The killings in southern Kaduna will not end as long as
security agencies refuse to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators, the Christian
Association of Nigeria has said.
CAN also called on Nigerians to support its Trust Fund
because “it is the answer to the paucity of funds for operation”.
The organisation said without sufficient funds, its
leadership would not be able to discharge its constitutional responsibilities,
including the Save Our Souls plea from its members.
The President of CAN, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, according to a
statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by his Special Assistant (Media and
Communication), Adebayo Oladeji, expressed this feeling during the
just-concluded meeting of its National Executive Committee.
He said, “Despite the
curfew and the presence of the police and the other security agencies in the
volatile zone, the killings remain unabated. CAN is, therefore, calling on its
members to continue to pray for a permanent restoration of peace in southern
Kaduna.
“We are disappointed in the unending killings and the
treatment of those responsible with kid gloves. All of us should organise
prayers again and if possible with fasting to seek the intervention of God so
that this senseless destruction of human beings may stop.
“I think what has encouraged this type of carnage in
southern Kaduna is the inability of the law enforcement agents to apprehend the
criminals responsible for these killings and, if they were apprehended at all,
they were not conclusively prosecuted.
“We have heard these
days, the law enforcement agents saying that the criminals are “unknown
gunmen”. Whose duty is it to know them? Is it not the law enforcement agents?”
Ayokunle also
explained the plans being put in place by the national secretariat of CAN to
provide relief materials for the victims of the carnage in both southern Kaduna
and the Agatu community of Benue State.
He said, “We are planning to visit southern Kaduna to
distribute relief materials to the victims of the massacre there. We planned to
do this earlier and choose a date but we couldn’t go because we received a
security report that it was not safe to do so. We would also visit the Agatu
community in Benue State to distribute relief materials.”
The CAN President also charged Christians not to stop
praying for President Muhammadu Buhari, the acting President, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo, and for a quick recovery of the economy.
He said, “We should organise prayers, if possible, a vigil
at every state secretariat of CAN to pray for our country at a chosen date and
the FCT CAN should come to the national secretariat for their own. In each
centre, the governor of the state or his representative should be invited to
such a prayer meeting.”
“With the way our economy is going and violence is
increasing without much answer from the law enforcement agents, we need a
divine intervention.”
CAN also noted with dismay the destruction of church
buildings in some parts of the country while law enforcement agents seemed
powerless.
“Churches were destroyed in Jigawa on the excuse that they
did not get building permits whereas they had applied for many years without
being given the permit. Recently, a Redeemed Christian Church of God building
was burnt down in Dei-Dei here in Abuja very early in the morning. What shall
we do to these continuous provocations without any visible action by the law
enforcement agents?” it said.
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