Rev. Soja Bewarang, the President of Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), has dismissed a report that some members in Bauchi State attempted to bomb a branch of the church.
Addressing newsmen in Jos on Monday, Bewarang described the report that some members in?? Tilde Branch in Bauchi State wanted to bomb the church on Sunday as “false and malicious”.
?Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Mr? Ikechukwu Aduba, had said? in a? statement that some members of the local church took explosives to the church and attempted to detonate it to settle an internal dispute.
The statement said the police arrested eight suspects in connection with the incident.
But Bewarang described the report as an attempt to confuse investigations into the bombing of the COCIN headquarters Church in Jos early on Sunday by suicide bombers.
“It is a malicious blackmail to sweep the Sunday attack under the carpet.
“As the president of COCIN worldwide, I want to say that there is no leadership crisis in any COCIN branch. The pastors know their members so anybody, who was arrested, should be taken to the pastor to identify.
“Nobody from the media contacted me or any COCIN pastor in-charge of the church on the report. The Commissioner of Police did not contact COCIN before going to the press; it is clearly an arranged, sponsored blackmail,” he said.
Contributing, the Chairman of Bauchi State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Lawi Pokti, denied that such incident happened.
“The commissioner of police did not contact me as the Bauchi CAN Chairman on the issue. It is unprofessional of the police to give a one-sided report without proper investigation,” Pokti said.
Pokti, who is also the Regional Council Chairman of COCIN in Bauchi zone, said that the statement from the police was meant to “embarrass the church’’.
He cautioned the police officer against allowing himself to be used by people out to persecute the church.
Bewarang, who also spoke on the Sunday attack, urged the federal and state governments to take the Boko Haram threats more serious.
“This church is where Gov. Jonah Jang, former governors Solomon Lar, Fidelis Tapgun, Joshua Dariye, all the Plateau senators, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, Joshua Dogonyaro, House of Representatives and Assembly members, worship.
“Imagine what we would have been saying now if the COCIN president, governor and all these eminent personalities had been in the service when the so-called Boko Haram suicide bomber struck!”.
Bewarang said that the church had been receiving threat letters for the past five years and consequently fortified itself against any form of attack.
He wondered why the church and other security formations had become targets of the sect’s attacks, pointing out that COCIN had been carrying out its activities peacefully for the past 107 years without attacking anybody.
He said that the church lost property worth more than N100 million in Sunday’s attack and called for aid from the federal and Plateau governments.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ulamas in Plateau has condoled with COCIN over Sunday’s attack and described the incident as unfortunate.
A statement signed by its Chairman and Chief Imam of Jos Central Mosque, Sheikh Balarabe Dawud, pledged JNI’s readiness to employ dialogue in resolving disagreements with its Christian counterparts so as to restore lasting peace to Jos and Plateau.
?