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Nigeria: Bishops ask President to resign


Funeral after 2017 Christmas attack

Funeral after 2017 Christmas attack

Source: Fides

The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign, after a massacre on 24 April in the village of Mbalom, and the assassination of two priests, Fr Joseph Gor and Fe Felix Tyolaha, together with 15 parishioners - the latest in a series of violent attacks on Christians.

The Bishops said in a statement: "It is time for the President to choose the path of honour and consider stepping aside to save the nation from complete collapse."

The Nigerian Bishops who are in Rome on their ad limina visit, express their anguish, grief and anger: "These innocent souls met their untimely death at the hands of a wicked and inhuman gang of rampaging and murderous terrorists who have turned the vast lands of the Middle Belt and other parts of Nigeria into a massive graveyard."

"On 3 Jan Fr Gor tweeted: "We live in fear the Fulani are back in the area of Mbalom. They refuse to leave. They continue to pasture their flocks. We have no means of defending ourselves."

"Their desperate cries for security and help went unheeded by those who should have heard them" the Bishops said,referring to the two priests killed: "They could have fled but true to their vocation they remained to continue to serve their people right unto death."

The Bishops accuse the federal government and its security agencies of being responsible for insecurity. "How can the federal government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wails of helpless unarmed citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highways and now even in the holy places of worship?"

"For over two years now the Catholic Bishops' Conference along with many other well-meaning Nigerians has consistently asked the President to rethink the configuration of his security apparatus and strategy...Along with millions of Nigerians we have expressed our lack of confidence in the security agencies which the President deliberately placed in the hands of the adherents of only one religion".

On 8 February a delegation of bishops paid a visit to the President during which they raised alarm over the security of the nation.

"Since then - the statement underlines- bloodletting and destruction of homes as well as farmlands have increased in intensity and brutality.. Today we Christians feel violated and betrayed in a nation that we have all continued to serve and pray for."

"If the President cannot keep our country safe then he automatically loses the trust of the citizens."

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