The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nyanya

  • Nyanya blast death toll hits 19

    … 60 wounded, three IEDs recovered

    The police on Friday confirmed that 19 people died and 60 others injured in Thursday’s bomb blast at Nyanya in the Federal Capital Territory.
    The police spokesman, CSP Frank Mba, confirmed the figure at a news conference at Nyanya, the scene of the incident.
    The spokesperson of the Department of State Services (DSS), Marilyn Ogar, and an official of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), attended the briefing.
    Mba said that six others apart from the 60 injured had been treated and discharged.
    He also said three unexploded Improvise Explosive Devices (IEDs) were recovered from the scene, adding that they had been rendered safe.
    “Investigations are ongoing and we appeal to the citizens to rally round the security forces at this critical point in our history.
    “It will take the unity of all of us to defeat terror,’’ Mba said, and declined comment on whether any arrest had been made.
    “I will not speak at this stage on ongoing investigations but investigations are ongoing and we will give facts when it is right to do so.’’
    Also, Ogar, DSS spokesperson, said the cooperation of all Nigerians was required to win the war against terrorism.
    “We must take our security into our hands because the security agencies cannot do it all alone, it must be collective.
    “The call here is for all Nigerians to rally round security agencies, it is not a time to say they are not doing what they are supposed to do.
    “The number of security personnel in the country is very small compared to the population, rally round us through information, no information is useless,’’ Ogar appealed.
    The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Mba had given a casualty figure of 12 dead and 19 wounded on Thursday, shortly after the explosion.
    He, however, described those figures as “provisional.”

  • Nyanya blast: Jonathan meets service chiefs

    Nyanya blast: Jonathan meets service chiefs

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday summoned security chiefs to a special security meeting following Thursday’s explosion in Nyanya, Abuja.
    Thursday’s explosion, which occurred just few metres away from the scene of last month’s attack, killed nine people and injured several others.
    The President’s Spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, who posted the information on his twitter handle – (@abati1990), said, “the meeting is ongoing at the Villa.”
    Details later…

     

  • Nyanya blast: FCT Minister visits Asokoro hospital, condemns attack

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT)  Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed has condemned Thursday evening’s bomb blast along the Nyanya road corridor which claimed not less than 12 lives and left others injured.

    Speaking when he visited the Asokoro District Hospital, Thursday night where some of the injured victims were receiving treatment, the Minister decried the act as inhuman and  urged  all residents of the FCT to be security and safety conscious always.

    While condoled  with the families of those who died and commiserated with the injured.

    The Minister  described the incident as a serious emergency and assured FCT residents that the government and the security agencies were alert to ensure that they are safe and secure.  

    While appealing to residents to be calm and vigilant while going about their lawful duties, he stated that, “what happened is an incident that could not be foreseen. Normally, insurgency and are occurrences that are difficult to predict.”

    He directed that adequate emergency services, free medical treatment and succor including feeding be provided for the victims.

    Senator Bala Mohammed also stated that the perpetrators of the dastardly cannot succeed in destabilizing Nigeria stressing that Nigerians would emerge stronger and more united from the current challenge posed by terrorists.

    He therefore urged all residents to unite with one accord against terror. He also sued for more cooperation with the law enforcement by giving them information and assistance adding that the war against terror is the responsibility of all.

    Those who were with the Minister during the visit include the FCT Permanent Secretary, Engr. John Chukwu, the Chief of Staff to the Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Yau Gital and Secretary of Health, FCTA, Dr. Demola Onakomaiya and others.

  • Nyanya blast: Police confirm 12 dead, 19 injured

    Nyanya blast: Police confirm 12 dead, 19 injured

    The Police has confirmed 12 persons dead and 19 injured in  a  fresh bomb blast  in Nyanya,  Abuja, Thursday evening.

    Five vehicles were  also damaged in the incident which occurred near the scene of the previous attack that claimed scores of lives.

    Traffic congestion according to the police is hampered  rescue operations.

    Bodies of the dead have been deposited at the mortuary many and the injured  rushed to the Asokoro hospital for treatment.

    The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) had earlier conformed that Nine bodies have been deposited in the mortuary while 11 unconscious persons are receiving treatment.

    An eyewitness said the explosion occurred at about 8.20pm in a white Gulf car.

