A group of Muslim youths, on Friday attacked St. Philips
Catholic Parish, Baki Iku, very
close to Zuma Rock in Niger State. According to
eyewitnesses, some Catholics had gone to the church to pray and were attacked
by the Muslims who claimed that Friday is their day of prayer and that the
Church only has right to worship on Sundays.
Information gathered from eyewitnesses said, they were
destroying the Church properties: the doors and the windows. Some soldiers
managed to get there later but a lot of harms have been done to the building,
while the Christians ran away in different directions to avoid being killed. It
should be recalled that Alhaji Kabiru Sokoto had on Christmas day four years
ago (December 25 20111) detonated a bomb that killed over 200 Catholics and
passersby at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, close to St. Philips that was
destroyed. Rev Fr. Luka Sylvester Gopep, the Vicar-General of the Diocese
confirmed the incident.
He said, "Sometime around 2pm, some Muslim youths in
their hundreds left their Mosque after their Friday Jumat prayer and rushed to
the Church premises, climbed the wall and destroyed everything in the Church:
the windows, the alter, musical instruments, the chapel. "The security man
in the church premises was beaten to pulp. Some women who were holding a prayer
meeting were chased away. The seminarian who is resident in the premises was
also beaten up and chased away." Just last week, Mrs Eunice Olawale
Elisha, a mobile preacher of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was
killed by some fanatical Muslims in Kubwa, FCT.
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