CAN President, Dr. Samson Ayokunle
The Christian Association of Nigeria in the north has summoned an emergency meeting over Monday’s killings of eight persons in Talata-Mafara community in Zamfara State and the death of a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Luka Ubangari, by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Unguwan Anjo, Kaduna State. The meeting is being called as an islamic organisation, Nasrul-Lahi-il Fathi, also condemned the killings.
The Northern CAN, in an interview with The PUNCH, said it summoned the emergency meeting to discuss the incidents and the failure of government to bring the perpetrators to book. The meeting is expected to hold in Maiduguri on August 26. Eight people were killed on Monday, when a mob set the house of a man ablaze for rescuing an undergraduate, who was accused of blasphemy.
Also on Monday, gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen killed three persons, including Ubangari, at Unguwan Anjo in the Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State. CAN said the failure of the government to punish the perpetrators would mean collaboration between government agencies and Islamic extremists.
The Borno State Chairman of CAN and spokesperson for the 19 northern states’ CAN chairmen, Bishop Abubakar Naga, stated this on Tuesday while answering an enquiry by The PUNCH. He said Christians would resist any plan to Islamise the country under any guise. He said, “Islamisation of Nigeria is not possible. Christians will never allow that, Nigeria is a secular country and no religion will dominate others.
“Christians have become targets of attacks. So, we are having an emergency meeting in Maiduguri on August 26. The government must take action and if it does not take any action, it means there is collaboration between the government and the perpetrators of the killings.”