The Police in Kaduna State, on Tuesday, foiled a plot to bomb the state capital by detonating a suspected substance believed to be a high caliber Improvised Explosive Device wrapped in a polythene bag and dropped by a commercial motorcyclist (popularly called okada) at the ever busy Sultan/Sir Kashim road in the metropolis.
The incident occurred just as the state government through its Commissioner for Information and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ben Bako, called on residents to be vigilant and report suspicious movements to the security agents in the state.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that but for the prompt response of the men of the Bomb Disposal Squad of the state police command, the state would have witnessed yet another tragedy.
The spokesman for the Kaduna Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Aminu Lawan, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, confirmed the incident.
He said the discovery followed a distress call that a suspected polythene bag containing a questionable substance was dropped by an Okada rider.
He said the command immediately deployed its Anti-Bomb Squad to the scene where it was found to be a high caliber bomb, which was promptly detonated.
He said, “The area was immediately condoned off when it was discovered that the polythene bag contained high caliber IEDs, and our Anti Bomb Squad were able to successfully detonate the IEDs and the situation was immediately brought under control.
“As I speak to you now, the area is calm and people are already going about their normal activities, meanwhile effort to apprehend the suspect is on top gear.”
He said men of the surveillance and SID personnel were already all over the place to monitor movements of persons with questionable characters within the area and admonished residents to be more vigilant.
Our correspondent who visited the scene observed there was confusion within the area as people within the area hurriedly closed their shops.
Several vehicles ran into one another in an attempt to escape causing temporary traffic which lasted for some hours before the situation was brought under control.
The eyewitness within the scene who would not want his name in print said as he was not permitted to speak on the matter, said efforts were made to apprehend the suspect who dropped the polythene bag containing but he had left very far before it was discovered.
He said, “When we saw the suspected polythene bag, we tried to see if we can catch up with the okada man that dropped it but he had run far away and we could not catch up with him, it was then we called the police and it was discovered that he actually had IEDs in the polythene bag.”
Meanwhile, in a statement, the state Commissioner of Information urged the residents to cooperate with security agencies in the state just as he warned criminal elements against any move to cause confusion in the state. NAN
