The Nigerian Police have arrested three suspects linked to an attack on a Pentecostal church owned by Governor Nyesom Wike’s father, Christian Universal Church International, located at Mile 3, Diobu area of Port Harcourt.
Multiples sources confirm that about 5 of them detonated explosives in the church at around 8pm to 9pm on Saturday. J.N.E. Wike, said to be the father of the Rivers state governor, is the general overseer of the church.
They were however arrested by a local security unit at around 7pm while escaping.
The incident was confirmed by the Assistant Chief Security Officer of the Azikiwe Street Security, Collins Johnbull.
He said that his security unit had seen the suspects enter the church, but they thought the suspects were church members.
About 5 minutes when the suspects got in, there was an explosion and the suspects immediately started jumping out of the church. Johnbull and his boys attacked the suspects and were able to arrest three of them.
He narrated, “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”.
“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.”
Uche Brown, another member of the security unit gave the same account of the event as Johnbull.
“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,” Mr Brown explained.
He said, “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.”
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