Winners Chapel bomb suspect name revealed, not Samuel
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State, Rev. John Hayab, says the bombing suspect arrested while attempting to blow up a Winners’ Chapel Parish in Kaduna State on Sunday identified himself as Mohammed Sani when he was apprehended by the church.
Hayab claimed after the church handed him over to the police, the suspect’s name suddenly changed to Samuel Nathaniel.
He, therefore, said there was a need for the matter to be thoroughly investigated.
According to Punch, the cleric said, “The church was in session when the young man came in, dropped his bag and exited as if he was going to the toilet, but didn’t come back in time. Some church members became suspicious. The church had put security measures in place such that they monitor everything going on in the church and they even have CCTV cameras.
“They discovered that what was in the bag looked like explosives, so they called the police. Let me state clearly that it was not the police that arrested him. It was the church that arrested him and then handed him over to the police.
“The police came to pick him up at the church. At the time he was interrogated at the church, he told the church that his name was Mohammed Sani, but when he was handed over to the police, the police told everyone that his name was Samuel Nathaniel.”
Hayab said the mix-up in the name of the suspect had further given credence to the claims by the United States that Nigeria remained a terrorist-prone country because of a lack of database.
He said the religion which the suspect practises should not be the focus of public discussions but the act of terrorism.