CAN SAYS "CIVIL IS IMMINENT FOLLOWING BOKO HARAM

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. (Source: The Punch)

Realities: Seems we predicted that in our article titled "Will Boko Haram Divide Nigeria?