By Gab Ejuwa, Godwin Oghre

An unusual morning indeed it was on that faithfully day in the port city of Sapele. It was December11. The resident were still visually read to the world in their various beds dreaming pleasantly and disinclined as a result of the pervasive December cold, to rouse and shine. Even the grey streaks of dawn had not commenced their motion of stealing across the sky and herating the coming of dawn.

If there was any sound at all, it was the symphony of quivers from the mecezins all over the city calling Muslim faithfuls to the early morning prayers in the mosques. And their like a bolt from the blue, it happened, from the most unlikely of places: the sapele contract mosque.

At about 5:30 am ear-splitting explosion from the labyrinthine confines of the mosque boomed out of the edifice and found freedom in the open morning air sending its shockwaves into the eardrums of the residents of the city.

The ground around the mosque shock to its very foundations and various objects in the mosque clattered to the ground. A heavy pall of billowy smoke spued forth and enveloped the environment as though it emanated from the very fire of hell precipitating a fit of coughing.

The ceiling roof and interior of the mosque bore the brunt of the seismic occurrence shattered in smithereens. Ceiling this singular explosion generated almost palpable tension all over the port city, with people disoriented and running helter skelter, leaving a Muslim critically injured and parts of the structure shattered.

The man who was injured in the blast simply identified as Tanko was rushed to the nearby Delta State university Teaching hospital, Oghara, but was allegedly denied medical attention on the mere suspicion that he could be a card-carrying member of the dreaded Boko Haram sect. however he was later rushed to the university of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin city, Edo State, where he was taken into the intensive care unit, ICU.

As it normally happens in such cases pundits and analysts of the political developments in the nation have had a field day explaining away the genesic of this apparently political action and the expected reaction all of which are bound to affecting politics and political in this heart of the Niger Delta.

According to a particular school of thought the whole force was even a political transmutation of what was essentially a purely religious issue. The basic conflict stemmed from the blunt refusal of some Hausa fundamentalism who scoffed at the spiritual leadship of a non-Hausa an Igbira as the chief Imam of the sapele central Mosque.

The extremists, presided over by one Alhaji Sehibi a wealthy transporter had stopped worshipping there. And built a new prayer ground at Urhobo Road a stone throw from the main mosque. It was a circumstantially vindicating considered opinion that the wealthy transporter and his band of extremists initiated the explosion to destabilize the original mosque and its congregation of worshippers.

There is also the strong belief that splinter group masterminded the latest explosion which hit the kids of an Islamic school , also in sapele and in fact a stone’s throw from the new mosque built by the schist group spear-headed by the Alhaji with a view to encouraging his followers in rejecting the Imamship of the new leader whom the group had conveniently dubbed an infidel.

The school explosion which amputated the two legs of the daughter of a personal Assistant to the LGA chairman and several other Muslim children apparently become the last straw that broke the proverbial Carmel’s back. Aready the splinter group Tagged Boko Haram was farther confirmed so by the two explosions to checkmate the group’s activities thus preventing from wrecking further mayhem, this time in the larger sapele city some able-bodied youth group who have been following the skirmish between the two religions groups muscled in on the fracas and forcefully.

Ejected the purist group from sapele. Coincidentally, it was still the same Alhaji who provided about three trailers to evacuate the jihadists and their families, one of which trailers, report had it, was involved in an accident which claimed the lives of very many of them fleeing Sapele for dear life.

However investigation conducted in the aftermath of the explosion revealed that the explosive device was not really a bomb, but a look alike obviously locally fabricated which more or less resembled the “pail of destruction” alias Ogbunigwe, used by Biafran soldier to devastating effects during the Biafran War.

This line of thinking was especially validated by the fact that buildings and fluorescent tubes, which ordinarily would have shattered by a conventional bomb, were still intact during the blast, one of the eye-witness said.

Besides this, a Sapele resident who craved anonymity was of the opinion that the blast was a revenge initiative by the Christian community in response to the spate of actual bombings in some parts of the north which billed many people including that on Christmas Day in a church in Niger State.

However, this explanation was rubbish, a source claimed especially as even Muslim were also victims of the Boko Haram attacks in the north. What is more, the source continued, Moslems and Christians alike in Sapele had been living peacefully together for several decades in friendship, since many of the Muslims were born and bred in the Timber-rich city.

Further investigations revealed that the targets were Muslims leaders including the Arabic students and might further foment trouble for the Muslims worshippers who were presently accusing the ex-militants as the perpetrators.

Even though Egbesu, a potent Ijaw Truculent group claimed responsibility of the two blasts, the truth is that everything is shrouded in controversy and buck passing, which some watchers believe, might degenerate into a full blown jihad, if strong cautionary measures are not put in place to check the excesses of the militants.

