Mass Killings: Nigerian Catholic Bishops Pass Vote of No Confidence on FG …Call for Protests

Matilda Omonaiye/

Catholic Bishops in Nigeria have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to resign if he has no immediate solution to the incessant killings by suspected herdsmen.

Expressing their frustration in a statement issued by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), the clerics lamented that the recurring mass killings by the suspected herdsmen have turned the country into a massive graveyard.

“When will this barbarism end?” the Bishops stated in a communiqué signed by its President, Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze, and Secretary, Most Rev. Camillus Umoh.

“We are sad. We are angry. We feel totally exposed and most vulnerable. Faced with these dark clouds of fear and anxiety, our people are daily being told by some to defend themselves.

“Since the President, who appointed the heads of the nation’s security agencies has refused to caution them even in the face of the chaos and barbarity into which our country has been plunged, we are left with no choice but to conclude that they are acting a script that he approves of. If the President cannot keep our country safe, then he automatically loses the trust of the citizens.

“He should no longer continue to preside over the killing fields and mass graveyard that our country has become. Repeated calls from us and many other Nigerians on the President to take very drastic and urgent steps to reverse this ugly tragedy that threatens the foundation of our collective existence and unity as a nation have fallen on deaf ears.

Still dazed by the attack on a Catholic congregation on Tuesday, April 24, Christians in Benue State yesterday suffered another onslaught which allegedly claimed about 39 lives.

More than 160 houses were reportedly set ablaze by the itinerant bandits, who began a fresh campaign on Tuesday night in the Guma area on predominantly Christian Tse-Umenge, Mbakpase and Tse-Ali villages.

Christian bodies have, however, called for a nationwide protest on April 29, to register their dismay over the persistent attacks on Christian communities.

CAN leaders directed all churches in the country to hold peaceful protests following the attack on the Catholic Church in Benue State that killed two priests and 17 parishioners. The protests also are planned to object to the continued captivity of the only Christian girl kidnapped by Boko Haram from Dapchi School, Leah Nathan Sharibu, and the remaining Christian girls abducted from a Chibok high school four years ago.

“CAN urges Christians in Nigeria to hold peaceful protests on the set aside date in the premises of their churches, asking the Federal Government and the security agencies to stop the unending killings and bloodshed in the country,” Rev. Supo Ayokunle, the President of CAN, says in a statement. “Christians are to carry placards with inscriptions meant to address issues about sustained killings, attacks and destruction of their property in Nigeria.”

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