A church said to be owned by the father of the governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike, has allegedly been hit by an explosion.
The church named Christian Universal Church International is located at 25 Azikiwe Street Mile, 3 Diobu, Port Harcourt.
The culprits were said to have invaded the church at about 8 pm on Saturday night and detonated the explosive suspected to be Dynamite which damaged some parts of the building.
It was gathered that the suspects ran out of luck after men of a local security outfit in the area noticed strange movements and swung into action.
Speaking to The Punch, the Assistant Chief Security Officer of the Azikiwe Street Security, Collins Johnbull, said one of his men was hit by a bullet in the process of chasing the suspects and currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
Johnbull said, “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.”
It was also gathered that three of the boys were apprehended and handed over to the Police.
“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,” Johnbull said.
Operatives of Eagle crack, an outfit of the state police command, Mopol 19 and other security agencies have since taken over the area.
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