Hotels, churches under tight security in Abuja

Churches and hotels in Abuja now have the presence of security personnel supplied by the government

In the continued bid to ensure safety of lives and property, security around hotels, churches, and other strategic areas remained beefed up in Abuja on Sunday.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who went round the city, observed that policemen, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and FRSC officers were in strategic locations to ensure orderliness.

At Sheraton and Transcorp Hilton hotels, NAN observed that some military men were deployed there to complement the internal security arrangements of the hotel managements.

At Holy Trinity Catholic Church, ThisDay Dome, St Mathew Anglican Church in the Maitama axis, road blocks were mounted and vehicular movement restricted to secure the areas. At the ThisDay Dome, occupied by the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), one of the policemen, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the idea was to ensure effective monitoring of movement of vehicles.

"As you can see, our major focus is to make sure that those who come here to worship go home safely. We are blocking the road just for safety.

"You can see that people packed outside, if we don’t block this road, there will be serious traffic here,’’he said.

At Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Jonah John of the FRSC told NAN that the focus was more on free movement of people at the end of the service.

"What we are doing is part of the security work, but we focus more on ensuring that no accident occurs here.

"You can see that nobody parks inside the church compound; everybody is encouraged to park outside," Mr. John said.

Security was also beefed up at the Assemblies of God Church in Garki 2 as well as Dunamis Church, Mountain of Fire and Living Faith Church, all in Area 1, Abuja. 

At Dunamis Church, Ngozi Achuluike, a church member, said that seeing security men around the churches is a good development.

"This is one good thing that government has done. Security issue is not a child’s play; I know that God will deliver us from the current insecurity situation in the country.

"For some time now, apart from our own internal security, I notice that every Sunday, policemen and sometimes, FRSC people are always around until we end the service," she said.

Mrs. Achuluike commended the efforts being made by the government, and urged Nigerians to complement the efforts by being security-conscious.

It will be recalled that after the Christmas-day bombing at St Theresa’s Catholic Church Madalla, Niger State, the Federal Government started beefing up security around churches and other strategic areas.