Unic Press UK: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria are of the opinion that Fulani herdsmen, a group of nomadic patoralists operating in Nigeria, have been infiltrated by terrorists and mercenaries given the widespread wave of horrific attacks on communities in the country.
The Nigerian Bishops, who are in Vatican City on a “routine visit made by all Catholic Bishops, ideally every five years, in what is known as an Ad Limina visit or “Ad Limina apostolorum,” gave insight on the state of the Church in Nigeria.
Speaking to Fr. Paul Samasumo of Vatican News in an exclusive interview, four Bishops of the Catholic Church – Wilfred Anagbe, CMF of Makurdi Diocese; Peter Adoboh, the Bishop of Katsina-Ala; William Avenya, the Bishop of Gboko and Michael Ekwoy Apochi, the Bishop of Otukpo – in Nigeria’s North Central region (a geographical space also known as the Middle Belt of Nigeria), described the attacks as, “horrendous, barbaric and satanic.” They wondered how deadly attacks which left thousands for dead could continue in broad-daylight unabated; the Bishops shuddered at how perpetrators of horrific crimes almost always escaped justice in Nigeria.
“The government apparatus is completely, as it seems to us, helpless, dysfunctional or deliberately helpless and deliberately dysfunctional,” said Bishop Avenya on behalf of the other Bishops present.
In a press statement last week, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria said:
“As leaders, we have consistently asked our people to remain peaceful and law-abiding, even in the face of the worst form of provocation. Today, we Christians feel violated and betrayed in a nation that we have all continued to sacrifice and pray for. We collectively feel abandoned and betrayed. Since the President who appointed the Heads of the nation’s Security Agencies has refused to call them to order, 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… It is clear to the nation that he has failed in his primary duty of protecting the lives of the Nigerian citizens.”
On 24th April, two Catholic priests, Rev Fr Joseph Gor and Rev Fr Felix Tyolaha, were among the seventeen people brutally murdered at St Ignatius Quasi-Parish, Ukpo-Mbalom, Gwer West Local Government Council, Benue State, when their parish was invaded by killer herdsmen during Holy Mass.
In one of the most horrific attacks which occurred on 1st January 2018, herdsmen suspected to be of the Fulani ethnic group, murdered more than seventy people in Guma local government area (LGA) and Logo LGA, Benue State, Nigeria.
