Kaduna Church Bombing Attempt: My Son, Nathaniel Samuel Is A Drug Addict – Father Insists

BY AMOS TAUNA, KADUNA – Contrary to conflicting stories over the true identity of the suspect in Sunday’s attempt to detonate explosives at Living Faith Church, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna, the father, Mr Samuel Ezekiel has confirmed that Nathaniel Samuel, Jawara by tribe from Bauchi state, is  his biological son.

Ezekiel, who stated this in an interview with Forefront News in his rented house located at Damishi village in Chikun Local Government Area, said; “Nathaniel was born in 1991. When he grew up, he has been a drug addict in spite of all efforts to make him understand the danger of what he is doing but to no avail.”

The suspect’s father spoke in the presence of Kaduna State Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Joseph Hayab, saying; “Nathaniel found himself in taking drugs and l have been struggling to put him in a right way but he has not been able to understand what l have been telling him. That is all l know about him.”

Asked if Nathaniel has been staying at home, the father responded, “It has been long since he left the house and when he came back last weekend, l asked him what was wrong with him seeing him becoming a different person entirely. I discovered that his words were not consistent. He will say one thing and before you know it, he will tell you a different thing.

“Nathaniel could not tell me where he was coming from because he is not consistent in all that he says. I have been advising him on how to live a good life but he seems not to understand what l am telling him. He came and left last Saturday in the morning. Since he left that morning on Saturday, l did not hear anything about him until on Sunday when l heard what he did and then l was not at home. I learnt policemen came to my house in my absence but before l came back to the house, they had all left.

“Till date, nobody has come to my house to ask me what happened. It is only this morning being Tuesday, 4th February, 2020, that SSS from Chikun Local Government came to interview me on what happened and l explained to them what l have just told you.

“My concern is the lives of those he wanted to destroy if it is true that he carried bomb to the Church. Since l know Nathaniel, he has never been a Muslim but l tell you because of the drugs he takes, l had to take him to Psychiatric hospital, Kaduna for treatment. I could not cope with the expenses because l was not financially able to meet up, l had to take him back home.”

On his part, the state CAN chairman, Rev Hayab said, “When the matter came up as l said in the previous interviews that there were conflicting reports; report that he said his name is Mohammed Sani; report that his name is Nathaniel Samuel. What we are concerned with is that there should be proper background investigation to know who he is and exactly what his name is?

“Now, we clearly stated that we are not interested about his name, tribe, religion and where he comes from, but we are interested in the act of criminality he would have committed and felt that should be addressed. Part of our work as CAN is to go beyond making noise, and that is why we went to find out who is this Nathaniel or Mohammed.”

“Luckily, in our investigations, someone told me about his father and where his family lives. The good news is that l drove here and fortunately, the father of Nathaniel is someone that l, Rev Joseph Hayab, knows for many years.

“The story you hear from the father is the challenge of his son, Nathaniel and l believe in Nigeria, we can solve problems by doing a proper background checking.

“I am sad that the policemen who come to the father of Nathaniel could not be patient to wait and hear the true story of the boy in question. Impatient and sometimes lack of professionalism could cause some problems in the society.”

Rev Joseph Hayab appealed to Nigerians to use the situation of Nathaniel to learn, saying; “Let us not always rush to judgment. We need to really find out if what he was arrested with is actually a bomb. If he has a mental problem and he is holding something that is harmful so that we clear ourselves from a situation of killing one another.”