Fear of Boko Haram at Easter: Plateau bans rallies, plans brief Church services, restricts Okada

Determined to prevent  security breach during  Easter celebrations, security agencies in Plateau State have drawn up strategies to nip in the bud any attack by the Islamist group, Boko Haram, or any other group.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that series of security meetings had been held to review the success of the strategies in place since the last suicide bomb attack on St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church and to improve on them where necessary.
The security meetings were capped with a parley between  security agencies and religious leaders to discuss the strategies and fine tune them.
At the meeting, held, on Thursday, many of the religious leaders expressed support for the measures put in place with some appealing that something be done to ease the traffic gridlock at the  checkpoints on major streets.
The security chiefs promised to review the situation to reduce  traffic jam and the period spent at  checkpoints.
A communique at the end of the meeting stressed the need for people to be security conscious and to avoid unnecessary gathering in churches and other places. The communique, signed by the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dipo Ayeni, urged preachers to make sermons brief so as not to prolong services unnecessarily. It said patrols would be carried out by security agents and banned any form of rally or procession during the festivity.
Movement of motorcycles was also banned from 7 p.m. on Thursday to 6 a.m. on Tuesday while religious leaders were enjoined to sensitize their followers on the importance of peaceful co-existence and good neighborliness.