The Police have begun an investigation into Sunday’s averted bombing of a Church in Owerri, Imo State.
CSP Frank Mba, the force public relations officer, made the disclosure at a joint news conference organised by the National Information Centre, Abuja on Monday, where he cautioned members of the public not to hurriedly link the incident to terrorism.
“The media and the citizens should not be in a hurry to link the Owerri incident to establish terror cell until the full identity of those behind it are known to security forces. Until the motives are established, I think it will be pre-emptive for us to give it the toga of terrorism,” Mba said.
“It could be anything, for us in the security world, we live all options open, we are ready to test all hypotheses.”
Also speaking at the conference, Deputy Director, Public Relations, Department of State Services, Marilyn Ogar encouraged Nigerians to be more observant.
She said no piece of information should be taken for granted, assuring that security forces had been placed on red alert nationwide to forestall any eventuality.
“Security forces are on red alert throughout Nigeria not just in the North-East, North-West or Abuja, but everybody has been placed on red alert,” Ogar said.
Earlier, the Coordinator of the centre, Mr Mike Omeri, had revealed that a call placed to the DSS security numbers led to the defusing of the explosive device.
He explained that the Improvised Explosive Devices planted at the Church by unknown persons were timed to explode at the beginning of the church’s service.
“The quick response by security forces in foiling the explosion must be attributed to timely intelligence report,” Omeri said.
