Unic Press UK: The Catholic Church in Nigeria yesterday [Tuesday] embarked on nationwide protests against unchecked killings in the country, calling on the Nigerian government to discharge its primary purpose – the security and welfare of the people.
In an open letter to President Buhari, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins, said:
“We are very saddened by the fact that our security Agencies have not been able to put measures in place to bring the situation under control. Instead, the signals we are getting are that we do not have enough number of personnel to secure all the people of Nigeria. In the meantime, farmers cannot go to their farms, neither are they safe in their villages. We hear reports of the killers attacking the villages and feeding the yams in the barns of the inhabitants to their cattle. The height of it is that now they have pushed their boundaries to attacking people in their places of worship.
“Mr. President, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), in its most recent letter to you, posed some very strong questions: ‘How can the federal Government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wails of helpless and armless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in their sacred places of worship? Weeks later, we are still waiting for answers to these questions. Left defenceless, the ordinary Nigerians get killed while the politicians and the privileged ones go about with security details.” (Bishop A. Martins: 22 May 2018)
BREAKING NEWS 📰!
Roman Catholic Churches Across Nigeria Surge Out Today To Protest The Continuous Bombing Of Churches & Killing Of Christians By Nigerian State-sponsored Militia Killer Hausa/Fulani Herdsmen.
Despite @POTUS 's Warning, Killings On Increase#StopBiafraKillings pic.twitter.com/10NnxWDySg— Abuchi 2 (@abuchi_2) May 22, 2018
Today in Nigeria:
Mass burial for two Catholic priests and 17 parishioners slaughtered by herdsmen in Benue.
Nationwide protest by Catholic faithfuls against the unabated killings.
Why is it not in the news? Has the media succumbed to a Draconian regime that gags free speech? pic.twitter.com/blnGy5h9Ek
— Kelvin Odanz (@KelvinOdanz) May 22, 2018
Catholic faithful in Osun protest incessant killings across Nigeria… pic.twitter.com/JBUKCK7guf
— Sketch Online (@online_sketch) May 22, 2018
Thousands of Catholic faithful from the Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria today, May 22, joined their counterparts all over the nation to protest the killings of two priests and 17 worshipers in a church in Benué (state) by fulani herdsmen killers.@MBuhari has FAILED.@segalink pic.twitter.com/fPcDpNNUm8
— Adeyemi Juwon (@juwon2017) May 22, 2018
Two Catholic priests, Rev Fr Felix Tyolaha and Rev Fr Joseph Gor, were among seventeen people brutally murdered in an early hours of Tuesday, 24 May 2018, when their parish, St Ignatius Quasi-Parish, Ukpo-Mbalom, Gwer West Local Government Council, Benue State, was attacked by killer herdsmen during morning Holy Mass.
In one of the most brutal attacks this year, which occurred on 1st January 2018, armed 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.
