Boko Haram changes tactics, produces bombs in church

Boko Haram may have changed tactics in a bid to shield its bomb factories from the prying eyes of securitymen. The sect has resorted to using mosques and churches as a decoy to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
This is even as police in Kaduna State yesterday recovered some bombs and weapons during a raid on a terrorists’ hide-out at Rafin-Guza, a suburb in the metropolis, barely 17 hours after brave youths arrested gun-totting Boko Haram members.

The development  followed  the discovery on Sunday by the Kogi State police command of a bomb factory at Okaito area of Okene in a building which bore a signpost of a church with a  giant size Bible and the photograph of  Jesus Christ pasted on the wall.
The Commissioner of Police,Alhaji Mohammed Musa Katsina, who disclosed  this while parading a suspected bomb manufacturer,  said the discovery was made possible after interrogation of the suspect arrested in connection with the failed bombing attempt of the Winners’ Chapel on Sunday morning. 

Katsina explained that on Sunday at about 10.30 am, the vigilant police guard at the church in Okene sighted two young men in a Rover salon car marked Kogi LKJ 919 AA being driven around the church premises, but they could not  gain access due to the tight security arrangement on ground.

Sensing that they might not be able to hit their target , he said the driver moved some metres away in a bid to offload the IEDs, stressing that in the process, one of the explosives was detonated. He stated that his men overpowered one of them and arrested a suspect, while the other fled into the bush.

He noted that through the co-operation of the expanded strategic network, the police later got intelligence report on the factory where explosives were being manufactured  in the area. The police commissioner  said that with the help of a joint operation with the Army, the factory was located.         
     But Mr. Katsina said, to the dismay of the patrol team, the four-bedroom flat which turned out to be the bombs’ factory, was also used as church and mosque respectively to deceive the public. He noted that one of the buildings was decorated like a church with the Bibles and the photograph of Jesus, while another was used for a mosque with mats and Moslem rosary adorning the place..  The police boss said that there was a large inscription of biblical quotation:  “No weapon fashioned against me shall  prosper,” inscribed on the wall  to deceive the people living around the vicinity. 
He said that police are investigating to ascertain those behind the factory, warning that all culprits will be brought to book no matter how highly placed. The items recovered are 46 IEDs, 15 capacitors, 15 fuses, three bottles of potassium chloride, five litres of acid, one electric detonator and a roll of firing cables.
Others are 250m detonating cord, three remote-controlled siren, 25kg of ammonium nitrate, three GSM sets, box of nails, 54 amunuition of 56 caliber, one motorcycle and other house items.         He later paraded one of the suspects .The discovery of this bomb factory now makes five in Kogi State with one in Kabba and the three in the central axis of the state.

Culled-The Sun

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