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CAN asks Buhari to suspend second term bid, address killings

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, (Abuja) Gordi Udeajah and (Umuahia)
23 May 2018   |   4:25 am
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend his second term bid, and address the security challenges in the country.

National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Rev. Samson Ayokunle

• ‘Insecurity, a hindrance to Christians’
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend his second term bid, and address the security challenges in the country.

This was contained in a statement yesterday in Abuja, by CAN President, Dr. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle.

He said, while CAN is not opposed to the president’s exercise of his civic right by seeking re-election, he must suspend it and attend to the security problems in the country.

The association also asked him to ensure the release of the kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, as well as the remaining Chibok girls, and other abductees by the Boko Haram terrorists.

According to the body, Buhari’s ongoing campaign for re-election without plans to stop the state of anomie in Nigeria is scary.

He said it was making the people to believe that Nigeria had become unsafe for Christians and ethnic groups marked for genocide.

He condemned the killings occasioned by the criminal activities of the terrorists, herdsmen and bandits.

Ayokunle commiserated with the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) as it conducts mass burial for the two priests and parishioners that were killed by the Fulani herdsmen in Benue State.

He urged Christians to identify with the Catholic Church in its nationwide peaceful protest against the senseless killings in Nigeria.

Ayokunle also urged the Nigerian security agencies to rise up to the challenges, stressing that they have no excuse for the lapses.

The CAN president expressed dismay that the killing of innocent persons is assuming a global embarrassment, with the mass burial being carried out without Nigeria fighting a war.

He implored the Buhari not to forget his 2015 campaign promises, including fighting insecurity and keeping Nigeria united.

“It is disheartening to note that criminal Fulani herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers and other hoodlums have reduced Nigeria to a Banana Republic,” he said.

He enjoined well-meaning people anywhere in the world to “join hands in praying for the deliverance, freedom and liberty from this self-inflicted bondage.

Meanwhile, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has warned that the crisis-ridden situation in the country has become discouraging to many Christians.

This position was expressed at its ninth synod at St. Luke’s Church Amakanma, Olokoro East Archdeaconry, in Umuahia.

The synod also urged the Federal Government to disclose the whereabouts of Eze I.O. Kanu, his wife, Ugoeze Sally, and their son, Nnamdi, after soldiers invaded their home in the name of Operation Python Dance 11.

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