Sunday Bombings: Explosion in Catholic Church Ungwar Yero, Kaduna this Morning

An explosion, suspected to be a suicide attack, this morning rocked the  St. Rita Catholic Church in  Ungwar Yero  area of Kaduna metropolis.

The attack occured around 8:50 AM during the morning mass. It was gathered that the officiating priest was seriously injured.

A spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said the explosion happened Sunday morning at St. Rita Catholic church in Kaduna. The spokesman, Yushau Shuaib, says ambulances were taking the injured to the hospital. He said it was immediately unclear how many had been injured.

“There was a loud explosion and I could see smoke on the horizon,” one resident said, adding there were claims of clashes breaking out between Christians and Muslims afterward.


Soldiers and police had surrounded the church after the blast.

Ahbah....and we celebrated Sallah like we were okay...oga for this heartless animals oooo

According to accounts, it would appear that the man was a stranger to Badarwa, because he had driven past a crossing leading to the fortified church and had had cause to stop an okada operator for direction, promising to pay handsomely if he would lead him to the Church.

It was an innocuous demand with the prospect of a good return, the bike man must have reasoned. And in less than a minute he led the stranger in the tinted four-wheel Benz to the barricaded gate of the Church, where Rev, Father Mike Bonni was offering Communion Prayers. It was about 8: 45 am, and there was no sign of the usual two, armed policemen and two members of the Civil Defence Corps there.  Sunday Vanguard was able to confirm this.

Now a drama ensued between the driver of the vehicle and the okada operator. Instead of paying the bike man, the man in the jeep started arguing with the people at the gate to allow him in.  But the three lads in brown khaki and brown boots (church cadets) brandishing metal detectors refused him entry, saying only the parish priest was allowed to park his car within the church premises during Mass.

Heavy metal bars stood between the man and the Church.

It was obvious that the cadets were bent on refusing him entry. His escort on bike sat on his machine thinking his service would be paid for soon as the “big” man found space to park.

But strangely, as recalled by those who claimed to have witnessed what happened, the driver hastily reversed some few metres; he then surged forward in full speed, heading directly for the fence of the church.

With mouths agape, the okada rider and the cadets watched him as he rammed the luxury car into the fence and drove through.

A few metres ahead laid the Catholic shrine where the Virgin Mary is usually venerated. He took it down too. But that shrine slowed his pace.  Then, suddenly, just before he could burst into the Church, packed with over 1000 worshippers, the jeep became a mobile bomb. The explosion that resulted could be heard within a five kilometre radius from the blast. And it created a rattling tremor too.  It brought down the wall of the church, sending shrapnels and projectiles into the congregation.

Though the vehicle never made it into the church building, its effect was felt by the building. Adjoining buildings were damaged including parked cars, as part of the exploded car bust into flames.

Survivors recalled a scene of chaos.  Burnt human flesh and the effluvium of the explosives created an offensive gas. “The okada man was shouting in shock, reciting la’Ila Illahu in Arabic, an eyewitness recounted to Sunday Vanguard some hours after the explosion.

“He was saying, ‘if I had known that this man was evil, I would not have directed him here. Oh Allah, what has become of this world’ ”, the eye witness told Sunday Vanguard.

In Bardarwa, as in most parts of Kaduna town where Muslims and Christians have defined boundaries, there are two kinds of people that respond to such emergencies: Those that go for the rescue, and those that maim, kill and destroy property as a means of vengeance.

Unfortunately for the Hausa okada rider, those that first heard his lamentation were of the second category.

“He is with the bomber! He brought the bomber! Kill him! Burn him!” rented the air. Sunday Vanguard was told by eye witnesses that the crowd ostensibly Christian youths, descended on him, and set him ablaze, along with his bike.

His murder may have averted a bigger calamity, as events were to later show.

But, just as the mob began to swell, with youths trooping out from different directions, the Army arrived and stamped out the emerging revolt.

But the arrival of the military men did not stop the pandemonium that was to take over the city.

The body of the suicide bomber, (likely a member of the Islamic Terrorist Boko Haram) was cut into two – his lower and upper torso. His upper torso was flung from the jeep onto the fence where it dangled, with the suicide bomber still showing signs of live.

“Some one came with a stick and started hitting it”, said another eye witness, “but soldiers chased him away”.

At the end of the whole gory event, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) put the death toll at 8, with 135 injured. It was really an unfortunate incident. Source