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Death Toll in Jos, Nigeria Attacks at 218, including Pastor, Wife and Son
Protestors on their way to Plateau state governor’s residence in Jos, Nigeria. (Morning Star News)
(Morning Star News) – An Assemblies of God Nigeria pastor, his wife and son were among at least 218 people killed in Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacks on predominantly Christian areas near Jos on June 23-25, a denominational leader said.
Two days after the general superintendent of the AG-Nigeria denomination, the Rev. Chidi Okoroafor, reported the deaths of the Rev. Musa Choji and family members in the Barkin Ladi area near Jos, the federal government on Thursday (June 28) ordered the arrest of a pastor who organized protests of the killings, Christian leaders said.
The Rev. Isa Nenman, a pastor in Jos, was arrested on Thursday after the protests reportedly resulted in property destruction when he led demonstrators to the Government House, the residence of the governor of Plateau state, on Wednesday (June 27). Nenman is northern zone chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Plateau state chapter.
“Following yesterday’s peaceful protest by CAN supported by youth groups, the CAN chairman, Northern Zone, is in police custody, and there is a directive from Abuja to make arrests,” Paul Dekete, one of the facilitators of the protest march, said in a press statement.
The protest saw thousands of Christians dressed in black marching to the Governor’s House to demonstrate against incessant attacks on Christians in the state by armed Fulani herdsmen. Prior to the protests, Christians in Plateau state had observed two days of fasting and prayer on Wednesday and Thursday (June 27-28).
The protestors carried a placard calling for the government to “Declare Fulani herdsmen as terrorist,” and another one that read, “Ransack Fulani settlements.” The protests started peacefully, but after the governor declined to receive them, protestors reportedly tried to storm the premises, threw stones at cars and offices and chased government officials.
Killing of Pastor
The AG-Nigeria’s Okoroafor said the herdsmen in the June 24 attacks burned down the worship auditorium where Pastor Choji served.
“We received with pains in our heart the brutal killing of our pastor, the Rev. Musa Choji, his wife, his son and many other Nigerians including women and children, and also the burning of our church,” Okoroafor said. “The leadership of the Assemblies of God Nigeria calls for serious prayers and asks the government to do her expected responsibility by fishing out perpetrators of this ungodly act.”
CAN national leaders last week reported that 218 Christians died in the June 23-25 attacks.
CAN President Samson Ayokunle said in a press statement that the Christians were killed in 44 villages across the local government areas of Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bokkos, and Jos South, all in Plateau state.
“As the umbrella organization for all Christians in Nigeria, we are at pains at the tragedy that has befallen our members,” Ayokunle said. “We mourn the death of over 200 Christians slaughtered on the Plateau at the weekend, and we passionately appeal to the [Muhammadu] Buhari-led administration to rise up and put a stop to further killings of innocent people, including defenseless women and children.”
Ayokunle, also president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), said CAN obtained reliable information on the number of dead from June 23 to June 25 from local government areas around Jos.
“Apart from the total number of the deaths, there are still missing persons,” he said. “Many people also sustained various degrees of injuries.”
The Nigerian government should ensure that Christians are protected from further attacks, he said.
“CAN calls on all security agencies to wake up to their constitutional responsibilities of protecting lives and property,” Ayokunle said.
He urged them to be proactive, saying mobilizing troops and policemen after the havoc has been done does not make sense, and that a government that cannot protect its citizens is a failed government.
“CAN is, once again, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to replace all the security chiefs and the Inspector General of Police, because they have overstayed their welcome,” he said. “It is ridiculous and embarrassing that in the last three years, none of these criminals have been apprehended, detained, arraigned and convicted.”
This failure to prosecute is emboldening the herdsmen to kill the innocent with impunity, he said.
“We are approaching a state of anarchy faster than we can imagine,” he said. “Why are we following the footpath of Rwanda daily with these unprecedented killings and mass burials when we are not at war? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.
Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.
PAKISTAN – Christian couple lynched for blasphemy: the police accused of negligence
Shama Bibi (left) and Sajjad Maseeh, a Christian couple and parents of four children, were burned to death by a Muslim lynch mob in Pakistan because of a false blasphemy accusation. Shama was also pregnant.
