30 December 2011
No fewer than 15 people were injured as an explosion rocked a hotel located in the outskirts of Gombe.
The Manager of the hotel, Mr. Ojiego Nelson, in Gombe on yesterday that three persons came to the hotel at about 10.13 p.m. on Wednesday to explode a device.
Nelson said he was at the gate of the hotel when the men, who were carrying guns, started “manhandling” the security man and when he asked what was happening, they started shooting sporadically.
Our customers and everybody started running helter-skelter and the one with two gas cylinders in his hands threw them into our reception.
“He threw one into the reception and threw the other one under the cars parked by our guests in the hotel.
“The one thrown into the reception exploded and damaged the building, so we just managed to escape through the back fence,” he said.
The manager said as soon as the incident, all the customers vacated their rooms in the hotel.
He said the incident was immediately reported to the Divisional Police Officer in Tumfure, Mr. Hassan Bappa, who came to the scene with his men.
Bappa said he deployed his men to the scene of the incident when the matter was reported to him, but that it was unfortunate that the gun men had escaped before police arrival, even as he noted that there was no casualty and nothing was stolen from the hotel.
“We are waiting for bomb experts to come and remove the relics at the scene of the incident,” he said.
He said there was no arrest made so far but investigations were going on.
Meanwhile, Olaoluwa Bilau, the Guiding Pastor of Christ Flock Ministries, Ibadan, yesterday said the Christmas Day bombings in some parts of the country were aimed at causing religious conflict.
He said at the church headquarters in Alakia, Ibadan, that the timing of the bombings was to create a climate of fear by evoking a sense of helplessness on the part of security agencies.
“In all these, God cannot be mocked as everyone will get the reward of his deeds, now or in the after life.
“This is what God says in the book of Jeremiah 32:19.
“Boko Haram extremists are clearly disillusioned fanatics who have lost every sense of moral reasoning because I do not know of any Quranic passage which supports their senseless blood thirst.
“They may feel they can always outwit the long arms of the law, but they can never escape divine justice, ” he said.
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