Thirty two hoodlums are now in police custody in Ilorin, Kwara State in connection with an attack on a church during Cross Over service.
Twenty two more hoodlums were picked up on Tuesday following an initial arrest of 10 of the hoodlums on Monday.
However, the Kwara State Police Command dispelled rumours that the attack had religious undertones.
The Kwara State Police Commissioner, Lawan Ado, said the command’s attention was drawn to a disturbance along Ibrahim Taiwo Isale area of Ilorin around 1am on New Year’s eve.
He said the command promptly dispatched men to investigate the disturbance.
The police boss said the men found hoodlums harassing Christian and Muslim worshippers and some motorcycle operators in the area.
He said, “This group of unruly youth were said to be throwing fireworks, including knock out bangers of different calibres indiscriminately into premises of both the Catholic and Methodist churches and the United Secondary School, where members of the Quareeb Muslim Group and Christian worshippers were having their crossover programmes, causing a stampede in the premises of the school.
“This commotion gave the hoodlums an opportunity to gain entrance into the church premises, snatching handsets of some of the worshippers, they damaged five vehicles belonging to worshippers and three persons sustained varying degrees of injury.
“On the strength of the report, police men drafted to the scene promptly brought the situation under control while 10 suspects were initially arrested, the injured victims were rushed to hospital where they were treated.”
The Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, commiserated with the victims and urged police authorities to get to the bottom to ensure those found guilty are adequately punished.
The governor, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Abdulwahaab Oba described the dastardly attack as criminal, satanic and alien to the state.
Leave a Reply