Lahore (Agenzia Fides) The Supreme Court of Pakistan criticized the inaction of the police in front of the lynching of the Christian couple Shahzad and Shama Masih, accused of blasphemy and killed in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab, on 4 November 2014. On 24 August, the Court, in a case involving two accused of the lynching, strongly criticized the police for not having intervened to prevent violence and did nothing to protect the two Christian citizens. Five police officers were present at the scene of the crime, while the crowd of extremists who carried out the lynching was made up of about 500 fanatics. The officers are accused of negligence, while the prosecutor argued that the police tried to stop the angry crowd, but failed. An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has charged with murder 106 people deemed responsible for the lynching of the Christian couple, but justice, say Christian lawyers, moves at a slow pace.
Peaceful Angels – The story of Syrian Christians who suffer the ultimate price
The Christian village of Al Duwair is located northwest of Homs, on the Eastern Bank of the Orontes River in Syria. In May of last year, this peaceful village was savagely attacked by Islamic radical groups—including (Haqq brigade, Sunni Lions brigade , Jabhat Al Nusra, Free Liberation Army — Al Farroq brigade). See more
Recently, we have been in touch with a Christian brother who has been directly affected by persecution in Syria. He has suffered the greatest loss anyone can experience, his family. Below he shares of the fateful days that have changed his life forever. VOP is asking for you to please keep our dear brother, Kamil in your prayers. And pray for the much needed peace in Syria. Lord have mercy on them.
In many cases we see tremendous acts of courage, bravery and fortitude in people being able to cope with terrible situations. Sadly true as long as there has been a true war, but what has happened is a barbaric action which is probably unavoidable even by brave people.
I am not going to delve into the whole scene there which is becoming common and clearly known for everyone, but I need to shed the light on some of the horrifying facts which happened on 28 May 13 in my Village ( Duwair).
On that date, my village was sentenced to death and destruction by the militants who ruined every part of village and massacred the peaceful residents savagely.
They did not come for freedom, they were not liberators or cause defenders, they were monsters in the true sense of the word, bigots injected with contempt and poisonous sectarianism. With all bitterness the victims were my family, my father and sister,” the peaceful angels” as I would call them. ”Every time, I phoned them to Syria, they replied, we are Ok and nothing to fear, do not worry about us, no one would harm us, we are peaceful people”. They were the scapegoat of the killers who massacred them with cold blood then burnt them with full disgrace. Was the small village rolled into the vortex of destruction for political reason? Absolutely No, It was attacked primarily for the sole reason of being neutral and peaceful without hiding the fact that most of the locals are Christians.
Words are insufficient to describe the extent to which my father was united with his land and home. He did not agree to leave his home despite the ongoing violence, fully convinced that the current turbulence is soon to end. He did not know that extremism would reach his home to blacken the white and make the black darker.
Undoubtedly, my father was a patriotic man ,I got to remember all his talks when he was telling me that I have to return back home to continue my life in Syria and to care for our house who built tirelessly over the years and to water the olive trees whose leaves speak volumes about the hard work and determination. His story with the land is silent, comprehensive friendship, an intercourse beyond the need of words. Through the keen morning air, keeping time to the pulsing of the heart that is moved with the same eager desire—to conquer space, to devour the distance, to attain the goal of the journey. He entered with open eyes and brave heart the final stadium of the journey as he was always telling me: When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero.. He was peaceful as a dove, stronger than a stone, passionate than a mother.
Near the strong will father ,She scented the danger; it was not in her heart to fly from it—only to be prepared for it, and to meet it wisely, as a good daughter should do. The evil was close and silent as the tomb; not a leaf rustled, not a bird sang, Abeer disregarded every breath of anxiety and dismay and stood firmly with her father to say the final word .The words are endless to talk about the tender heart sister who became a mother after the death of my mother in 2009; her only concern was to take care of my father and looking after us even when we are away from home.; their only mistake was just sitting home peacefully?
Criminals came to extinguish the two beams of the sun, but let me assure you that their souls are still glittering like a rainbow in the sky and will not fade and die, for this reason, I would not say goodbye . God Bless their souls ever.
The unwritten rule of grief; Is it your turn to leave?
Aunt was killed by a terrorist explosion by the rebels in Homs Syria as on 6 March 14 .
Some people can’t speak about it, where does it go? The body remembers everything. Excessive amounts of time and energy are spent trying to remember conversations once had, create the statements that were never voiced, or imagine reactions never received. These are heavy bricks to carry for endless days, months, or even years.