...mosque destroyed by the explosion

The Delta State Police mouthpiece, Charles Muka, Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP), denied that the blast was caused by a bomb, but by a fire in the Mosque, a accident which he said must not be blown beyond proportion.

Nevertheless a source sharply disagreed with DSP Muka, affirming categorically that bomb was actually thrown into the Mosque between 5.00 and 5.30am, the time the faithful were doing their early morning prayers.

Yet another witness disclosed that there was stampede the moment the explosion detonated, causing the worshippers to dialogue with their limbs instead of their God which made some members force the door of the mosque open. According to him, “the blast was caused by two members of Boko Haram who wanted the worshippers to adapt full blown Boko Haram practices.”

He went further that the two men who also worshipped in the Mosque bombed the place because they were disenchanted with the new Imam, who initiated Hausa, English and Arabic languages as modes of worship rather than the only acceptable Arabic.

For his part the Chief Imam, Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, said the explosion was targeted at worshippers. He however rejected the insinuation that it was the dreaded Boko Haram sect, keeping advisedly silent on whether there was any schism among the congregation on the mode of worship or not.

Naturally, the Commissioner of Police was briefed by the Seriki Hausawa of Sapele, Alhaji Suleiman Umaru, at the scene of battle from where he took his leave for Sapele Police station.

A top official of the State Security Service in Delta State, a woman riding in a Mercedes Benz jeep, accompanied by some operatives, went in briefly to quantify the damage and left shortly after. Sources claimed that undercover agents were working on the theory that the victim might be a member of the spitfire sect and by that fact could be a Niger Republic national.

Consequently that was palpable apprehension and anxiety in the famous timber city, with resident inferring that members of the suicidal daredevil sect had filtered in an apprehensive feeling which the other finger to diminish. This explosion was the second in few weeks after the Mosque incident on Hausa Road.

The second blast affected seven Muslim pupils adversely including a woman who is even now recuperation at the General Hospital, Sapele, Delta State University Hospital, Oghara and the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin, Edo State.

It was ventilated by a reliable source that the anonymous occupant of a Toyota Camry threw the bomb into a store being used for Islamic lessons at about 9:30pm which detonated and injured the victims. It was also reliably gathered that the blast was.

Extraordinarily loud and massive, throwing the some of the pupils bull-at –a gate in various directions and that the protagonists moved a distance to ensure that they hit the bull’s eye before splitting from the sconce like a bat out of shell. This particular explosion according to a witness, detonated about three hours into the day is schedule of lessons and one and a half hours before closing time at the school on King Street, off Urhobo Road, Sapele.

The Chief Medical Director of the Sapele General Hospital, Dr.Omo Agboja, established that three of the bomb victims were receiving and responding to treatment in the hospital.

A Muslim faithful, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Vanguard that the Tuesday night explosion was a tit-for-tat attack on the Muslim sect that bombed the Central Mosque three weeks ago.

The battle for the survival of Muslim faithfuls in Sapele yesterday shifted to Asaba, Delta State capital following an invitation, by the state governor. Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, to some stake holders in the ongoing imbroglio, between the Muslim worshippers and youths of the area, on the one hand, and between muslim factions in the separate mosques on the other hand, to find lasting solution to the crises involving the two groups.

The Sapele centre mosque and a parallel mosque located about 200 yards from the centre mosque, remain locked up till yesterday. Only three elderly Muslim faithful were seen at the veranda of the central mosque in the mood of worship. Most of the nearby provision shops around the two mosques remain locked as at yesterday.

The area was still guarded by heavily armed security officials. A resident in the area, Mr. Moju Ibrahim said the shop owners around the mosques have been griped with fear of escalating fight in the area; hence they kept distance from their shops.

The chief Imam of the central mosque, Alh. Mohammed Usman, a Nupe man from Niger State , was not available for comment as he was reported by his wife, Alhaja Dupe Usman, to have gone to Asaba to honour the governor’s invitation.

Meanwhile, the ten school Muslim children wounded in a late night explosion while receiving lesson, a forth night ago, are still on intensive medical care. Their teachers, Mallam Abdul Rosaq told vanguard in Sapele yesterday, that the children were in dare need of relief materials, to survive treatments.

Finally, it must b said that although these blasts have rocked the ancient sawmilling capital of the nation, it should not by any rule of thumb or stretch of the imagination be believed that Sapele is another testing ground for the Boko Haram incendiary or that militants are organizing reprisal attacks against Muslims in the Delta region.

Sapele is still a city preoccupied with one core business: felling Timbers and making planks for the nation. These explosions real though they were, just some of those isolated incidents that are more religious than political, and which should not be blown beyond proportion.