Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to unearth the sources of arms and ammunition of the rampaging herdsmen.
CAN said the present administration will earn the respect of Nigerians only if it performed its duties by taking full control of the protracted security challenges in the country.
National President of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, who stated this in Ilorin, Kwara State, Tuesday, after delivering a State-of-the-Nation address at the 2018 Special Prayer Rally organised by Church Leaders and Ministers Fellowship of Nigeria in conjunction with the state’s chapter of CAN, said it was time the federal government woke up to its duties of securing the lives and property of Nigerians.
He raised the alarm that from the latest operations of the suspected herdsmen in the Northern part of the country, it was most likely they had fused with Boko Haram and become international challenge for stakeholders.
But he expressed the belief that the federal government was not yet doing the needful, such as exposing the source of ammunition for the herdsmen as well as restructuring the current composition of the security architecture of the country to favour all Nigerians.
He said, “The update is that killings still continue and our efforts are not enough yet. We have begun to leverage with all stakeholders within and even outside Nigeria because the killings have even become an international problem; it has spread beyond Nigeria to Cameroun.
“The herdsmen and Boko Haram, they are combining together and it is difficult now to separate the herdsmen from Boko Haram. On Sunday night again, they attacked some communities in Adamawa State; they rode motorcycles the way Boko Haram usually do and they started shooting and killing people.
“The major thing is that government must wake up; they have all it takes to stop these things; we have committed the resources of the nation, the management of the nation into their hands to be able to procure ammunition to deal with them; they have the intelligent services as you know.
“How do these people get their ammunition supplied? Why is the government unwilling to unearth all these things? Nigerians cannot be just slaughtered like chickens. The soul of every Nigerian is important and valuable before God.
”It is a shame what is happening and when we talk like this, it is not because we hate government but government must be responsible. Government will earn our respect when it performs its duties.
“I have gone to Aso Rock and presented papers to Mr. President on the issue of security architecture. We cannot sleep with our eyes closed when the security apparatus, as it were, appears to be in the hands of only one religion; when the apparatus appears to be in only one region of the country.
”It has never been like that in the history of this nation and that must be reviewed. And the security architecture must be reviewed also because they have proved ineffective.”
On the forthcoming general elections, Ayokunle warned politician against desperation for office and asked Christians to ensure they secure their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs.
He also raised the alarm that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was allegedly playing games with the process of PVC collection.
Ayokunle alleged that many of those who had sought to obtain the PVCs have encountered barriers from INEC and warned that such would not augur well for the image of the agency.
He said, “We have problem with desperate politicians and almost all of them are desperate. They do everything to get there as if everything depends on that. But, must they be desperate?
”Is it a must that you must get there? Are they going there to serve us? The desperation we see in them makes us to know that they are not going there to serve us. So let the desperation stop, for God sake.
“The election umpire must be a true umpire; I need to advise them they should not give room for suspicion. When people are finding it difficult to register; people go to their registration centres, so many times but they complicate issues for them; they don’t allow them to get their PVC, for what purposes?
”So the election umpire must be transparent and be faithful, otherwise they will become part of the enemies of the nation.”
Asked for comment on this weekend’s election in Ekiti State, the CAN leader said: “Somebody must win and they should not be shedding the blood of people. Because you want to get to a position, you want to ride on the blood of people?
”Our people should not allow themselves to be killed because of the ambition of one man and the police too must be very careful, they should not be aiding and abetting any politician.”
Earlier, Pastor Moses Akerele, state chairman of the Fellowship, had explained that the conference was designed to bring ministers of varying capacities in the state and outside together for spiritual updating and equipping, to enhance better delivery of their divine services.
