FCT mobilises religious leaders against terror attack

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The Federal Capital Territory Administration said it had embarked on massive enlightenment campaign in churches and mosques to frustrate plans by the Boko Haram insurgents to attack Abuja.

The Administration said it is also working with the police and other security agencies to put in place measures to prevent a terror attack in the FCT before, during and after the Yuletide.

The Director, Security Services, FCTA, Mohammed Mohammed, told our correspondent on Saturday that religious leaders including clerics had been contacted and directed to take certain security measures to foil attacks by insurgents.

Mohammed explained that the intelligence at the disposal of the FCTA indicated that insurgents were planning to launch an attack on worship places, including markets.

“Based on this intelligence which we have shared with security agencies, we have therefore written a letter to the Christian and Muslim leaders intimating them on the security report and advising them on how to thwart terror attacks,” he stated.

The director also said that market leaders in the FCT were also asked to take security precautions and to promptly report any suspicious person or incident to the nearest security agency.

Mohammed said that churches and mosques were directed to be vigilant and to particularly “look out for unknown persons dressed as aid workers loitering around the worship centres and markets.”

According to him, the letter that was written to the National Presidents of Jama’atu Nasril Islam and Christian Association of Nigeria respectively, was not meant to alarm FCT residents, but to alert them to the nefarious plans by unpatriotic elements who were out to destroy lives and properties.

He advised residents to report any suspicious persons or movement to the police on 09063872207, 09053872208 and 09053872209.

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Manza Anjuguri could not be reached for comment as he did not respond to calls to his phone, but a security source assured that the police high command was working assiduously to prevent another bomb attack in the FCT.

The source described past blasts in Abuja as “an embarrassment and a blot on the records of the leadership of the security agencies.”

Source: Punch