The National Muslim Prayer Ground along the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Road, Abuja, which used to be one vast land where the rich and the poor mingled freely, has now been demarcated.
Worshipers who came for Eid el-Fitr prayers on Wednesday discovered that a portion of the ground had been barricaded with iron bars and reserved for VIPs.
The barricade, it was gathered, was done to prevent assault by miscreants who usually take advantage of the relaxed security before, during and after prayers to commit all kinds of atrocities.
The idea to barricade a portion of the prayer ground was borne out the security breach last year when President Muhammadu Buhari had to be smuggled out as some unruly elements struggled to touch him.
The President remarked later that he could have been stabbed during the rowdiness that resulted from the mob action.
Perhaps, that was why the President chose to pray at a safer Mogadishu Cantonment Prayer Ground on Wednesday morning.
[URIS id=29773]
- Story and pictures by Femi Ipaye
