Christmas, in the last three years in Nigeria, has
been the favourite time by Boko Haram terrorists to inflict maximum damage to
the country.
According to police spokesman, Frank Mba, the IGP has
ordered extra patrols, surveillance and covert operations to better secure
potential targets during the festive period.
The Boko Haram militants have struck every Christmas
for the past three years, most dramatically in 2011, when they bombed three
churches. One of them, on St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state,
killed 37 people and wounded 57.
“All the strike forces and specialized units of the
force have been adequately mobilized to … provide water-tight security.
“Covert operations, round-the-clock surveillance, and
robust vehicular patrols are being intensified, while particular attention is
now constantly paid to strategic public places, including places of worship,
recreation centres, shopping malls, business plazas, motor parks, strategic
highways, government installations and other important locations so as to
forestall any possible criminal activity and guarantee the safety of the
citizenry,” Mba said in the statement.
The spokesman further revealed that the IGP has
directed all Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and Commissioners of Police
in all Zonal and State Commands of the Force to retool their security
infrastructures in line with international standards, taking into consideration
their local environment and peculiar security situation in order to protect the
citizens adequately.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been criticized by the
opposition, the media and Western diplomats for failing to protect civilians
during the four-and-a-half year insurgency, which began as a clerical movement
opposed to Western influences but morphed into a fully fledged insurrection,
forging links with al Qaeda-inspired groups in the Sahara.
Like those groups, Boko Haram believe Christians are
infidels who must be converted or killed.
A wave of church attacks around early 2012 raised
fears they were trying to trigger a sectarian civil war in a country with the
world’s largest mixed population of Christians and Muslims, although the feared
reprisals never materialized.
President Jonathan last month extended a state
of emergency in the northeast areas worst affected by the
insurgency. A military offensive since May has failed to quell the rebellion,
and Boko Haram has mounted several counter-attacks.
PM News
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