Kano state government yesterday said it had uncovered a plot hatched by some elements in the state to plunge the state capital into religious disturbance during Christmas celebration.
The state Commissioner of Information, Alh. Garba Yusuf, at a press conference, said part of the plot was to stop the celebration of Christmas in the state through burning of churches and other places of worship.
"This unscrupulous elements have produced and wanted to distribute inciting pamphlets, urging Muslims to abhor any form of ceremony by Christians during the Christmas under the disguise of Sharia," he alleged.
The commissioner added that the perpetrators of the plot had already started sowing fake police and Hisba men (sharia police) uniforms to be distributed to hired thugs, who would attack innocent people in a ploy to portray them as government agents.
Yusuf said the same group were planning to incite Christians in the state, to protest against the infringement on their religious rights in order to cause full blown crises in the state
He added that the goal of the sponsors of the planned violence is to instigate the presidency to impose state of emergency in the state.
He alleged that the group has recruited agents to sabotage the efforts of the state government during the impending Hajj period in Saudi Arabia.
Yusuf, however, refused to mention those behind the plot even though he noted that some arrests had already been made and investigation is being carried out by security agencies in the state.
However, security has already been beefed up in the state as soldiers and policemen were stationed at strategic locations in around Kano city.
The commissioner confirmed that the security beef-up was to forestall any out-break of violence.