CAN protests, prays against kidnapping, killings in Kaduna

HURIWA slams govt for failure to rescue 39 students

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna State has embarked on prayer and protest against kidnapping and other crimes by armed bandits across the country, saying that the government has failed in its constitutional duty to protect the citizens.

Kaduna CAN led by the state chairman, Rev. Joseph Hayab, accused President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, of playing politics with the lives of Nigerians in the hands of the bandits. He urged the government to step up military actions to end terrorism in the country.

This was as Christians converged on the Albarka Fellowship Baptist Church, Kaduna, to denounce the handling of security by the government, in the face of terrorism.

Addressing the gathering, Hayab said: “Our governor has failed us in the state for allowing kidnappers to abduct innocent citizens at will without any effort to rescue them.

“We still have 39 students in captivity for several weeks now. Just this weekend, eight members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) were kidnapped and the kidnappers are demanding N50 million ransom. The government should wake up and save the lives of Nigerians.”

HUMAN Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has stated that the inability or unwillingness to rescue the 39 Kaduna College students abducted by terrorists two weeks ago signposts imminent collapse of the government.  

The National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated yesterday in Abuja that the abduction of eight members of RCCG in Kaduna showed that the state “has become the hotbed of religious intolerance.”

In a statement made available to The Guardian yesterday, HURIWA alleged that the Kaduna government encouraged Islamic extremists to keep attacking Christians of Southern Kaduna following the decision of the powers-that-be to ensure that the heads of the three arms of government in the state were Muslims to the detriment of other religions.  

According to the group, it is possible that Islamic jihadist terror cells are active in Kaduna and have upped their attacks on Christian communities in Southern Kaduna.  

HURIWA recalled that around March 20, 2021, gunmen raided a college in North West Nigeria and kidnapped 39 students, in the latest mass abduction targeting a school. It recalled that the gang stormed the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Mando, Kaduna State, about 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, shooting indiscriminately before taking the students.

The Kaduna College was said to have about 300 male and female students at the time of the abduction.  

“Government has lost control and the only option left is for the entire machinery of government to resign en masse, so that another election is organised to bring incompetent people or President Muhammadu Buhari should dismiss his National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd.), for inability to offer a workable solution to the security issue.