By CISA
KADUNA, AUGUST 21, 2020 (CISA)-The Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Antonio Filipazzi has challenged the Federal Government of Nigeria to protect citizens from violence, insurgents and other social vices.
Speaking on August 19 at a press briefing, Archbishop Filipazzi cautioned that the government was not doing enough to secure citizens.
“Although southern Kaduna is an area where Christians and Catholics are mostly affected … it is important to note that many Muslims are also being killed in other parts of the north, such as in Maiduguri, Borno State, where Boko Haram had bombed many mosques,” he said.
Archbishop Filipazzi advised the government to put measures in place to prevent its citizens from suffering instead of creating rifts between Christians and Muslims.
His pronouncements came in the aftermath of an attack in the village of Kukawa in Borno State by Boko Haram. Many of the residents had just returned to the village after spending two years in camps for internally displaced persons when the attack took place on August 18.
Voicing on the attacks, Catholic bishops in the Kaduna sate said “The dark clouds of violence have enveloped our land. Our country is in the firm grip of the grim reaper.”
“Two years ago, the military announced that it had degraded Boko Haram and we basked in the euphoria that Boko Haram was no longer holding Nigerian territory hostage. But our joy was short lived as the story has progressively gotten far worse,” the bishops said.
“Today, almost the entire northern states are in the grip of these purveyors of violence and death. In the last three years, we have witnessed the relentless attacks and ransacking of entire communities by bandits in states like Benue, Kebbi, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara,” the bishops said denouncing the loss of thousands of lives lost to the bandits.
The bishops appealed to the state governors to place the welfare of the victims of violence before the bandits as they try to negotiate with them. “Unless they are defeated in an all-out war, all appeasement by way of endless payments of our money will only feed their armory and strengthen their evil enterprise,” they said.
