Wife of a suspected bomber arrested by the police in Bauchi State on Sunday, February 26, has maintained that her husband is innocent. Philibus Danasa was one of the eight suspects arrested by the police over allegations of attempting to bomb the Church of Christ In Nigeria (COCIN), Miya Barkate, in Toro Local Government Area of the state.
As he currently languishes in police detention with the others, Danasa’s wife, Augustina, has passionately maintained his innocence, pleading with the police command to immediately release him to his family.
The woman, in an interview with Daily Sun in Miya Barkate, could not hold back tears as she appealed to the acting Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar to release her husband.
The immediate past Commissioner of Police, Bauchi Command, Mr Ikechukwu Ayo Aduba had said that the eights suspects, including Danasa, were arrested for allegedly trying to attack the local church following an internal crisis.
Aduba said one of the suspects who attempted to escape was arrested with locally made explosives.
Aduba who has since been transferred to Delta State, had said: “It’s true that some people attempted to attack ECWA Church. They are all rival groups within the church.
“They have their own internal problems and the other rival group decided to attack them. When we got the report, we sent our men, and they have arrested about eight of them.
They have something like explosives, but we are waiting for the bomb experts to confirm.”
But Augustina, a mother of two, said her husband, who hails from Ribina in Toro Local Government area, was mistakenly rounded up by the police on that fateful day. According to her, he only happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
She recalled that her husband was going to Miya Barkate to see the pastor of ECWA church near the troubled church when he was accosted by the police.
Augustina, a choir member with the ECWA Church in Tilde Fulani, near Miya Barkate where she and her husband worships, wept profusely as she narrated her ordeal to this correspondent.
She said that her 32-year-old husband, a committed member of ECWA Church in Tilde Fulani was going to see the pastor of ECWA church in Miya Barkate on that day when he was arrested.
Her words: “When I heard the news that he was arrested, I was shocked because my husband was not part of the crisis in the COCIN church in Miya Barkate. He does not even attend COCIN.
He is an usher in ECWA.
“That Sunday, he left us in church in Tilde Fulani to see the pastor of ECWA church in Miya Barkate when he was arrested.”
Augustina, 27, said her husband, who works with Salama Multipurpose Cooperative Society, a non-governmental organisation based in Toro Local Government headquarters as Credit/Account officer, is well known in the area.
She maintained that as the breadwinner of the family, her husband is a responsible family man who has never had any criminal record.
The woman said in tears: “I lost my mother on Friday and we were planning a burial when this news reached me. Please tell the police to release my husband because he is innocent. I am mourning my dead mother and my husband has been taken away. Please help me. He is not a criminal. Please don’t let my children suffer. Please help me.”
As Augustina wept, her two children, Maureen, five, and Ogomo, three, also cried.
Maureen kept asking her mother the whereabouts of their father.
Philibus’ brother, Jonathan, a printer based in Jos, Plateau State, said the arrest of his brother has brought so much sorrow to the family.
Said he: “I have been to the Bauchi Police Command headquarters in Bauchi but I could not see my brother. I was told that he had been taken to Abuja.
“On Sunday when it happened, he was caught along the way to Miya Barkate, about three kilometres away from the scene.
Because he is from Tilde, they saw him and they said this is one of them.
“But he is not a member of COCIN. He is the only member of ECWA arrested among them. He was on his way to ECWA when he was arrested.
“We are appealing to the police to release my brother because he is innocent and even the people of Miya Barkate, they know the Muslims and the Christians. They have described him as an innocent person.
He is not among the members of COCIN.
“We came all the way from Bauchi to seek his release but they said that there is an order from Abuja that they should take them to Abuja. I have not been able to see the commissioner of police and the wife just lost her mother.
“I was called and informed that my brother was arrested. He was on his bike. My brother is known as a good person. All the women they know him and they can testify that he is a good person and he works with an organisation that deals with women.
He is a person of good character. In fact he contested for councillor in Tilde Fulani.”
Police Public Relations officer, Hassan Mohammed Auyo told Daily Sun that the suspects had been transferred to Abuja, a development that is bound to compound Augustina’s misery.
When Daily Sun contacted the pastor of the COCIN church in Miya Barkate, he claimed that he was the one that alerted the police when the rival group came to the church to remove some items forcibly from the church.
“It is true that I invited the police when they were becoming violent but I am not aware whether bombs were found on them. I am not aware,” the pastor told our correspondent in Miya Barkate.
It was also learnt by our correspondent from the people of Miya Barkate that the theory that explosives were found on the suspects is not true.
“They were having problems in the church as a result of relocation of headquarters of the church and the pastor called the police. Later some media (not Daily Sun) reported that the members were trying to bomb the church. It is not true and the story was blown out of proportion,” the CAN chairman in Toro who could not hide his anger said.
Meanwhile, Augustina who keeps pleading her husband’s innocence, told our reporter that her heart’s desire is to see her husband who had been transferred to the police headquarters in Abuja again hale and hearty.
