Commotion in Kaduna as police detonate IED

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

There was commotion in Kaduna yesterday following the discovery of an Improvised Electronic Device (IED) along Sir Kashim Ibrahim road by Sultan Road junction in the high brow residential area of the town. The explosive was said to have been dropped by a man on a motor bike.

However Police Bomb Squad of the Kaduna State Police Command successfully detonated the package before it could cause any harm.

The Kaduna Police Public Relation Officer SP Aminu Lawan who confirmed the incidence, said, “we got a distress call that a suspected polythene bag containing a questionable substance was dropped by a moving Okada man, so we quickly ordered our Anti Bomb squad team to the area.

“The area was immediately condoned off when it was discovered that the polythene bag contained high caliber IEDs, and our Anti Bomb Squad were able to successfully detonate the IEDs and the area was immediately brought under control.

“As I speak to you now, the area is calm and people are already going about their normal activities. Efforts to apprehend the suspect are on top gear” he said.

He also said men of the surveillance and CID personnel are already all over the place to monitor movements of persons with questionable characters within the area and advised that people should be more vigilant.

Our correspondent who visited the scene of the detonation reports that prior to the detonation, there was pandemonium within the area as people within the area hurriedly closed their shops, while vehicles also took to other routes and in the process rammed into each other.

It was also observed that several vehicles ran into each other in an attempt to escape, causing temporary traffic which lasted for some time before the situation was brought under control.

An eye witness within the scene who will not want his name in print said, efforts were made to apprehend the suspect who dropped the polythene bag containing the IEDs but he had gone very far before it was discovered and he could not be apprehended.

“When we saw the suspected polythene bag, we tried to see if we can catch up with the okada man that dropped it but he had ran far away and we could not catch up with him, it was then we called the police

and it was discovered that it was an IEDs that was contained in the polythene bag” he said.

As at the time of filing this report, normalcy had returned to the area and people were seen going about their normal business, while earlier closed shops were opened.