     

  • Nyanya bomblast and the fight against terrorism in nigeria

    Nyanya bomblast and the fight against terrorism in nigeria

    Sinister terror and hatred have again reached from the shadows to steal the lives of innocent Nigerians.  In Nyanya, seventy-two people were killed by a car bomb. Hundreds more were injured in the devastation.  Their killings served no purpose except for those who exalt in evil. The bomb blast quickly came and went like the deadly thief it was; but we shall be left to endure the pain and loss from this terrible act for a long time to come.

    What the nation lost is irreplaceable.  The number 72 seems like just another grim tally among the death statistics that have become all too common.  But what occurred is much more than that. We must really stop and take notice of where evil is attempting to drive us to. The abduction of over one hundred school girls is unacceptable, condemnable and saddens me greatly.

    We cannot allow these merchants of death to make us numb to the tragedy they manufacture.  Those who were killed were not merely numbers on a page. They were human beings, made of flesh and blood body and soul like all the rest of us. They were someone’s father or mother, brother or sister. They had parents; they were someone’s child. They were husbands or wives, neighboring friends and colleague. They had dreams and hopes. They were loved and loved others in return. Now, life has been taken away and those who cared from them must bear a grief no person should be asked to carry.

    These people committed no wrong. Their only crime was to be ordinary working class people seeking to eke out a livelihood and tend for themselves and their families. For this, they were killed.

    They represent the backbone of the working people. Not many of them lived an easy life. Most worked hard and long for modest wages. They lifted themselves up every morning to earn their daily bread. They faced the many social and economic challenges and obstacles our society poses, yet they worked not to destroy but to make this a better place by bettering the lives of their family and loved ones.

    These people lived anonymously and died the same way. We do not yet know their names. But, in a fundamental sense, we know who they were. They were part of us. They shared the same aspirations we all do. We seek an improved fate for our children and hope to leave them a better life. We want to work and live in dignity and respect.  We want a life of peace and harmony with our neighbors regardless of religion, ethnicity or background. We seek prosperity not poverty. We seek brotherly understanding not strife. We seek peace, not bombs.

    It was not just 72 people who were taken in this depraved assault.  Each of us lost something that day. Yet, despite the loss and suffering, we must not cower in fear, and let the purveyors of death believe they have scored a victory over us.

    Those who committed this act have declared war on all that is decent and good. They have declared war not against the state or even the government. They have declared war on Nigeria and all Nigerians because this murder took men and women, old and young, Christian and Muslim alike. In trying to scare, frighten and divide us, the evildoers committed injury to their own cause. For they have shown us that we all suffer inhumanity in the same way.

    No matter our religion or place of birth, we all bleed and are wounded the same way by injustice. Decency runs through the teachings of each religion and ethnic group that comprise the people of Nigeria.

    We may have our differences, but the vast majority of Nigerians stand united against the appalling violence committed in Nyanya and other places.

    These acts have no place in Nigeria. Those who commit them have no place in our country.  The perpetrators may look like human beings. They may have limbs and faces like the rest of us but they are not like us. In killing innocent people, they have become inhuman. They live outside the scope of humanity. Their mother is carnage and their father is cruelty. They have declared war against the people of Nigeria. They have shown that they do not want to liberate the people. They want to kill them. Yet, with all the energy of their evil and ignorant hatred, they shall fail. The good people of Nigeria shall triumph.

    Such a wicked mission shall not succeed. We have gone too far in our journey to nationhood and endured too much to allow these terrible acts to divert us.

    Not only have these agents of death killed innocent people, they also abducted over 100 young women from their school. Why abduct school girls? Whatever they plan, they should be ready to face the wrath of Nigerian people. They should release these young girls unharmed. Anything else would be an abominable crime.

    We all must take close heed at this moment and recognize the severity of what is upon us. A small minority seeks to bring the nation to its knees through terror. Thus, we must stand tall and united. We can ill afford to allow their crimes to go unpublished united.

    I call on the government to improve and redefine its strategy in the light of this expanding menace.  Clearly, its intelligence gathering needs to be improved so that it can break terrorist plots before they hatch.  Moreover, it needs to enact greater social and economic reform in the blighted areas of the nation to win the hearts and minds of the people.  Give the youth a viable alternative and they will not be duped by the lure of extremist dogma. A major initiative with immediate and long-term strategies for mass employment should be introduced right away.

