News from Nigeria

This comes from a friend in Nigeria. I follow the BBC Africa service and four Nigerian news sites and I have not seen this reported.

'These past two/three weeks have seen a horrific spate of killings mainly by suspected herdsmen.  Benue State has suffered most and a mass burial has been held today, 22 May for the most recent killings, led by the RC Cardinal.  Similar things have happened in Kaduna State and Adamawa but not quite on the same scale.  Quite inexplicable is that none of these have been reported by BBC as far as we know.

Here is an extract from the Cardinal's speech: 

"The death of the righteous is in the hands of God. 

We thank God for bringing us here. Nothing is hidden from God. We are horrified looking at the 17 corpses that we are burying today. This killings must stop. One life killed is one too many. We do not need to take statistics. Killing people in a place of worship is the worse form of blasphemy. Oh Lord have mercy on us. 

We have every right to be angry and protest. But our focus now is prayer so that the criminal attitude of a few will not tear us apart. 

While we pray for these martyrs, we remember all who have lost their lives in the hands of the terrorists. May God console the bereaved. Vengeance belongs to God so we pray for the spirit of forgiveness. We pray for the conversion of the terrorists who committed this atrocity. When we pray for the enemies, we hand them over to God. May God remove from our leaders the demon of corruption and sectionalism. 

Only the seriousness of government can stop people from thinking that there is a plan for ethnic cleansing and imposing one religion on the nation. If we are united in prayers, then our brothers and sisters would not have died in vain."

We were also sent the call to prayer by Rev Dr S Bewarang who is the CAN Chairman and former President of COCIN:

"Today Benue will stand still as they bury innocent victims of wicked hearts of their killers. Thus the prayer focus for today and this week is that we would pray for those in authority for wisdom and political will power to do the needful. Let us pray too for those who are unjustly attacked and accused so that God's protection would cover His people. That He would surround them with favor as a shield. Pray fervently for evil plans of the enemy would be thwarted and truth and identity of the killers of innocent lives will not only be known but face the wrath of the law. That the mass burial will be peaceful and word of God will comfort the families, Government of Benue  and indeed the Catholic faithful in Benue Nigeria and the World. Pray that as believers, we would be descerning and quick to recognize what is real and lie. Be confident of Isaiah 54;17 and Psalm 125:1-2. We will continue to condemn what is scripturally condemnable trusting that the love and care of the Lord surrounds His people both now and for evermore. Have a blessed week and continue in prayer for Leah and other remaining Chibok girls.” 

It's significant that the Federal Government has banned the Media from reporting on the mass killing in Benue.'