‘Curbing insecurity must start with protection of worship places’

Terrorists destroy 13,000 churches, 25,000 mosques in Nigeria, says IDFP co-chair
Church decries unlawful arrest of members, seeks IGP’s intervention

inscurity

It argued that worship centres were holy sites and as such should remain safe heavens for worshippers, protected under the principles of religious freedom.

Co-Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Kunle Ishaq, revealed that records have shown that terrorists have destroyed or partially damaged no fewer than 13,000 churches and 25,000 mosques as at the last count

Ishaq stated this while speaking at a workshop on the protection of holy sites organised by the IDFP in collaboration with the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) in Abuja.

He noted that Christian and Muslim communities were facing insecurity, exacerbated by incessant killings and maiming of religious adherents, adding that the situation had degenerated into the destruction of places of worship and worshippers.

“Muslims and Christians now join to protect the monuments in places like Kaduna, Kano and Maidugiri. Muslims go to churches to ensure that they are not burnt down, just as Christians do the same to their Muslim counterparts,” he said.

Also speaking, the Co-Chairman of the forum, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, lamented that freedom of worship was being violated when people desecrate worship places and waste lives amid huge collateral damage.

“Globally, we are seeing a rising wave of religious intolerance, which has led to violence targeting worshippers of different faiths. Muslims have been killed in mosques and their religious sites vandalised.

“In the same way, many Christians have been killed during prayers and their churches set ablaze. In the face of the tragedies, our cultural heritage has been affected because, for most people, their religious beliefs and form of worship remain their core identification and heritage,” he added.

On his part, National Chief Imam of Al-Habiyyah Islamic Society, Fuad Adeyemi, lamented that poor and insensitive government has been a major cause of the crisis that leads to the destruction of worship places in the country despite their being holy sites.

MEANWHILE, representatives of the Laity of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Western Nigerian Union Conference (WNUC) have urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Alkali Usman Baba, to prevail on officers to stop harassing, intimidating and illegally arresting pastors and members of the Church. 

They also urged the IGP to rather investigate church officials who have been inviting the policemen to arrest church members on allegations and be prosecuted for giving false information to the police.
 
In a communiqué signed by eight representatives of the Laity of the Church from Lagos, Friday Aniekan (Ogun); Prof. Oluseyi Oduyoye (Ondo); Kunle Falade (Osun); Adediran Emmanuel (Kwara) and Folorunsho Ako (Delta), among others, they described killings and attacks on religious places as a “very sad experience.”