Terrorists blow up Catholic church in Taraba

An explosive suspected to have been planted by terrorists has blown up at the Catholic Chapel of St. John’s College, Mutum-Biyu, the headquarters of Gassol LGA in Taraba State. The unfortunate incident happened less than 24 hours after gunmen killed three relatives of the village head of Wuro Bokki, in the same Local Government.

According to the Principal of the College, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Vershima Ikyaan, the explosion went up at about 7:20 pm.

He said, “We thank God no life was lost, but the Church has been destroyed. About 10 minutes after the explosion in the school, we started hearing gunshots in the town.

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“The youths and some students were holding a programme in the Chapel which doubled as the school hall and had left the premises shortly before the explosion.

“This is a religious premise and if attacks like these are happening to the Church, where will people run to?

“I want to call for a thorough investigation to unravel those behind the attack and the perpetrators brought to book.”

Confirming the attack to newsmen, Taraba State Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Usman said investigations had revealed that the terrorists planned to kidnap a filling station owner in the town, but were unsuccessful.

He said “What happened was that some kidnappers came to kidnap the owner of one filling station in the town, unfortunately for them, they could not achieve their mission.

“In the process of running to escape before they get trapped, they started shooting sporadically to escape.

“It was in the process that they threw an explosive into the church to cause fear to enable them to escape. The explosion blew up and caused some damages to the building,” Usman said.

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