    Nigeria must and will overcome this scourge but it cannot do so merely by wishful thinking. We need wise and decisive strategy.

    As for me and my party, we deplore and condemn these and all such attacks. Those who commit them must know that the nation stands four square against them.

    While we are engaged in tight political competition against the ruling party, we shall not play politics on this issue so vital to our national survival and wellbeing.

    We pledge ourselves to the unity and safety of this nation and shall do nothing to undermine national security.  We seek no political advantage from this calamity and wish the present administration success in fighting it.

    We stand ready to help in any meaningful and productive way to fight this battle against evil.  We extend our hand and earnest offer of cooperation in this regard.

    Nigeria and Nigerians have suffered enough. Those who now lead the nation and those who would lead her must overlook political differences to find whatever ways we can cooperate to make this a safer, more secure nation for all.

    Thank you and May God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Kaduna, April 20th, 2014

     

  • Inexcusable folly

    Inexcusable folly

    •The attitudes of the president, his team and the military to the abduction of 234 girls expose incompetence and insensitivity

    Tears are flowing in Borno State. Tears of fathers and mothers. Tears from the absence of daughters abducted by militants who pass themselves off as the messengers of God. The nation at large is caught in this emotional pain and outpouring.

    Hours after bombs detonated at the popular Nyanya bus terminal in Abuja, the daredevil bigots drove trucks into a secondary school, the Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State. Initial reports had it that the young men whisked away 100 girls. Later the number moved up to 129. Newspapers reported on Tuesday that the number suffered from steep undercount. The real figure, adding 105 arts students, leapt to 234. This number came from the testimonies of the parents who are still at a loss why their wards sent to school under the bower of a government protection should be removed into a place they cannot imagine, subjected to treatment they cannot conceive and they could be wondering, in the absence of any clue, whether their girls are dead or alive.

    The parents, in acts of bravery, combed the now infamous Sambisa Forest, for about 12 hours in search of the victims. Their effort evokes heroics of parentage with the risk that all or any number of about 200 of them may have fallen victim to the familiar pattern of savagery of these dedicated hoodlums. Yet their story unveils a cruel underside of this society. They found no evidence of our military force in the forest. A state of emergency is in force in the state as it is in other states in the northeast. Yet, vulnerable civilians walked in the lair of the bandits without the succour of government sympathy.

    The whole drama of the girls’ abduction exposes the lack of seriousness in the war against terror. In the first place, the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, spent a day in tearful empathy with the victims in Abuja, his words bearing the imprint of condolence. The next day, as though a different person, he flew to Kano on a political campaign. From a sense of sobriety in the front of camera klieg lights in the nation’s capital, he turned to the feisty exuberance of a politician eager for the votes of the people. This is in spite of his ever ready denial that he has set in motion his campaign for reelection as president of Nigeria.

    Was it that the president did not understand the gravity of the kidnap of the girls, or was it that he did not grasp the agony of the bereaved from the Nyanya tragedy? The news of the girls’ kidnap was fresh while he gallivanted to Kano and danced to songs of politics while a diplomat was donating his blood to the victims. Yet the president ought to have empathised with the girls, he also being a father and having given a daughter away in marriage recently.

    To trivialise the event, the president spoke about how he spent money to induce politicians to vote for him. He said he passed the money through Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. It could not have been more absurd, more out of sync with the high ideals of decency on a day hundreds of parents were grieving over the disappearance of their kids and families mourning the deaths of loved ones.

    Again, the president travelled across the country to Ibadan to mark the 100th birthday of the Olubadan of Ibadan. Jollification and mirth amidst loss, deaths and tragedy amount to a lack of understanding of the integrity and dignity of presidential office.

    But it did not show in the president alone. Mediocrity in the fight against terror showed in the response of the Nigerian army. The Defence Headquarters reported, with evident glee, that it had recovered 86 of the 100 girls. It turned out that the army had emitted a tissue of lies. They had not rescued any girl, and the about 39 girls freed at the time of this article liberated themselves from the clutches of their tormentors. They did not need the help of their so-called protectors.

