Bomb scare in Plateau NYSC camp

On July 19, 2011 ·
,


By Taye Obateru

Jos – Anxiety again gripped many residents of the Plateau State capital, Tuesday, following the arrest of a suspected member of the Boko Haram sect at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Bukuru.

However, the suspect turned out to be a lunatic who carried empty cans in a polythene bag into the temporary camp at Zang Commercial College and arousing suspicion in the process.

The suspect was said to have been seen at a section of the camp carrying the black bag which aroused the suspicion of some youth corps members, who later raised an alarm after he could not give plausible explanation on his mission there.



The alarm created pandemonium and word soon spread over the state capital that a suspected Boko Haram member had been arrested with bomb at the NYSC camp. Parents quickly rushed to schools in the area to pick their children while businesses around the camp closed for fear of possible explosion.

The timely arrival of men of the Special Task Force, STF, maintaining security in the state saved the suspect from being lynched and it was upon interrogation by the security agencies that he was pronounced a lunatic.

Spokesman of the STF, Captain Charles Ekeocha told journalists that men of the task force discovered that the suspect was a lunatic and that no explosive was found on him contrary to wide speculations.

According to him, “we have handed the suspect to the State Security Services to conduct further investigation on the suspect and he is currently with them. What I will say now is that let everyone go about his or her normal business and there is nothing like Boko Haram in Jos. We will tell the public if we discover any Boko Haram because we are here to protect members of the public; we are too vigilant in this state to allow such thing to happen here.”

Rumour of the infiltration of the state by Boko Haram members had been on for some time setting many residents on edge. Normalcy had returned to the camp when our correspondent visited Tuesday evening.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/07/bomb-scare-in-plateau-nysc-camp/