Did anyone hear the song of death? I hear it every day in Syria; I hear it sang by my beloveds, the death ghost is chasing them everywhere, saints are followed by demons. Resting in heaven peacefully easing my mind but with conflicting thoughts that often leave much pain in a heart filled with agonies following their martyrdom. She missed them; she missed her brother and her niece and was her time to leave. She left quickly without a goodbye; she left with no remembered sigh. It can be more challenging to remember so-pleasant memories of the time you had with your family and relatives who passed away but the clock ticking hours and days to receive the shocking waves. Today my aunt passed away and May God rest her soul in heaven to light the way.
Most Death incidents help us mourn the loss of a loved one, how to cope with yearning, how to adapt to the emptiness following the death of someone so significant in your life that the mere thought of living without them feels incredibly overwhelming and incapacitating.
.I realized I saw her face today
.In the sparkle of the morning sun
,And then I heard the angel say
“Her work on earth is done”
I thought that she had left us
For the stars so far above
,And then I heard the angel say
“She left you with her love”
I thought that I would miss her
And never find my way.
And then I heard the angel say,
“She’s resting with your father and sister away”
May God Rest her soul in peace.
Egypt: 3 Dead as Gunmen Fire on Coptic Christian Wedding
Egyptians gather at a Coptic Christian church in the Waraa neighborhood of Cairo late Sunday, October 20, 2013, after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on wedding guests gathered outside. (AP photo)
Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo on Sunday.
At least nine others were wounded in the attack in the Giza neighborhood of the city, officials said, according to the BBC.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The unidentified attackers fired indiscriminately as people left the church. A man and a girl were killed outside the church and a woman died on her way to hospital.
Coptic priest Thomas Daoud Ibrahim told Reuters he was inside the church when the gunfire erupted.
Another priest, Beshay Lotfi, told Egyptian media that the church had been left without a police guard since the end of June.
Egypt’s Coptic Christian community makes up around 10% of the country’s 90 million-strong population.
Copts are indigenous to Egypt, their presence predating the Arab conquests of northern Africa. Egyptian Copts have long complained of widespread discrimination, persecution and violence by both the Egyptian state and Islamist non-state actors.
Anti-Christian violence has seriously escalated in the aftermath of the removal of Islamist Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, whose supporters have been accused of scapegoating the Coptic community, after its leader, Pope Tawadros II, came out in support of the move by the army to oust Morsi.
A number of Christians have been murdered, and scores of churches and Christian-owned houses and businesses have been torched, ransacked and vandalized in the weeks since Morsi’s removal.
They have generally coexisted peacefully with Sunni Muslims for centuries. The army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has been followed by some of the worst attacks against Christians in years. Please keep them in your prayers!
Newsflashes from the Persecuted Church
Violence in North-eastern Nigeria Increasing Again
After an initial lull in violence following the announcement of a state of emergency in three Northern Nigerian states, violence has been increasing over the past few months. Boko Haram attacked a secondary school dormitory in Yobe around 1 a.m. on Sunday. More than 40 students died. Although initial reports indicated that mostly Muslim students had died, Open Doors has learned that there may be some Christian students among them. The attack came just after the government, promising protection. had urged schools in Yobe to re-open after earlier similar attacks. Earlier this month presumed Boko Haram fighters in Borno, Yobe and Maiduguri set up check points and fired at motorists and bystanders.
At least 10 Christians have died in these attacks, including a youth leader of an ECWA church in Maiduguri and a medical student. Open Doors has also received word that a pastor and his son were killed on Thursday night in Yobe. Their church was burned to the ground. One eye witness of Sunday’s attack in Yobe told Reuters, “They started gathering students into groups outside, and then they opened fire and killed one group and then moved onto the next group and killed them. It was so terrible.” President Goodluck Jonathan called the attack “the creation of the devil.” It came just a few days after the school re-opened following widespread closures after militants attacked Mamudo School outside Damaturu and killed 29 pupils and a teacher on July 6. Two weeks ago, the state commissioner for education, Mohammmed Lamin, urged all schools to re-open and promised protection from soldiers and police. The renewed violence is creating uncertainty and fear among people,” reported an Open Doors worker. “It is intensifying an already explosive atmosphere as the government continues its battle against Boko Haram.” Nigeria is ranked No. 13 on the Open Doors 2013 World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians.
