Residents of Owerri the Imo State capital were on Friday thrown into confusion following reports of the presence of a suspected member of the Boko Haram sect in the city.
The suspects whose identity could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report was apprehended around 8:30am at the main entrance gate of Owerri City School on the ever busy Wetheral Road following an alarm raised by teachers of the school.
Consequently, the school which comprises both primary and post primary schools became a Mecca of sorts as taxi drivers, civil servants, artisans, market women, traders and students of neighbouring schools all stormed the area to catch a glimpse of the suspect.
Parents and guardians were seen making frantic efforts to retrieve their children and wards from the school that had just commenced classes for the day.
An eye witnesses who saw it all but who refused to mention his name for fear of being penalised by the school management disclosed that the suspect, who appeared in a shabby dirty military uniform, looked unkempt and dishevelled and equally pretended to be dumb and deaf with a black cellophane bag, had arrived there and sat quietly refusing to respond to greetings .
This, it was gathered attracted the curiosity of the staff of the school who immediately alerted the police and who responded promptly and whisked him to an unknown destination.
Curiously, the suspect who had earlier claimed to be dumb and deaf, upon arrest by the police began to speak Hausa, Arabic and English.
Efforts to get in touch with authorities in the school proved abortive as men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) at the gate refused to allow anybody in.
Similarly, the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Theodore Ekechi, could not be reached for comment as he was said to have travelled out of the state with Governor Rochas Okorocha while the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Andrew Enwere, refused to pick his phone calls despite repeated calls.
However a police source anonymously confirmed the incident, saying that the suspect who is now helping the police in their investigation came in from Anambra State.
It would be recalled that the police last week nabbed a suspect with improvised explosives at the Living Faith Church (better known as Winners Chapel) also in Owerri.
