Explosion rocks church as ‘kidnappers’ invade Taraba community

There has been an explosion at the Catholic Chapel of St. John’s College, Mutum-Biyu, Gassol LGA in Taraba state.

Emmanuel Ikyaan, principal of the college, told journalists that the explosion occurred around 7:20pm on Sunday.

Ikyaan said no life was lost in the incident, but that the church building was destroyed.

“We thank God no life was lost, but the church has been destroyed. Ten minutes after the explosion, we started hearing gunshots in the town,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“The youths and some students were holding a programme in the chapel which is also used as the school hall and they had left the premises shortly before the explosion.

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

Confirming the incident, Abdullahi Usman, Taraba police spokesperson, said the explosion was caused by some gunmen who attacked the community to kidnap the owner of a petrol station.

“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,” Usman said.

“In the process of running to escape from being trapped, they started shooting sporadically.

“It was in the process that they threw an explosive into the church to cause fear to enable them to escape.

“The explosive blew up and caused some damages to the building, but luckily nobody was hurt.”