Police, government militia and plainclothes security operatives fanned out across the North states today in anticipation of possible Boko Haram attacks on worshippers during the high holy days of Easter.
Police, government militia and plainclothes security operatives fanned out across the North states today in anticipation of possible Boko Haram attacks on worshippers during the high holy days of Easter.
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The security operatives were seen conducting thorough searches of worshippers entering Churches in Kaduna, Zaria, Sokoto, Minna, Dutse and Kontagora.
Security was more pronounced in Maiduguri, Bauchi, Kano, Damaturu, Jos, Potiskum, and Gombe in all the principal places of worship in the aforementioned towns.
In an Easter message to Christians, Catholic Bishop Rt. Rev Matthew Hassan Kukah in Sokoto acknowledged that these were difficult times for Christians in Nigeria.
“There is no doubt that the negligence of successive Government has created a climate of impunity in which Christians have continued to feel trapped in many parts their own country especially in the some northern states,” he said..
“Over the years, the federal and state governments have looked the other way as our Churches gradually became objects of desecration and target practice by a gang of miscreants and criminal youths who claim to be Muslims. Our priests have been slaughtered from Kaduna to Maiduguri, thousands of innocent Christians have been trapped and murdered in their churches and homes.
“Their places of worship and their properties have been destroyed while the governments of Nigeria continued to fiddle and fritter away the opportunity for national cohesion. The incompetence of governments has opened up a vacuum where criminals wear a religious mask.”
A source told SaharaReporters that government reinforcements are manning all security check points, especially at Kaduna Refinery and Defence Industrial Corporation, known as DIC in the North.
A spokesperson of the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri, Lt.Col. Sagir Musa, maintained that they would not give any breathing space to insurgents hoping to carry out attacks in the region.
Similarly, General Officer Commanding 1 Division Nigerian Army, Major General Garba Wahah told journalists in Kaduna that the Boko Haram sect is believed to be gathering weapons to launch sporadic attacks in Kaduna town.
“Information we gathered revealed that the arrested suspects were hiding weapons in an unknown destination which prompted their arrest, but we want to assure residents of Kaduna that the army will not go out of its way to pick up innocent persons.”
“What we are doing is for the safety of the people in the state and not to gain favours from other sources. On the day of the raid, we arrested 100 people, but after thorough interrogation, 67 of them were released because investigation proved that they were innocent, but the 33 are still in our custody out of which 13 are Nigeriens.’’
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