Catholic Priests of West Africa, CPWA, have in unison join in calling President Muhammadu Buhari to resign instead of seeking a second term in the office.
Addressing newsmen in Alor Idemili South local government area of Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Martin Onukwuba, President of CPWA, said that CPWA supports the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria for their call on President Buhari to resign from office for his administration’s inability to tame the killer herdsmen.
CPWA declared,“We support the stand of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in calling for resignation of the President which is possible, because Nigerians are tired of burying their loved ones whose lives were snuffed out untimely.”
“If the President Muhammadu Buhari feels that he is good enough to continue as President of Nigeria, he should stop the killings going on in Nigeria, arrest the perpetrators for prosecution, or he should resign from office.The perpetrators of the killings should not be shielded because they are from a particular section of Nigeria, or from the tribe of anybody in power.”
Rev. Fr. Onukwuba who is also the priest in charge of St Mary’s Parish Alor, said Nigeria is not fighting civil war, but the killings going in country, almost on daily basis, which has taken the lives of two Catholic Priest in Benue State is more than killings recorded in countries fighting civil war.
“In solidarity with our brothers, the Priests in Nigeria, the West African Union of Priests will like to sympathise with the Priests in Nigeria, honestly when we go for West African meetings, we do not hear the kind of horrible things we hear on a daily basis in Nigeria. So the President should arrest the situation or resign from his office.
“We are not fighting a civil war and at the same time people are violently killed as if we are in a civil war, so the President should be man enough to say I cannot cope, and all those who are in charge of security agencies should also throw in the towel because they are not capable of controlling the situation, they have failed Nigerians.”
“Nigerians are protesting, churches and priests are protesting, and what that means is passing a vote of no confidence on this present administration in Nigeria. You will agree with me that the number of people killed from January till date is more than 1000, and yet we are made to believe we are not fighting civil war.”
CPWA also called on heads of security agencies in Nigeria to stop all kinds of violent killings, attacks of churches and kidnapping of innocent people in Nigeria or quit their positions, as the confidence Nigerians have in them is fast eroding.
