{"id":28512,"date":"2018-05-02T08:55:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T08:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=28512"},"modified":"2018-05-02T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T09:00:24","slug":"nigeria-bishops-demand-that-president-acts-to-end-violence-or-resign-john-pontifax-acn-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/02\/nigeria-bishops-demand-that-president-acts-to-end-violence-or-resign-john-pontifax-acn-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"NIGERIA: Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign &#8211; John Pontifax &#8211; ACN UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nigeria\u2019s bishops have issued a formal statement calling on the President to \u201cconsider stepping aside\u201d and accusing the government of security failures which they blame for the murder of 17 Christians including two priests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Condemning the \u201crampaging and murderous terrorists\u201d, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) issued a formal statement, asking: \u201c\u2026how can the federal government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wails of helpless and armless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in their sacred places of worship?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Writing in bold typeface, the bishops stressed: \u201c\u2026it is time for [Nigeria\u2019s President Mudammadu Buhari] to choose the part of honour and consider stepping aside to save the nation from total collapse.\u201d Accusing the President of ignoring repeated calls to step up security, the bishops assert: \u201cHe should no longer continue to preside over the killing fields and mass graveyard that our country has become.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Written in the wake of the funeral Mass killings, which took place last Tuesday (24<sup>th<\/sup> April), the bishops assert that they have lost confidence in the country\u2019s security apparatus. In their statement, the bishops declare: \u201cFaced with these dark clouds of fear and anxiety, our people are daily being told to defend themselves. But defend themselves with what?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The statement notes that the \u201cgovernment should encourage and empower citizens to secure themselves and their environments. This is not the time to disarm people with legally procured weapons of self-defence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The CBCN statement reports that, back in January, Father Gor, one of the priests killed last Tuesday, had warned about the continuing threat posed by Fulani herdsmen of whom he said: \u201c\u2018They still go grazing around. No weapons to defend ourselves.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Highlighting security concerns across Nigeria\u2019s Middle-Belt, Father Alexander Yeyock, parish priest of St John\u2019s Catholic Church, Asso village in nearby Kaduna State, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: \u201cThe concern now is that the entire nation should not depend so much on national security protection. Every individual, groups and community should struggle to defend themselves.\u00a0 This is grossly unfortunate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Yeyock\u2019s parish was attacked a month ago when two Catholic men were shot dead, an atrocity which took place almost exactly a year after Fulani militants murdered 12 Christians during the Easter Vigil service at his church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Referring to tension in his parish and across the region, Father Yeyock said: \u201cIn Asso, farmers go to farms in fear and in groups\u2026 Bereaved families have come to terms with the reality that attacks by Fulani herdsmen, [occur] frequently in Asso, but no place is spared.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Yeyock added: \u201cIt\u2019s again unfortunate that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are known by the government of Nigeria, those who sponsor them too, and yet no action is taken.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Highlighting that Fulani militants receive military training abroad before going on to target Christians, he said: \u201cWith the news of the current attacks, Nigerians have argued with the earlier narrative from the federal government who have very often told the world that it was always a clash between the herdsmen and farmers. It\u2019s now evidently revealing that there is more to it than meets the eye\u2026 It is purely a religious jihad in disguise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to reports, the Acting Governor of Benue State, Benson Abounu, said last Tuesday\u2019s attack showed that the security breakdown had \u201cgone beyond [a] farmers-herders crisis\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Murcadha O Flaherty and John Pontifex &#8211; ACN UK<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign &nbsp; Nigeria\u2019s bishops have issued a formal statement calling on the President to \u201cconsider stepping aside\u201d and accusing the government of security failures which they blame for the murder of 17 Christians including two priests. Condemning the \u201crampaging and murderous terrorists\u201d, the Catholic Bishops Conference of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NIGERIA: Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign - John Pontifax - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/02\/nigeria-bishops-demand-that-president-acts-to-end-violence-or-resign-john-pontifax-acn-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NIGERIA: Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign - John Pontifax - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bishops demand that President\u00a0acts to end violence or resign &nbsp; Nigeria\u2019s bishops have issued a formal statement calling on the President to \u201cconsider stepping aside\u201d and accusing the government of security failures which they blame for the murder of 17 Christians including two priests. 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