ABUJA, MARCH 3, 2020 (CISA)-Hundreds of protesters on March 1 marched from the National Christian Centre to the Our Lady Queen of Nigeria at Area 3 in Abuja to protest killings in the country.
Led by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) the protestors registered their protest against the kidnappings for ransom, and also mourned all those who have been killed by the terrorists.
“We are protesting against the brutal killings of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram and terrorist herdsmen who are invading peoples farm lands forcefully,” Archbishop Augustine Akubueze, President of CBCN said accusing the Federal Government of insensitivity to the killings of Nigerians by Boko Haram terrorists, rating its response to insecurity below average.
“The killing of God’s children is evil the failure to protect innocent people from the relentless attacks is evil, the lack of persecution by terrorists is evil, our government’s response to terrorists’ attack is for lack of better words, far below average.…we today embarked on a peaceful protest on behalf of over 50 million Catholics and over 100 million Christians in Nigeria,” he said.
“There have been too many mass burials, too many kidnappings of school children, of travellers, invasion if people’s homes, invasion of sacred places like church, mosque, and seminary among others. The several attacks and the loss of numerous lives are now taken as normal. Our government seems completely insensitive to the plight of Nigerians; a government that totally ignores the cries of those who elected it is set up for a fantastic failure. It doesn’t matter which party is in power,” he said.
Archbishop Akubueze said the protest was part of the CBCN’s religious obligations to speak prophetically against whatever stands against God’s commandment noting that Nigerians were tired of the government’s claims that Boko Haram had been technically defeated.
Likening the terrorist attacks in Nigeria to the killings in Syria, he appealed to the international community to assist Nigeria in meting out the same treatment it carried out on other terrorist groups in parts of the world, on Boko Haram terrorists to stop the over 12 years of terrorist attacks on Nigerians.
