Northern Christians fault FG’s response to carnage by herdsmen, Boko Haram

The Jos North chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) says Federal Government’s tackling of the killings in the country still not good enough.

At a gathering of mourners yesterday in respect of the victims in Jos, the chairman, Reverend Canon Nenman Gowon, prayed that the last Dapchigirl, Leah Sharibu, should be prayed by the Boko Haram sect. The teenager is still being held for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

He said: “We also want to cry out to the Nigerian that we, in Plateau State, particularly in Jos North, are being attacked by either herdsmen or enemies of the land. Right now as I am talking, one of our villages, which is called Mefarumesta, is a no go area. We cannot go there and worship again. We have a church there but we cannot go there to worship. We are crying on to the Lord and we are crying on to the world to see the shame and the disgrace that we are in.”

Asked the next of action in the face of the unabated killings amid supplications by faithful, Gowon pledged that they would not cease from praying, instead the exercise would be intensified.

He stated that government’s efforts at containing the mayhem were not enough, urging the current administration to beef up security on the Plateau and other troubled spots.

“Jos North is as lawless as any other vulnerable state in the country,” the cleric added.

On Leah, he called on the government to do everything possible to secure her freedom. “If many people were released through negotiation, what happens to the only one person that is still there? We need her to be released.”