Gombe police foil bomb attack on school
By Chizoba Ogbeche, Abuja,
and Yau Waziri, Gombe
The federal government has restated its earlier claim that the military had identified a number of leads that would help it rescue the 219 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, abducted by Boko Haram insurgents over two months ago.
Coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC), Mr. Mike Omeri, stated this yesterday in Abuja while responding to questions during a press conference at the centre.
He said: “We are moving closer to finding them; at least, we have identified a number of leads in the course of this exercise. And this is what led to the arrest of the chief of intelligence of Boko Haram and some of their female recruiters.
“We are getting there, but some of the other information is still classified. Please, bear with me and bear with the security forces.”
Omeri, who is also the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), said the government was working assiduously to rescue the girls unharmed, and advised landlords to do background checks on prospective tenants before accepting them to avoid people with criminal intent.
He said this was necessary “because people with dubious character and intention are moving to new areas so as not to be detected.”
In a related development, the Gombe state police command has announced that it had foiled a suicide bomb attack aimed at a school where students were writing NECO exams in Gombe town.
It said it discovered a Honda-Odyssey car loaded with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which were about to be detonated while the students were writing the exams at Government Day Secondary School (Pilot), Gombe.
Speaking to newsmen, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abdullahi Kudu Nma, said the anti-bomb squad appeared at the scene of the incident shortly after the suicide bomber had rammed the vehicle into the building of the school.
He said the police discovered about five gas cylinders, three military tool boxes, and two military ammunition boxes inside the vehicle.
Nma added that the bomber had tried to detonate the bomb at the school where the Mathematics examination for NECO was holding.
The police boss said but for God’s intervention the bomb would have exploded and destroyed the entire area, including as far as about 800 square metres.
“By the virtue of our prayers,they did not succeed,” he said.
An eyewitness said the suspected suicide bomber had rammed into the building about three times, trying to detonate it.
Some people thought he was a learner, but it was later realised that it could be a suicide mission aimed at the students, the source added.
However, the police command had yet to confirm if it had made any arrest in relation to the situation.
The police commissioner called on the general public to assist the police with useful information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.
