Police on Sunday heightened security in a mainly Muslim state of Bauchi in northern Nigeria in the wake of the murder of a Christian pastor and his wife.
“The situation is well under control with the prompt deployment of 200 police personnel who are effectively in control of the security situation in the area while investigation into the murder is on-going,” Bauchi police spokesman Mohammed Baurau told AFP.
The burnt bodies of a Pentecostal pastor, Ishaya Kadah, and his wife, Selina, were discovered on Thursday by the police in Boto village, two days after they were kidnapped.
Local residents and officials allege the couple were abducted and killed by some Muslims from the village.
Police have arrested two suspects, but the killing has sparked calls for revenge from some Christians.
“Christian residents attended church service without any incident yet but they are still boiling with anger over the murder,” resident Bitrus Kagama said in a telephone interview.
“There is an uneasy calm here,” he added.
Security has been beefed in and around the capital Bauchi, which has previously been a hotbed of Muslim-Christian sectarian clashes, residents said.
“There are more policemen patrolling the streets of the metropolis since Friday,” Bauchi resident Safiyanu Wunti told AFP on the phone.
Boto village is located in Bauchi’s Tafawa Balewa district, which has a history of Christian-Muslim violence. It sits on the border with Plateau State, which has been rocked by sectarian violence in the last six years that has left hundreds dead.
The village is home to more than 100 Muslims displaced by the sectarian violence in Jos, capital of Plateau State, in January which the police said left 326 dead.