The Christian Association of
Nigeria on Saturday said the
rising attacks on Christians,
especially in the North by the
violent Boko Haram were an
‘express invitation to civil war.’
The association said Christians
would be left with no choice but
to look for means of defending
themselves.
The association also blamed
Northern governors and the
traditional leaders for the
terrorist attacks on Christians
and specifically accused them
of not doing what they were
supposed to do to protect the
lives and property of the
people in their states.
After an emergency of CAN on
Saturday, the president, Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor, said Christians
would not make public their
strategies.
He said, “I don’t ask them to
carry arms but we have the
legitimate right to defend
ourselves. We will do
whatever it takes. We are
working things out within
ourselves; we are not
obligated to tell you what we
are working out, but let us
wait and see.
“Declaring state of emergency in
some local governments
obviously has not done any
good. Definitely we are going to
do what we have to do to
protect ourselves. We cannot sit
back and watch people being
slaughtered like animals every
day. This is unacceptable.
“We therefore as Christians have
decided to take our fate in to
our hands and have resolved as
follows: that we have decided to
work out means to defend
ourselves against these
senseless killings; all Christians
should continue in prayer and
be security conscious.
“We consider the inaction of
governors of these states to be
unsatisfactory; we hold them
responsible for the heinous
killing of people taking place in
their states; we will not take it
lightly. From the report we have
received, a lot of our leaders
even approached some
traditional leaders but they
refused to listen.
“We don’t accept this and we
believe that if Nigeria is for us
all, then wherever you are as a
Nigerian in any part of this
country, you must be treated as
a Nigerian, so we are holding
the governors of such states for
the killings.”
Similarly, the Prelate of the
Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr.
Sunday Makinde, has described
the killing of Christians in the
North by the Boko Haram sect as
satanic.
The Media and Public Relations
Officer of the Methodist Church,
Rev. Oladapo Daramola, said the
Prelate had warned that if the
violent insurgency was not
checked, Christians would have
no choice but to defend
themselves, a situation, he said,
was capable of degenerating
into a civil war.
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