Be Vigilant, Niger Govt Tells Indigenes

With the Christmas and New Year holidays around the corner and the claim by the federal government that insurgents could use the period to attack soft targets, the Niger State Government yesterday asked the people of the state to be extra-vigilant during the period.
The government therefore told the people to report suspicious movements and objects to the security agencies who have been put on red alert.

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, who made this known in a congratulatory message to Christians on this year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations, said people should take adequate personal and group securities very seriously during the festivities and beyond.

“We want to use this important occasion to ask the people of the state to strengthen their vigilance in this Christmas season and provide the security agencies with information on any suspicious act in order to have incident free celebration.”
Vatsa declared that government was always ready to leverage on the already established synergy with the security organisations in the state to provide security but stressed that the people have a role to play, adding that for the security agencies to effectively carry out their duties the people must be ready to co-operate with them by providing the necessary information on undesirable elements and their acts in the state.

Vatsa noted that though the state has always been peaceful, it should not be an excuse for the people to take unusual occurrences and people around them for granted because those who want to breach the security of the state might want to hide under the yuletide to commit crimes.
“We must expose the mischief makers and those who will want to deny us the peace we all cherish by giving the security agencies the appropriate information, we should do that in good fate not by raising unnecessary alarms,” Vatsa admonished the people.