Lagos, Nigeria - Following repeated attacks on different Catholic Churches in the state, Lagos State Police Command yesterday gave directives to all police divisions in the state to beef up security around all both orthodox and pentecostal churches.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, said this while speaking with newsmen in Lagos on the raging attacks on the Catholic Churches.
Ojajuni said the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adewole Ajakaiye, has called on all Divisional Police Officers (DPO) to approach the security of churches differently since the armed robbers have made churches their recent targets and focal point.
He told the leadership of churches across the state not to leave the issue of security in the hand of God alone, tasking them to adopt a more pragmatic than spiritual approach to resolve insecurity questions in the church.
While conceding the fact that the police owe the country an unestimated responsibility, Ojajuni urged the church's leadership to assist the police by giving some useful, relevant and pertinent information whenever they discover some unknown faces in their vicinity and churches.
He said the recent attacks on St. Cyprian Catholic Church, Agege, St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba and St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja occurred like blue in the bolt, stating that no one would have expected the robbers to invade talkless of going to the extent of killing a priest.
Reverend Father Godwin Okwesili of St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba, Lagos was shot dead in the church premises on August 1 at about 4.45 pm by armed robbers who came under the pretence that they wanted to give one of the priests a parceled gift sent from the United States.
Another Catholic community in Lagos was on last Wednesday struck with tragedy as armed robbers attacked one of its sisters' convents, and one of guards on duty killed as rewards of being stubborn and unyielding.
The guard, Jonathan Owolabi, was murdered for allegedly failing to cooperate when the robbers gained access to the convent of St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja.
The desperate gunmen had tied other guards in the church to a stake but were angry at Owolabi's alleged uncooperative attitude towards the robbers, thereby killing him as rewards of his stubborn behaviour.
In a similar incident, armed robbers in a brutal manner stormed St. Cyprian Catholic Church, Agege in Lagos with iron rods, cutlass, guns and other dangerous weapons at about 2.am.