The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has called on President
Muhammadu Buhari to resign following the recent killings by suspected
Fulani herdsmen in the country, including two Catholic priests and 15
other worshippers in Benue State.....
In a communique signed by its President, Most Rev. Augustine
Akubeze, and Secretary, Most Rev. Camillus Umoh, on Thursday evening,
the CBCN urged the President to stop presiding “over the killing fields and mass graveyard” that the country had allegedly become and choose the part of honour by considering “stepping aside to save the nation from total collapse.”
According to PUNCH Metro, the bishops, in the communique titled, “When will this barbarism end?”, condemned the increasing attacks by the suspected herdsmen, whom they said had turned the country into a massive graveyard.
They also described the killing of the priests and 15 parishioners
in the Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State on Tuesday as a
dastardly act that was “carefully planned.”
The communique read in part, “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?”
The Catholic bishops lamented that 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.”
They also noted that the rate of insecurity in Nigeria had become
an embarrassment in the international community, as the Catholic body
found it difficult to continue to give excuses about the continuous
killings in the country, where “a nation’s landscape is littered with
the bodies of its own citizens.
“We are sad and fear that the clock is ticking. The bomb must be defused quickly before it explodes,” the statement added.
It continued, “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.”
The bishops further advised Nigerians to be courageous and stand
for their fundamental rights to life and security, even as it faulted
the recent mop-up exercise by the Nigeria Police, “since those we pay to protect us have failed to do their duty.”
The statement added, “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.”
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