ACF plans 'peace conference'Northern Christians, others charge govt on Boko HaramA MASSIVE joint security operations by the Army, the Police, the Statesecurity Service, the Air Force and others was put up in Abuja yesterday to forestall the bombing threat from the Islamic fundamentalist Boko Haram sect in the nation's capital.The huge security measure became necessary after the United States (U.S.) Embassy warned the sect could next strike hotels and other targets in Abuja during the Eid.Indeed, a noticeable lull in activities was observed in three of the major hotels which were reported as prime targets of terrorists.The terror warning came after a wave of deadly blasts claimed by Boko Haram killed 150 people last Friday in Yobe and Borno States.Security was stepped up in Abuja, which has been a target of past attacks, including an August 26 suicide bomb at the UN House, which claimed 24 lives.The U.S. embassy said potential targets could include the Nicon Luxury, the Sheraton and the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja's premier hotels.Embassy workers had been told to avoid the venues and U.S. citizens urged to exercise 'additional caution'.In addition to the normal in-house security checks, police were also deployed to the hotels, while armed soldiers stopped and searched bonnets and trunks of cars driving close to the hotels and the Central Bank headquarters in Abuja.Some 13,000 policemen and specialist anti-terror squads were deployed to mosques and churches and other strategic locations across the city on Sunday, a Nigeria police official said.Worshippers were screened by metal detectors before they entered some churches.The British Foreign Office on Sunday also warned of 'a heightened threat of terrorist attacks during the Eid... weekend across northern states in Nigeria.'It advised British nationals to maintain a 'high level of vigilance'.In a travel warning sent out by the Government of Canada yesterday, the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Department stated: 'The security situation in Nigeria is unpredictable and there is a significant risk of crime, inter-communal clashes, armed attacks, banditry and kidnappings.Adding that there is a 'high threat of domestic terrorism in some states in Nigeria', Canada warned its citizens against 'all travels' to Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Plateau, Abia, Imo and Anambra statesas well as to the area bordering the Bakassi Peninsula due to what it called 'unstable security situation.'But a Police spokesman, Yemi Ajayi, said the police were on 'red alert.'Everywhere is closely monitored, we don't want to take chances, particularly in Abuja,' he added.An Abuja-based western diplomat said: 'Obviously, what happened in the last few days and the U.S. warning have called for extra monitoring.'Also, National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Owoye Azazi, yesterday maintained that adequate counter-measures have been put in place by the nation's security services to secure lives and property.In a statement read before the media at the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday by Ambassador Lai Olaseinde, Azazi said: 'The attention of the Federal Government has been drawn to a publication making the rounds in the media of planned attacks on three major hotels in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Expectedly, the publication is eliciting unhealthy public anxiety and generating avoidable tension. The government wants to advise members of the public that it would continue to ensure the security of lives and property under its jurisdiction despite the unfortunate events in Maiduguri and Yobe over the weekend.'The current threat to attack the three hotels in Abuja is not news and for over three months the security services have taken pro-active measures to protect the designated critical facilities and others... Members of the public are by this announcement urged to go about their normal businesses without fear or hindrance and to be assured that security agencies have emplaced adequate counter measures to secure lives and property.'Meanwhile, former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State and a chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Ahmed Gusau, has disclosed that the group would convene a two-day peace and unity conference in Kadunabetween December 5 and 6.Gusau, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto yesterday, explained that the conference would address the recurring ethno-religious crises, pandemic poverty and unemployment in the region, stressing that 'these and many other factors have become threats to peace and unity of the region and Nigeria by extension.'Also, some political parties on the aegis of Patriotic Alliance of Nigeria (PAN) yesterday called on the Federal Government to take decisive measures against the Boko Haram sect.Chief Maxi Okwu, PAN co-ordinator, told reporters in Lagos that the November 4 co-ordinated bombings in the north eastern part of Nigeria by the sect were inhuman.Okwu, who is also the national chairman of the Citizens Popular Party, said that the mayhem called for urgent and decisive solution.And, a northern Christian denomination, Tarraya Ekklisiyoyi Kristi A Nigeria (TEKAN) yesterday asked the Boko Haram sect members to sheathe their swords, saying, 'enough is enough'.In a statement, National President, TEKAN, Rev. Emmanuel Dziggau, condemned the 'continued killings of our members and other Christians in the North, especially in the North-East region'.'TEKAN may no longer accept the smooth talk-show by boththe respective states and FederalGovernment without any measurable political will to treat this evil virus that's capable of tearing this country apart.'TEKAN is calling on well-meaning Nigerians ahead of 2014 when Nigeria will be 100 years of her amalgamation to decide the possibility of our remaining together in the face of the Boko Haram activities that are no longer acceptable to many peace-loving Nigerians'.Fielding questions on the situation in Yobe and Borno with regards to the American, British and Canadian travel advice, spokesperson, State Security Service (SSS), Marilyn Ogar, said: 'I don't think there is any nation in the world that does not have security challenges. Now, if there is a report somewhere about bombings, it is not enough to say that we are overwhelmed. Yes, we have challenges but the challenges cannot overwhelm us...the American message to its citizens is nothing strange. It is not to say that our country is disintegrating...most countries have to act to convey the message that they are able to protect their citizens...we are getting to the problem in Yobe and Maiduguri. We need more information but security has not come to a halt.'Calling for caution on the part of the media, Ogar said 'There are a lot of things on the Internet and we have to be careful. The information came from the Internet. I know that the threat being reported was first of all sent out as a twit before somebody who is mischievous decided to send it out as an email. We have internal security challenges. It is not new. The problem is not beyond the Nigerian security agencies...'In a related development, Alhaji Abdullahi Bafarawa, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to declare a state of emergency in the security sector.Bafarawa made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto yesterday. 'The issue of bombing and the activities of militants posed a great threat to the survival of our nation's nascent democracy,' Bafarawa stressed.
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