HURIWA petitions Vatican, U.S. over kidnapped seminarians
Want Buhari, el-Rufai cautioned
Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has voted to petition the Vatican City and the United States (U.S.) to compel Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the systematic killing of Christians in southern Kaduna.
The Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, stated that HURIWA also decided to call the attention of Pope Francis and President Donald Trump of U.S. to the coordinated armed invasions of churches and Christian dormitories by suspected Islamists and bandits in the state.
HURIWA disclosed that it had told the world leaders that both the Kaduna political authority and the presidency were treating the grave threats to Christians with kid gloves.
The pro-democracy and non-governmental organisation lamented the gross disrespect for the Federal Character principle in Kaduna, which led to the emergence of Muslims as governor, deputy governor and House of Assembly speaker.
“On the last count, virtually all major Christian denominations in Kaduna have witnessed dozens of attacks, just as dozens of pastors have died in the cause of these targeted armed invasions and kidnapping.
“We are not accusing the Kaduna government of involvement, but we are worried about the conspiratorial silence to these series of attacks. We have consistently asked the politicians in Kaduna to respect Section 14(3) of the constitution, which obliges the appointments of all ethno-religious community members into strategic offices. But in the 2019 election, the governor made sure that only Moslems are railroaded into the offices of governor, deputy and even the office of speaker of the Kaduna House of Assembly.
“The Four seminarians, between the ages of 18 and 23, were abducted recently from their seminary in Kaduna, in northwestern Nigeria.“Pius Kanwai, 19; Peter Umenukor, 23; Stephen Amos, 23; and Michael Nnadi, 18, were taken from Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna, around 10.30 pm on January 8 by gunmen. Police are searching for the four young men.”
