Following the
recent killings of two Catholic priests and other worshippers in Benue State by suspected Fulani herdsmen the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign.
The CBCN urged President Buhari to choose the part of honour by “stepping aside to save the nation from total collapse.”
The CBCN made the call in a communique signed by its President, Most
Rev. Augustine Akubeze, and Secretary, Most Rev. Camillus Umoh on
Thursday.
The bishops, in the communique titled, “When will this barbarism
end?” condemned the incessant attacks by the suspected herdsmen, whom
they said had turned the country into a massive graveyard.
They also noted that the rate of insecurity in Nigeria had become an
embarrassment in the international community while describing the
killing of the priests in the Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue
State on Tuesday as being “carefully planned.”
The communique read “That our two priests, Fr. Joseph Gor and Fr.
Felix Tyolaha, along with their parishioners were waylaid in the course
of the celebration of the Holy Mass early in the morning, suggests very
clearly that their murder was carefully planned. This wicked act cannot
be said to be a revenge attack (as is often claimed).
“Whom have these priests attacked? Indeed, we have just discovered
that on January 3, this year, Fr. Gor tweeted, ‘We are living in fear.
The Fulani are still around here in Mbalom (where they (priests) were
killed). They refuse to go. They still go grazing around. No weapons to
defend ourselves.’
“Their desperate cries for security and help went unheeded by those
who should have heard them. They could have fled but, true to their
vocation, they remained to continue to serve their God unto death.
“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.
“But defend themselves with what? The Federal Government, whose
primary responsibility it is to protect lives, for its part alleges that
those who ask the people to defend themselves are inciting them to take
the laws into their own hands. But how can the Federal Government stand
back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the
cries and waillings of helpless and harmless citizens who remain sitting
ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in sacred places of
worship?
“In spite of several calls on the President in the last two years to
reconfigure his security apparatus and strategy, which the President has
deliberately placed in the hands of the adherents of only one religion
and the lack of confidence expressed by the CBCN in the security
agencies, the bloodletting and destruction of homes and farmlands had
increased with intensity and brutality.
“We are sad and fear that the clock is ticking. The bomb must be defused quickly before it explodes.
“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.
“It is clear to the nation that he has failed in his primary duty of
protecting the lives of the Nigerian citizens. Whether this failure is
due to inability to perform or lack of political will, it is time for
him to choose the part of honour and consider stepping aside to save the
nation from total collapse.
“Government should encourage and empower citizens to secure
themselves and their environments. This is not the time to disarm people
with legally procured weapons of self defence.
“These are not normal times, since those we pay to protect us have
failed to do their duty. Nigeria can return to normal times, if we put
our heads together with sincerity.”
Suspected oil thieves took to their heels and abandoned about 1.8
million litres of crude oil believed to have been stolen from pipelines,
the Nigerian Navy has said.The Executive Officer, Nigerian Navy Ship
(NNS) Pathfinder, Capt. Victor Choji, showed the seized crude oil to
newsmen on Friday in Onne, Rivers
