Boko Haram: Suspend all political activities, Christian leaders tell Jonathan, others

Worried by heightened activities of Boko Haram which has seen the group annex at least six local government areas in Adamawa an Borno States, Christian leaders in the region have called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the opposition figures to suspend all political activities to allow the Federal Government face the insurgents.

Thousands of Nigerians have been displaced by the activities of Boko Haram with residents of the areas captured by Boko Haram threatening to secede.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed 47 people and injured many more in a school in Yobe State.

At the end of a one day meeting held at Bishop Shehaan Pastorial Center, the Christian leaders, in a communiqué issued signed by the Catholic Bishop of Yola, Stephen Dami Mamza, Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, LCCN’s Archbishop, Nemuel Babba; Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria, EYN President, Samuel Dali Danti; and LCCN Bishop, Amos Yakubu, said Christians are being wiped out by Boko Haram insurgents.

The communiqué read in parts “The Christian leaders are worried over the recent takeover of six local governments in Adamawa State namely; Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South, and parts of Hong and Maiha Local Governments by the insurgents.

“We are also worried that the Christians are been systematically eliminated by members of the Boko Haram Islamic extremists. We are forced to believe that the whole attack is a deliberate plan to exterminate Christians living in the affected areas,” the Christian leaders said.

The leaders said many Christian parents and brothers are slaughtered in the presence of their wards and wives because they profess the Christian faith while all existing Churches in the captured territories were completely destroyed by the Islamic Insurgents.

“We reject in strong terms insinuations from certain quarters that the insurgents are mere bunch of trigger happy miscreants whose intentions are to settle certain scores with the government owing to the towering revelations of attacks mostly targeted against Christians. We are therefore tempted by these circumstances to believe that the whole onslaught is a deliberate attempt to exterminate Christians in the captured region.’’

The Christian leaders said that even though there were scores of non- Christians that were killed by the insurgents, the likelihood that the Christian communities are targets of the attacks is high because all non- Christians who decided to stay back in the wake of the insurgency are all enjoying normal life and going about their businesses without threats or hindrances.

The Christian leaders noted that the human tragedy and the emotional trauma created by the insurgency is beyond human imagination as hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons who are completely cut off from their ancestral homes and relations are now taking refuge in the Cameroons and the surrounding mountains.

They also recommend a change in the military strategy as they say the current approach appears not to be yielding the desired result just as they called upon all God fearing Christians and Muslims to team up and fight the insurgency and its crippling activities by providing vital information to security operatives to facilitate the process for the total eradication of insurgency in Nigeria.