An explosive suspected to have been planted by terrorists on Sunday hit the Catholic Chapel of St. John’s College, Mutum-Biyu, the headquarters of Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba.

The Principal of the College, Emmanuel Ikyaan, told journalists on Monday that the explosive blew up at about 7:20 p.m. on Sunday.

Mr Ikyaan said although the church building was destroyed, no injury or death was recorded.

“Ten minutes after the explosion in the school, we started hearing gunshots in the town.

“The youths and some students were holding a programme in the chapel which is also used as the school hall and they had left the premises shortly before the explosion.

“I want to call for a thorough investigation to unravel those behind the attack and the perpetrators brought to book,” he added.

The state police spokesperson, Abdullahi Usman, also confirmed the incident to journalists on Monday.

Mr Usman explained that the kidnappers threw the explosive into the church premises to scare attendees away after their attempt to kidnap a filling station owner failed.

“What happened was that some kidnappers came to kidnap the owner of one filling station in the town, unfortunately for them, they could not achieve their mission.

“In the process of running to escape being trapped, they started shooting sporadically to escape. It was in the process that they threw an explosive into the church to cause fear to enable them to escape.

“The explosion blew up and caused some damages to the building but luckily nobody was hurt,” the police spokesperson said.

(NAN)