The father of the failed alleged suicide bomber, Mr Samuel Ezekiel, has said his son, Nathaniel, is a Christian and has never been a Muslim.
Nathaniel was caught after planting a bomb in the Living Faith Church in Sabon Tasha in Kaduna; but a contrversy arose as to his faith with the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN), Kaduna, Rev. Joseph Hayab, revealing that Nathaniel initially gave his name as Mohammed Sani, only to do an about-turn to change to Nathaniel Samuel while in the custody of the Police.
But on Tuesday, Hayab took a reporter of the Daily Trust newspaper to the father of Nathaniel in Kaduna.
“No! Not even for a single day has he been a Muslim,” Ezekiel, his father said when asked if his son is a Muslim.
His greatest pain as he told Daily Trust was that his son opted to blow a church.
“If he was alone, I don’t care but for the lives that are in the church, I begin to wonder. I shed tears,” he said.
Nathaniel allegedly told the Christian leaders who arrested him at the Winners Chapel branch in Kaduna that he was Mohammed Sani.
Reverend Hayab said he knew the father of the suspect for many years, but didn’t know that Nathaniel was his son; reiterating his earlier position that he was unconcerned about the faith of the 29 years old alleged bomber.
Nigeria Everyday reports that on Monday Hayab had said: “This incident justifies the US’ decision to place visa restrictions on Nigerians. The US Government told us that one of the reasons for the visa ban was that Nigeria do not do proper background checks on people.
“So, a criminal can go to one part of Kaduna and bear John, travel to another part of the state and bear Abdullahi or Oluwole or Emeka and nobody will know. So, let us stop focusing on his name but his crime. A criminal is a criminal.
“There are now two versions, one from the church and one from the police.
“I don’t care what his name is. All I know is that a criminal wanted to blow up a church and kill people. The police should find out who his sponsors are and not play politics with names. Last week, a man was paraded by the police for faking his kidnap and identified as a pastor, only for us to find out he was never a pastor.
“I know Muslims that bear Paul, I know Christians that bear Mohammed. Our CAN chairman in Borno State is Mohammed Laga. I have a cousin that bears Mohammed Paul. So, let us not focus on the name but on the act of terrorism”.