Residents arrest two minors over Yola bomb blast

TWO minors were yesterday arrested over the Yola bomb-blast that occurred in a mechanic workshop near Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) headquarters along Numan Road in Yola, Adamawa State.

A mechanic, Mr. Uche Okoh, working close to the scene of the bomb-blast, told The Guardian that two of the minors came to the next workshop to him with an object they wanted to sell to those that buy scraps, but the man who buys scraps after inspecting it, said he was not interested in buying and asked them go.

He said: “It was when they were going that they dropped the object and bomb exploded scattering everything around the area. The two minors were also wounded, and as they tried to escape, we chased them, arrested two of them and were later handed over to the police.

“We are lucky that the man did not buy the object from the two minors, else, many people would have died now.”

Another eyewitness, Mr. Ahmed Jimeta, told The Guardian that the two minors confessed after their arrest that the object was given to them by a middle-aged man who had instructed them to go and drop it in Bajure, a slum village near 23rd Armoured Brigade in Yola.

“The two minors confessed that it was a man they did not know before that called them and gave them the object and asked them to go and drop it in Bajure”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of Adamawa State Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Usman Abubakar, could not be reached for comment, as all the calls put across to him by The Guardian, did not go.

When The Guardian visited the scene of the incident, there were security operatives that invaded and barricaded the area to prevent members of the public from having access to the place for safety.