    This raises a big question as to what are the other miscues, blunders and dangerous games of corruption going on in the presidency and the military under the guise of a war on terror. We cannot continue to fight a war on terror as though lives are not important. A news report that N76 billion dollars was spent on monitoring technologies in Abuja with the whole equipment now broken and paralysed had not been denied by the Federal Government at the time of writing this editorial. This is a case where incompetence meets insensitivity.

    The president’s party moved a notch up in its absurd game when its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, said the opposition All Progressives Congress was responsible for the blast in Abuja. Neither the president nor the hierarchy of the party has cautioned Metuh. Neither has the statement been withdrawn.

    The point must be made that no party should take advantage of the tragedy from Boko Haram for political advantage. Decency and civility should guide the statements of all parties. The victims of the tragedies bear no faith or political fealty or tribe.

    This is the time for the president to show sobriety and roll out strategies against the bandits who work in the name of religion. It is not the time for frivolous politics and epicurean pastimes. Lives are being lost, students are not going to school, and businesses are impaired. The more the bandits succeed, the more our way of life is imperilled.

    We have noted on this page that surveillance must be mounted in all critical areas of the state. Every school in session is a critical area, and it goes without saying. If a state of emergency is in force, how come students writing an examination are not targeted for protection? We wonder what vision guides the prosecution of a state of emergency where obvious targets lie prostrate.

    We cannot continue like a nation of impotence when we can use military force backed by intelligence to monitor doings and movements of such savage cruelty. What we need now is not resources, but the will. The president must take the lead in attitude, example and vision.

  • Life after Nyanya blast

    Life after Nyanya blast

    Monday, April 14 has gone down in history as a black Monday. This was the day a motor park in Nyanya, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory was bombed by the Boko Haram insurgents. Many died and several others sustained varying degrees of injuries in the blast that took everyone by surprise.

    Residents of the area, for the first time experienced the height of man’s inhumanity to man.

    Days after the blast, residents of Nyanya, Mararaba and Masaka were still in pains and counting their losses. The Nyanya Park used to be a busy centre, especially with the Federal Capital Territory’s (FCT) restriction of mini-buses from plying some routes in the city. So, the Nyanya Park served as an alternative for commercial motorists.

    Again, the park served as the first point where people coming in from Nasarawa and even Plateau first stop to board vehicles for town. After the blast, the park has become a shadow of itself.

    Unlike before, few people are seen around the park. The park that hosts a market where people trade on second-hand clothing materials, bags and shoes was almost empty because people are afraid to get close to the scene of the unfortunate incident.

    Military and security operatives have since condoned off the site, keeping close watch on the few people hanging around. The park opposite it which has since been converted into a new park for the El-Rufai buses was equally empty as passengers who might have boarded the buses from town alighted from the buses and hurried off the park.

    Although security agents have since declared the area safe, most residents say the horror of the blast has been etched in their psyche.

    An old man Alhaji Dauda Garba, sat at the far end of the new park dejectedly, with few kola nuts in a tray which he sells, explained that he sells kolanuts in the old park in a bid to take care of his large family in Kano before the blast. He regretted that the blast has affected his means of livelihood as he could not make sells to take care of his family.

    He further explained that he was at the park early that day carrying his wares about. But he had become fagged out after going round few times, even as he said he had decided to go to the mosque adjacent the park and rest for awhile. He was just about getting up to return to his business when he heard a loud blast that seemed to rip his stomach open.

    Garba explained that most of the people who died that day didn’t die at the park, adding that there were some people who were across the park who died as a result of iron rods that flew from the park after the explosion and killed or injured them as far as the NNPC Filling Station that is more than 200 meters away from the Nyanya Park.

    He narrated about an incident in which a young man who was across the road had his head split into two by an iron rod. Also a motor spare part of one of the buses flew to the road from the park and killed another victim. He also recounted how the head of a woman that was selling okpa in a wheelbarrow at the park flew across the road into a gutter.

    Garba said: “My body is still weak since the blast and I still find it difficult eating without throwing up.

    “There were young people that push wheel barrows about or those that sell pure water, locally made tea or other things at the park, which are still missing. Some people are still dying even days after the event and this time round, they are unaccounted for. Some of these people who were affected by the blast left the scene after they were hit by objects only to die after walking a short distance. They had to be buried quietly without any official announcement.

