2, Diobu, in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, on Saturday night.
The police said that the attackers were arrested by Azikiwe local vigilante group and handed over to the police.
Confirming the incident, the spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, Mr Nnamdi Omoni, said that the three persons arrested were helping the police with investigations. He added that the church had been swept by the Bomb Department.
Narrating how they arrested the suspects, Assistant Chief Security Officer of the Azikiwe Vigilante group, Mr Collins Johnbull, said they saw five men entering the church at about 9 pm Saturday night but thought they were church members.
Johnbull, while narrating the incident, said one of his men, who was hit by a bullet in the process of chasing the suspects, was currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
He said: “On Saturday, 28th day of November 2020, while I was on my duty post, we observed some movements around 8 pm to 9 pm and we were on the alert, before then we saw some strange faces, about five of them, that entered into the governor’s father’s church and we thought they were church members having their normal evening programme, but we were suspicious of them because of the way they were moving.
“About five minutes after the boys entered the church, there was an explosion, we heard a banging noise like that of a bomb from the church and we immediately approached the church and saw them (the suspects) jumping out of the church wearing masks and carrying guns and started shooting at my men,” the vigilante boss disclosed.
“By God’s grace, we were able to apprehend three of the criminals that attacked the church, while two escaped. We did everything in our power to apprehend the hoodlums, as we are talking now, one of my men who was hit by a bullet is receiving treatment,” Johnbull added.
Another member of the security team, Uche Brown, who corroborated the story said the three suspects had been taken into custody by the police.
“Around 8.43 pm, some hoodlums who attacked the state governor’s father’s church at Azikiwe street tried to bring down the building by throwing dynamites into it but (they) did not succeed.
“When they noticed that the security men were approaching them, they tried to escape and we apprehended three of them, while two escaped, before the arrival of the police who took them into custody,” Brown said.
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