Colombia – Murdered Priests Buried Amid Community Protests
Father Bernardo Echeverry, 62, and Father Hector Fabio Cabrera, 35, who ministered in San Sebastian Roman Catholic parish, Roldanillo village, Valle department, Colombia, were found murdered late on Sept. 27. Neighbors reported to police having seen two men running from the parish. Investigating officers found the priests’ bodies in the residence they shared near the church. According to police and media reports, two men broke into the residence while the priests were celebrating 8 p.m. Mass and awaited the priests with knives. The murderers fled with offerings, a computer and an iPad. Local authorities convened a security council meeting where Ubeimar Delgado, governor of Valle, linked the double murder to organized crime. General Rodolfo Palomino, national police director, promised that his organization would not allow the snatching of this community’s most sacred members — its spiritual leaders. After the priests’ Monday funeral, Roldanillo residents peacefully marched to demand justice for the murderers.
In Medellín early on Sept. 28, disabled priest Luis Javier Sarrázola Úsuga was found stabbed to death in his residence in Manrique neighborhood. According to media reports, a woman bringing a meal to Sarrázola Úsuga entered his home, and saw an unidentified young man fleeing with a suitcase. The woman and neighbors found his body, which had been stabbed in the chest more than 30 times. Sarrázola Úsuga , 48, operated a charity called by its acronym FUNEPALIS, or Educational Foundation for Peace and Social Freedom, which served the poor in Medellín’s Carambolas neighborhood. Some media reports state that Sarrázola Úsuga was affiliated with the Anglican church. According to the Episcopal Conference, in the last 29 years in Colombia, 84 Roman Catholic priests and two bishops have been murdered. Open Doors Colombia notes that in the last year eight priests have been killed.
Nigeria: Easter Week Attacks Kill 80, Christians Ask For Prayers
ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Nigerian Christians appealed for prayers Tuesday, April 2, after Easter season violence in troubled central Nigeria left as many as 80 people dead and displaced some 4,500 others. At least 19 people were killed since Easter Sunday when gunmen believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders attacked the mostly Boko Haramin Kaura district, a remote area of Kaduna state, officials said. Witnesses said the attacks on three communities, including the Mafang and Zilang villages, killed many women and children. Kaduna police spokesman Aminu Lawan told reporters his forces were still investigating. Ataka Christians live near Plateau state where authorities claimed fighting between cattle herders, who are mainly Fulani Muslims, and Christian villages killed nearly 60 people in recent days. The area is on the uneasy dividing line between Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and largely Christian south.
MANY FLEE
Christians said that following Sunday’s violence, thousands of villagers fled to the nearby hills. Local government official Kumai Badu said in published remarks that some 4,500 people were displaced and two camps had been set up to house them. Some who returned later to assess the extent of the damage were also murdered, according to rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Assailants also razed several homes, Christians said. Many of those displaced by the destruction are reported to be staying in the local Amisi Primary School, as well as in nearby Fadan Attakar and Mifi villages.
“We request prayers for, and extend our condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives during the tragic events of last week,” “We also call on the relevant state governments to provide urgent assistance to the injured and displaced,” said Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, the chief executive officer of CSW-Nigeria.
MORE KILLINGS
The latest violence came after at least 36 people died and dozens of houses were burned in neighboring Plateau state when ethnic Fulani Muslims raided Christian villages in the week leading to Easter. The military said the latest casualties were in addition to at least 23 people killed in attacks in the volatile region on March 20 and 21. In of the latest incidents in Plateau State, nine people were killed and three injured Thursday, March 28, when gunmen believed to be Fulanis attacked the village of Ratas in Barkin Ladi area, police and government officials said. Emmanuel Lohman, a government official in Barkin Ladi, said that the assailants, armed with assault rifles, struck opened fire in the night while many villagers were sleeping. Christian villagers, who farm the fertile soils of Plateau, blamed nomadic “Hausa-Fulani cattle herdsmen” for the attack.