    “Even on Tuesday and Wednesday, we still found some of our people that lay inside or under abandoned vehicles and died there. Some of them were not seen by the emergency personnel because they ran away from the scene in fear only to die elsewhere.

    “For instance, people inside the bathing house not from the park were affected as well by the blast. Most of them were killed inside the bathroom.

    “Till now, we are still searching for some people who are missing. Sometimes when you ask for someone, you will be told that he died in the blast. They all died there or are in the hospital.

    “The government needs to see the way lives are being lost in the country. They have to do something to save the lives of people in this country because they cannot exist without us and vice versa.”

    The Chief of Nyanya, Danladi Iya, Sarkin Nyanya who lives very close to the park said he was in bed when the incident occurred, adding that the ground shook and his ceiling and windows all fell apart from the impact. He said he was so terrified that he could not get up from his bed.

    The Chief, who said the blast, had weakened him pleaded with residents to pray for the country and go about their businesses without fear or intimidation from anyone.

    Mr. James Oche who sells rugs around the park said he was about 200 meters from the park on that day when he heard the explosion.

    He said: “I witnessed the horror that occurred on that day. For me, if this type of thing continues to happen, then I don’t think the country is any longer safe for me because, frankly speaking, I may plan to either leave the environment or travel out of the country because I no longer feel safe in my country.

    “We that do businesses here are not talking about our businesses anymore because my brother went out to buy goods this morning. Formerly, they used to bring the goods to us here but now the Whiteman said he could not come down to Nyanya. So, I don’t know what we will be doing now.

    “My advice to the government is to try to do something urgently concerning this security situation in the country because everybody is afraid. Right now, if someone throws fireworks (knockout) in the air, people will start running for fear. It is not good for people to be intimidated by his countrymen.”

    Another resident who identified himself as Levi Nwobodo said: “Everybody around here live in fear. Before now, the park was always busy with people selling second-hand clothes and different items. But now, everywhere is empty because people are scared of returning to the market.”

    A food seller close to the park, Rebecca Shehu said: “This thing that happened is really shocking because we did not envisage it. The government needs to take decisions about the issue because people are losing their lives almost on daily basis.

    “I can no longer sleep well since after the incident because the blast affected my room. All my windows broke and iron rods from the blast entered my room.

  •  Living off the fast lane

     Living off the fast lane

    They work hard, often too hard, just to make a living. They run fast with their articles of trade in their arms or on their shoulders. Their location is the highway of the nation’s capital. They must survive in a difficult economy.

    Abuja is filled to the brim with these set of hustlers who display their wares, be it toys, boxes of tissue paper, snacks or phone accessories. They meander their way through the Abuja traffic and they know how to get the attention they deserve.

    These hustlers are less in the city centre which has less traffic and more task force personnel chasing them about; they are more predominant in the satellite towns and metropolitan parts of Abuja. The most interesting part of is that some of them have got more creative and actually brought their shops literally to the highways.

    They are also seen along Nyanya, Mararaba and the Kubwa expressway where they caught our correspondent’s interest.

    Most of the traffic on the expressway begins from Galadima Junction but gets thicker around Phase Two. And that is just what they want, finding their way into the traffic and getting their business off the ground.

    As one leaves Dede, driving towards Zuba, on the Dantata Expressway, towards a military checkpoint for incoming vehicles into Abuja is a location buzzing with these hustlers. Here, they do not simply sell like others who stand by the road with soft drinks in polythene bags or containers with water dripping from it but they brought broken and abandoned refrigerators to the middle of the road to keep their drinks cold.

    They load the refrigerators with drinks, drop large chunks of ice to keep it cold while they only take few drinks to sell on the road while the rest stays cold. One of the traders Mohammed Lawal, a father of two who stays in Zuba, said they sell more in the morning and evening, mostly during rush hours when cars are forced to stop for the usual stop and search.

    Lawal who explained that they purchase as much as N500 worth of block that lasts for at most seven hours every day to enable them sell their drinks, explained that they decided to bring the fridge to the road to enable the coldness of their drinks last longer.

