The
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN ) has called on President
Muhammadu Buhari and state governors in the country to make sure that
perpetrators of unprovoked attacks against Christians and murder of some
Christian leaders are brought to justice.
The Christian body
said this is the only way the confidence of Christians can be maintained
even as it called on Christian faithful across the country to buckle up
and be ready to defend themselves against these incessant unprovoked
and mindless attacks.
CAN in a statement issued in Abuja
yesterday by its General Secretary, Rev. Dr . Musa Asake, condemned the
gruesome murder of a 42 year old Christian mother of seven children,
Mrs. Eunice Olawale, who was last Saturday brutally killed while doing
Christian evangelism.
It noted that her murder came just about a
month after Mrs . Bridget Agbaheme, a 74 year old Christian, was
murdered at Wambai Market, Kano, due to an altercation with a Muslim man
who came to the front of her shop to perform ablution. The Christian
body added that just last week , a clergyman of the Evangelical Church
Winning All (ECWA), Reverend Zakariya, was killed by suspected Fulani
herdsmen in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
CAN
said: “They attacked him on his farm, cut off his arms and legs , then
chopped off his head with a machete. Another fresh but sad news reaching
us is that of a Fulani militia group that is now on rampage, killing 81
people in multiple attacks in Logo and Ukum Local Government Areas of
Benue State, ” it lamented.
While commiserating with the
families of the affected people , it described as mindless, SinParties
of death and destruction of the Christian community in the country.
CAN
said the recurring decimal of violence and murder of innocent Nigerian
citizens on the basis of religious intolerance demands specific and
relevant response from all concerned citizens in the country. It
particularly expressed worry that the government in power seems to have
adopted a lukewarm attitude to the evils being perpetrated in Nigeria in
the name of religion.
“We pray that God in His mercies shall
comfort and strengthen the families of all the Nigerians affected in
these unwarranted murders unleashed upon the nation by religious
extremists.
The discrimination against non -Muslims in Nigeria
under the Muhammadu Buhari administration is assuming a dangerous
dimension that should not be left to the vagaries of time and
circumstance to resolve.
Meanwhile, a group, Christian
Brotherhood Association of Nigeria, has condemned the gruesome murder of
Mrs. Eunice Olawale, during routine morning evangelism in Kubwa, a
suburb of Abuja on Saturday, describing it as outrageous, barbaric,
abominable and sadism of the worst order.
The group in a
statement by its President, Ayodele Sunday, said it was appalling that
Mrs. Elisha, who was also a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of
God in the area, could be slaughtered while preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
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