The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor has issued what he described as final warning to the Federal Government to employ all available resources like other nations have done to stop terrorism in the country.
The CAN president, who was speaking during a news conference in Abuja, said it is clear that the bombings by the Boko Haram sect is not as a result of poverty but based on religious ideologies used to intimidate and destroy many families.
“The questions we have always asked is that in the 51 years of existence of Nigeria as a nation, who are those that have governed this country most? Most of them are from a particular section of the North,” Mr. Oritsejafor said.
The CAN president further asked what these leaders from the North did with the resources at their disposal in reducing the poverty level in the North.
Mr Oritsejafor said that the church leadership is willing to partner with well-meaning Muslims to fight terrorism in Nigeria.
He warned that the church will no longer remain silent while Christians in the North are attacked.
“The Church leadership had hitherto put great restraint on the restive and aggrieved millions of Nigerians but can no longer guarantee such cooperation if this trend of terror is not halted immediately,” the CAN president said.
No fewer than 20 people were killed while several others sustained various degrees of injury in last Sunday attack against worshippers at St Stephen Catholic Chaplain, Bayero University, Kano.
The multiple blasts were targeted at the early morning Christian worshippers at Theatre Two near Sport Complex, old Campus of the institution.
Attacks a national disgrace
The Kaduna state Chapter of CAN described the Boko Haram onslaught against Christians in parts of the North as a national disgrace, saying that the Federal Government must rise up to halt the carnage before it got out of hand.
In a statement signed by the Kaduna CAN Chairman, Samuel Kugiyat noted that the continued onslaught on Christians by the sect was a deliberate attempt to wipe out Christians from the region, adding that all political leaders from the region must act now.
According to the CAN leader, it was amazing that Christians in the Northern States were being sacrificed on the altar of the religious extremism of the Boko Haram sect, while their rights and privileges as Nigerians were also being deliberately eluded by authorities who claimed to be just and want peace in the region.
He argued that apart from the killings of Christians in the region, Christians in the predominantly Muslim Northern States were being short-changed as second class citizens of Nigeria.
Mr. Kujiyat said that the Sunday attacks and killings of Christians in Bayero University Kano and Maiduguri were a barbaric and heinous act of sheer deliberate wickedness and persecution of Christians in the core states of Northern Nigeria.
The CAN boss said: “Governments at all levels all over the country with their security agencies have the responsibility to protect all citizens, Christians, Muslims and the non religious.
“Therefore the entire onslaught and sheer killing of Christians with impunity by the Boko Haram is certainly a National disgrace that the federal Government must do all at its disposal to arrest before it consumes us all to which we say God forbid.
“Therefore it is our prayer that the Federal Government with its instrument and legality will arise and seize the opportunity to nip in the bud this ongoing cleansing of Christians in Northern States of Nigeria.”
