Three people died and 41 others were injured in a suicide bomb blast in Jos yesterday. The blast, which also claimed the suicide bomber, occurred at the Christ Chosen Church in the Rukuba Road area of the Jos metropolis at 11.08 am, just as the church was closing its Sunday service.
Some angry youths went on rampage soon after the blast because of failure of the security agents to avert the blast, destroying four vehicles and a motorcycle.
It was learnt that the blast, which was heard several kilometers away, happened not inside the church but on the street just by the church.
The two, who died in the course of the blast, have not been identified, it was learnt. But both the police in Jos and Plateau State government said the deceased were not members of the church and that the exact circumstance of their death was yet to be ascertained.
"No member of the church died, the suicide bomber didn't achieve his aim because he couldn't gain entrance into the church," the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Emmanuel Ayeni, said, adding, "the bomb exploded on the road just outside the church. But the church building collapsed maybe because of the vibration caused by the explosion."
The police commissioner said he was still investigating the circumstances of the death of the two, but a speculation has it that the two probably fell into the hands of the mob which protested the explosion because some witnesses said the mob actually got hold of the remains of the suicide bomber and tore it further to pieces.
Speaking for the Plateau State government, the state commissioner for Information, Abraham Yiljap, said no church member died from the information available to him. He regretted however that the bomb explosion would come at a time when peace-loving people were beginning to feel that security was coming to normal in Jos.
"Government is pained by anything which pains the people; we are pained that there is this explosion after having worked so hard with the security agencies to see that this shouldn't happen again after the bomb blast at St Finbaar's Church," Yiljap told newsmen in government's first reaction to the Rukuba Road church bombing.
He appealed to residents not to worsen the situation by any retaliatory act but to work with security agents instead to restore peace to Jos and the rest of the state.
37 of those who suffered various degrees of injuries were taken to the Bingham Teaching Hospital and four to the Plateau Specialist Hospital, both in Jos.
Daily Trust
May the souls of the dead ones rest in peace!