The Police Commissioner in the state, Mr. Muhammad Indabawa, and the Director of State Security Service, Mr. Adeola Ajayi, stated this at separate news conferences in Bauchi on Sunday, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Ajayi said an unknown bomber had gone to the United Methodist Church, opposite Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi during a church service and dropped a bag which contained the improvised explosive.
The SSS boss said a member of the church, who saw the man with the bag trying to leave the vhurch after he dropped it, raised the alarm. Ajayi stated that some members of the church made a futile bid to apprehend the suspected bomber.
The suspect was said to have fled on a motorcycle which brought him to the church. Efforts by the police to arrest the suspect did not also yield results as he had escaped, using the commercial motorcycle.
The explosive device, which was placed in a metal casing, was jointly detonated by the police and SSS. Ajayi said an investigation had begun but appealed to the public to provide security agents with relevant information on such threats.
Indabawa, at a news conference, said that after receiving the information from leaders of the church, SSS operatives and some bomb experts attached to Bauchi State Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, detonated the explosive. He quoted the experts as having said that the bomb would have killed many people and destroyed property if it had exploded.
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