A skirmish was timely averted by the Gombe Police Command on Easter eve as youths in a mosque pelted the brigade squad with stones and other objects, destroying their drums and inflicting injuries on others.
No fewer than 300 members from different ECWA churches who were in a procession to celebrate Easter with the Boys Brigade squad comprising parishioners from Nazareth Nayi Nawa, Pantami, Bagadaza and Macedonia were allegedly attacked by the suspected hoodlums and miscreants who attacked the very peaceful and orderly procession.
Narrating his ordeal, an eyewitness who identified himself as Ephraim decried the action of the angry youths who pelted them with stones.
He disclosed that they were attacked around a mosque in Jekadafari, notorious for extremism and crime.
“We went out for Easter rally at night, but when we reached Jekadafari in the night near the Jaurawa mosque, they didn’t talk or say anything to us, they just started throwing stones at us and because there were only a few people that are in front that was why they attacked us.
“The ones I saw injured were just two, and I don’t know whether others got injured too,” Ephraim told Punch.
However, reacting to the incident, Gombe State Commissioner of Police, Hayatu Usman, confirmed that a woman was injured during an alleged disagreement between Evangelical Church Winning All Boys Brigade members in procession.
Usman said:
“I received a phone call roughly around 2 am this morning. It was a good samaritan who called to tell me that something was about to happen in the Jekadafari area here between Christians and Muslims.
“The Muslims pray at night during Ramadan from 12:30 am to 4am in a congregational prayer. As they were praying, the boy’s brigade wanted to also pass towards the direction of the mosque that they were praying, and the hisbah people asked them not to pass through there because prayer was ongoing, especially when they were beating their drums.”
Usman noted that while some members in the procession had to divert their direction but, the rest insisted on following the route.
“Some changed direction, and few among them insisted that they must pass through that same direction. and the misunderstanding attracted some few among the Muslims, and they started throwing stones at the Christians who insisted on passing in their direction. we are lucky that we have patrol vans around that area, which include Hattara, and immediately, they were able to control the matter and escorted them,” he added.