Cop Nabbed with Explosives in Nasarawa Church
Aman claiming to be a serving policeman took a bag of objects suspected to be explosives into Evangelical Church of West Africa I (ECWA One) in Akwanga, but he was overpowered and arrested by the congregation during the Good Friday morning service, eyewitnesses said yesterday.
Some members of the congregation said the incident happened barely a day after the church received a new pastor on posting. The Good Friday church service was the new pastor’s first church activity at ECWA I along Wamba Road in the metropolis of Akwanga, North of Nasarawa State, after he took over on Thursday afternoon from the former pastor, Reverend Ramson Abashi.
Sunday Trust could not obtain detailed information on the issue because three different accounts of the incident were given by eyewitnesses, the pastor and the police authorities in the state.
But the police confirmed that a serving policeman whose rank they gave as “Corporal”, gained access into the church and that he was overpowered and arrested by the congregation. The police refused to disclose his name, however.
ASP Umaru Ismaila, state police command spokesman who confirmed the incident said the suspected police corporal entered the church with a canister of tear gas, which he threw into the worship house before he was overpowered and arrested by the congregation.
ASP Ismaila said he had only a little information to give on the incident because he was not properly briefed. He said he was on casual leave at the time of the incident, and was only recalled by the Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris to return to office because of the incident.
He said he could not give the name of the suspect, who is now in detention at the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Lafia, after he was transferred there by the police division in Akwanga on the same Friday.
But hours later, the police spokesman called to say that investigations revealed that the suspect was a dismissed policeman. The police commissioner also confirmed the arrest of a serving policeman and insisted that he was found in possession of tear gas inside the church.
The commissioner said the suspect is a serving policeman in Kaduna, who only visited Akwanga to see his family during the Easter period, stating that the suspect would be paraded on Tuesday.
But some members of the congregation said the suspect walked into the church in plain clothes and headed towards the pastor’s pulpit with objects suspected to be explosives, which he concealed in a nylon bag.
Meanwhile, Sunday Trust discovered that armed soldiers and policemen doubled their presence in Akwanga and neighbouring towns between Friday and yesterday and intensified stop and search along major roads leading into Akwanga.
Tension grew steadily in the town with many residents speaking in hush tones about the incident of Friday.