Police, STF plan new security strategies for Jos

Police in Plateau State and the Special Task Force in Jos have mapped out new strategies aimed at  checking the spate of bombings in the state.
Also, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Ayeni, alleged on Tuesday that those responsible for the February 26 bombing of Church of Christ in Nigeria and Sunday’s explosion which claimed lives at  St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church,  both in Jos, were outsiders.
Ayeni  said the new  measures were arrived at after a meeting between the Chief of defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin,  and all stakeholders in the state.
The CP said henceforth no vehicular movement would be allowed on roads leading to places of worship on Fridays and Sundays till the end of prayer sessions,  except those of officials who must arrive  before the beginning of worship.
He said, “We have agreed that to ward off these elements, all of us have roles to play.  Every worshipper must subject themselves to search while there must be no accessibility to  worship centres. Nobody must be allowed to carry bags to worship centres and when you suspect any object, do not go near.
“You can carry only your bible or your Qur’an. You must avoid clustering around worship centres after worship. We observe that after worship people cluster around to gossip. Your business is worship and go to your house after that endeavour to quickly go to your house.”
He urged  religious leaders to ensure  that their  members do not  obstruct security agents  doing their job.
Ayeni said investigations conducted by the police indicated that the bombers of the two churches came from outside the state.
He  said, “We have discovered that those people that carried the bombings  were not from Jos. Boko Haram is a national problem and we need not localise a problem that is of national dimension.
“I have done my research and have discovered that members of Boko Haram are not Plateau people. The officer in charge of the Anti-bomb Squad for Bauchi and Plateau states, Mr.  Abel Mbibi,   said it had been  difficult apprehending  the bombers and their sponsors because youths usually rush to the scene and destroy vital evidence before the arrival of security agencies after bomb blasts.”
According to him, during the St. Finbarr’s Church bombing, some of the security agents were  manhandled by youths,  thus preventing them  from getting   to the scene to remove the dead and evacuate the wounded.
Mbibi insisted  that those who died later in the church could have been saved  had first aid being given to them immediately.
He said that evidence as little as fingerprints could be used to detect the bomber or the source of the bombs, regretting however that those pieces of evidence were usually tampered with before the arrival of experts.