CATTLE BREEDERS
Muhammadu Nura, the state secretary of a cattle breeders association, reportedly said that Hausa-Fulani people had been killed in “reprisals”, but denied herders were involved the attacks. An attack and subsequent shootout in the Bokkos area killed 25 people on Wednesday, March 27, by suspected Fulanis news reports said. Two police officers were wounded by gunfire. Violence in the Riyom district left at least two police officers dead when their patrol was ambushed March 25 after at least 30 houses were burnt in the area on March 23, police said.
The attacks have triggered fears of a wider conflict in an area where thousands have been killed or displaced in recent years in a cycle of attacks and reprisals. Local Christians, who are mainly farmers, have expressed concerns that Fulani Muslim herdsmen take over land to store arms and prepare further attacks in the region.
“SYSTEMATIC MANNER”
Nmadu said “the systematic manner in which these attacks now occur indicates a greater degree of organization than has previously been the case.” The reverend added that the tensions require an “urgent reassessment of strategy” by the government “and a surge in the number of troops assigned to these areas.”
CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas told BosNewsLife that recent “escalation of assaults on villagers on the Plateau-Kaduna border, the consistent targeting of women and children and the mass displacement of inhabitants appear to be part of a deliberate attempt to rid these areas of their original inhabitants.” Thomas said it “is worrying that armed groups can still move freely, attacking for lengthy periods despite a security presence in each state.” Rights investigators have urged governments of Kaduna, Plateau and even Bauchi States to track down and apprehend the perpetrators.
Islamic group Boko Haram, which means ‘Western education is a sin’, has also been linked to attacks against Christians as it seeks to carve out an Islamic state.
(reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
Nigeria: Accused Rogue Soldier Fatally Shoots Infant and 5 year old, while injuring Mother and 7 year old Sibling
Tramatized 7 year old, Comfort shot by STF Soldier deployed to protect her against Islamic extremist attacks. Her 5-year-old sister, Nancy and 9 month old sister, Miracle were killed in the massacre. (Morning Star News photo)
TOROK, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – The Nigerian mother of three, wounded from the same gunshot that killed her 9-month-old baby, asked her bleeding 7-year-old daughter to pray for their survival.
The Christian mother’s second daughter, 5-year-old Nancy, also lay dead at the extended family compound in central Nigeria. The alledged shooter was identified as a soldier from the Special Task Force (STF). The crisis unit was deployed by the government to protect against Islamic extremist attacks in the area.
Lyop Dangyel, 30, lay in a pool of blood as her 7-year-old Comfort, shot in both legs, tightly held her hand. “Dear Jesus, please save me and mom,” Comfort began, as Dangyel silently joined her in prayer that their lives would not ebb away. Minutes later, her husband returned to find his wife, first-born daughter and 50-year-old mother wounded, along with the corpses of his infant and 5-year-old daughters. It was about 8 p.m. on Sunday evening, March 17, in the village of Torok, 65 kilometers (41 miles) southwest of Jos in central Nigeria’s Plateau state.
“The soldier shot me on the back, a gunshot that killed my 9-month-old baby, Miracle, whom I had on my back,” Lyop Dangyel told Morning Star News from her hospital bed. “He also shot me on my right shoulder and then on my right thigh. We were all sitting and eating together. Injured by the soldier too, is my mother in-law, Kachollom Dangyel.”
Lyop Dangyel suffered three gunshot wounds and lost two of her three daughters. Her oldest child was also shot and wounded. (Morning Star News photo)
Dangyel had just finished cooking the evening meal and had taken it to be shared by several relatives, she said at Vom Christian Hospital. Soon after they sat down to eat, they heard movements behind the kitchen. Her sister in law asked, “Who is there?” There was no answer.
“Just as she made to go there to find out what was making the movement, the soldier whom we all know is among the men of the Special Task Force stationed in the village to protect us stepped out of his hiding place. And then suddenly, he began shooting at us,” Dangyel said.
She identified the soldier as Abubakar Shuaibu. Police confirmed that they had received a report of an attack by STF personnel. A high school student said he was also shot by a policeman on the STF security team in the March 17 attack at the family compound. A media relations officer for the STF was not available at press time to confirm that a military member of the force was under investigation for the murders; the officer said to check back in a few days.
