The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has asked Christians to defend themselves whenever they came under attack by Muslim mobs.
This order follows the murder of eight Christians in Talata-Mafara in Zamfara State and pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Luka Ubangari, by suspected Fulani marauders in Unguwan Anjo in Kaduna State.
Secretary to Northern CAN, Rev. Danladi Yerima, confirmed on Wednesday, August 24, 2016, that his group had scheduled an emergency meeting to deliberate on the state of the nation, especially as it affects the Church in Nigeria, with a view to finding solutions to them, Vanguard reports.
While appealing to the youth wing of the association, who are unhappy with the current developments across the nation to exercise patience, Rev. Yerima told the federal government and stakeholders in the Nigerian project to expedite action to arrest the growing trend of militancy in the North to avoid more devastating consequences.
Yerima said: “Nobody has monopoly of violence. We have been holding our youths from retaliating some of these unwarranted killing of Christians in different parts of the country. We are not happy and I think this should be the last of such incidents because let them not take for granted the peaceful manner that Christians had approached some of these developments.”
“I cannot allow myself to be killed or allow some other person to be killed because some hooligans see themselves to be more Nigerians than others.
“What happened in Zamfara is most unfortunate. I do not know when our brothers in the North would realize that life is created by God and it is sacrosanct to the effect that nobody is allowed to take the life of another person unless in accordance with a judicial pronouncement on account of an offence committed.”
In another development, South South CAN has kicked against plans to re-introduce Sharia law into the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, urging the National Assembly to ensure that Nigeria remained a secular state instead of funding one religion with public funds to the detriment of other religions.
Arising from a meeting of senior clergymen in the South-South geopolitical zone, regional chairman of CAN, Archbishop Goddowell Avwomakpa, who spoke on behalf of the clergymen and other stakeholders in the Nigerian project, tasked the National Assembly members to put the nation first before their personal or group interests, stressing that Nigeria needed no Sharia law in a secular society.