    He said, “The essence of the fridge here is to reduce the stress of going back and forth to get cold drinks; you see, there can never be any form of guarantee in go-slow (meaning traffic), sometimes, their ice melts so fast because of the sun and we are left with hot drinks that no one wants. Which is why we brought the refrigerators here, so that we can quickly sell when there is a go slow and rest under the shade of the trees across the road when the go slow disperses without our drinks getting hot.”

    Lawal complained that the solders for the past few days have not been giving them go slow which can be frustrating because it affects their jobs, he said that it is getting worst because now the soldiers are asking them to fall back a little more which will definitely take them away from their much needed traffic.

    He advised well meaning Nigerians to stop disobeying the laws by trying to avoid checks at the checkpoint which will not be helpful to the security of the Federal Capital, he also said that the solders need to be more vigilant and ensure they check cars properly because Abuja is the capital of the country and people from other places can easily bring in harmful things and in the process of the soldiers doing their work, they the hustlers will also have the avenue to sell their wares.

    Another marketer, Awalu Ibrahim explained when Abuja review asked him if he did not think that the trade was dangerous, “I don’t think it is risky because this first part of the road is three laness; when cars park, there is usually space in between for us, moreover we have gotten used to the road and know how to get between cars without endangering ourselves.

    “We are all young people and we would rather do something profitable with our time, by earning our living than beg or get involved in illegal things.”

    The hat seller amongst them who refused to be named or agree to be recorded, said that they have to always be on the look-out for members of the task force who always try to disrupt their business.

    He said: “Members of the task force are always going around, chasing people like us that are trying to honestly make a living, we left the town for them and came all the way here but sometimes they still come around when they need money but we will not be intimidated because man must survive anyhow.”

  • Minister seals off block of classrooms in Nyanya

    The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration has sealed off a one-storey block of classrooms at the Government Secondary School, Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja.

    The school building collapsed injuring six students.

    The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed gave the directive in Nyanya, while inspecting the site.

    The Principal of the School, Mrs. Ngozi Ezeh during the inspection, remarked that students were leaning on the hand railing of the cantilevered canopy above the main entrance measuring 1.2×1.5m when it gave way.

    The minister who was represented by the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Arch Reuben Okoya, further directed the Department of Development Control to investigate further to identify the cause.

    According to the statement issued by Asst. Director/Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Muhammad Sule, the minister immediately visited Maitama District Hospital where the six students that sustained minor injuries were taken to for immediate medical attention.

    At the hospital, the minister instructed the Education Secretariat to foot all the medical bills of the injured students and that the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital should give the students special attention.

     

  • Free medicare for Nyanya residents

    The Graceville Christian Centre, Abuja will in November organise a free medical programme for residents of Nyanya, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

    The programme, meant for all categories  of persons in the area, is expected to cost the church about N3.5 million.

    The Senior Pastor of the Church, Pastor Tunde Ayeni who spoke with journalists in Abuja on the free health mission and other activities lined up for the second anniversary of the Church scheduled for July 14 in the Abuja Headquarters, said foreign medical personnel will be invited to attend to willing residents during the medical show.

    He said there will be free medical check for interested persons as well as giving out of drugs for the cure of various ailments and diseases.

    Speaking on the second anniversary of the Church with the theme, Grace to Grace, Pastor Ayeni said with the story which started from a sitting room to its present edifice in Maitama

    Area of the city now, it is purely a story of “Grace to Grace”

    He said various artistes such as Samsong, Asu Ekiye, Solomon Lange among others will be on ground during the anniversary to entertain the congregation and other invited guests.

    Pastor Ayeni added that the church intends to embark on its Church building project and open more branches within Abuja and other states of the federation.

    Speaking on plans to also set up a State- of the -Art Studio in the Church, the Senior Pastor said the studio will give young artistes opportunities to record their works at cheaper rates adding that the studio will be equipped with gadgets that will make recordings very convenient.

    “Apart from engaging the youth, the church from time to time spend millions of Naira in catering for the poor in the society, “we give food items to the needy, we pay rents, school fees, recently, the church paid 1000 Dollars into the account of a foreign student in Malaysia to complete his studies”

    On security in Churches, Pastor Ayeni said community policing should be more encouraged as it has been seen to have worked well everywhere in the world.

    He said children should be taught to be more observant and they should be enlightened on the benefits of security.