Dangyel’s husband, 35-year-old Dangyel Chuwang, told Morning Star News that he heard the gunfire from afar. “I was in my brother’s house about 100 meters away from our family house when I heard sounds of gunshots,” he said. “I quickly rushed out to find out what was happening.” En route he came upon a soldier retreating from the area, he said. “I asked him what was happening, and he told me he didn’t know what was happening,” Chuwang said. “I asked him to come along with me to my family house, but he refused. I left him and rushed there, only to meet my wife at the point of death. She told me that it was the soldier who shot them as they were having their meal.” He ran into the village, where a friend with a car helped to rush his wounded family members to the hospital, Chuwang said.
![nigeria_in_africa[1]](https://voiceofthepersecuted.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/nigeria_in_africa12.png?w=730)
The attack comes after several weeks of complaints that Muslim STF soldiers are carrying out extrajudicial activities in Plateau state. Riyom Local Government Chairman Sam Audu has complained that STF forces are responsible for some of the 100 deaths and 60 wounded in the area the past six months. He and others have called for the withdrawal of STF soldiers tasked with keeping Muslim, ethnic Fulani gunmen from hit-and-run murders of predominantly Christian, ethnic Berom people.
The high school student wounded in the March 17 attack was 20-year-old Elisha Dalyop. The student at the Government Secondary School in Rim (GSS-Rim) told Morning Star News that when the soldier began shooting at them in the house, he escaped through a backdoor. A policeman serving with the STF pursued him and shot his left leg.
“I tried hiding among cactus plants a few meters from the house, but the policeman pursued me to the place and tried killing me,” he said. “I had to break through the cactus plants to escape being shot by the policeman. I ran with my injured leg in the dark through the bush for about three kilometers to a nearby village, Wereng, to get help from a man I know there.”
His friend there, Daniel Danladi, reported the attack to soldiers on patrol, and they got colleagues at Tahoss village to come to take him to the hospital, Dalyop said from his bed at Vom Christian Hospital.
Wereng Attack – Three days earlier (March 14), Islamic extremist gunmen shot another Christian high school student at GSS-Rim, Davou Gwong, in his thighs at about 2 a.m. in nearby Wereng village. Gwong, also treated at Vom Christian Hospital, told Morning Star News that he and others from his village were keeping watch for their community as Muslim gunmen struck twice there last year.
“At about 2 a.m., we heard movements by some unknown persons towards us. So, we asked to know who was approaching us,” he said. “The response we got from the dark was, ‘Allahu Akbar [God is greater],’ and then gunshots fired at us. I was hit by a bullet on my thighs, but my colleagues escaped unhurt. The attackers retreated after they sensed that we knew they were in our village.”
Previous attacks on Wereng village took place in December and July. An elderly man with eight children, Danburang Tengwom, was killed in the December attack, Gwong said. Wereng village is about 12 kilometers (eight miles) from Riyom town, southwest of Jos.
Torok and Wereng are both predominantly Christian, with all believers belonging to the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN). The Rev. Dr. Obed Dashan, general secretary of COCIN, told Morning Star News the denomination was very worried that attacks on their members have not abated in spite of the presence of security agencies in Christian villages.
“How can security agents sent to these villages turn their guns on the very people they are expected to protect?” he said. “We have heard that Muslim terrorists of the Boko Haram sect have infiltrated all security agencies. And we now hear of Muslim soldiers attacking Christian communities and killing members of our churches – this to us is not a surprise. Nigeria has no more security.” he said.
“There is therefore no doubt that Boko Haram members are in the Army and the police, and they are the ones attacking our church members in the villages,” he said. “What is happening is that there is a deliberate plan by Muslim leaders to destroy the church in northern Nigeria.”
Besides hit-and-run attacks by Fulani Muslims, Christians in Nigeria have also been targeted by the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group in its effort to destabilize the government and impose sharia (Islamic law) nationwide. Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million and live mainly in the south, while Muslims account for 45 percent and reside primarily in the north. Nigerians practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World, so the percentages of Christians and Muslims may be less.
Dashan called on the Nigerian government to investigate the involvement of Muslim soldiers and policemen in attacking Christian communities.
“If our church members in the attacked communities have been able to identify some of these gunmen as soldiers and policemen posted to protect them, then they should be prosecuted,” he said. “All we demand is justice for our church members.” Source
VOP asks that you please remember Christians in Nigeria and to keep them close in your prayers. These dear Christians feel as if they are in the ‘Last Days’. Incessant prayer is greatly needed for them now!
VOICE OF THE PERSECUTED 