KADUNA KILLINGS: Onaiyekan faults CAN over call for prayers

January 7, 2017 by Friday Olokor and Chidiebube Okeoma

The Catholic ArchBishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has faulted the one-day national prayer directed by the Christian Association of Nigeria in honour of victims of the massacre in Southern Kaduna, saying Catholics do not take orders and instructions from CAN.

He questioned the rationale behind such orders by CAN and how they arrived at the decision, “because I don’t believe in praying on a particular day. I will say, pray that God will deliver us from this, not particularly on January 8, 2017.”

The General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, had declared Sunday, January 8, 2017, as “national day of mourning” for all Christians at home and in the Diaspora, and that Christians should dress in mourning attire; black clothes or dresses, on the said date to pray fervently for victims of the killings in Southern Kaduna.

But speaking with Saturday PUNCH in Abuja, Onaiyekan said whoever gave that instruction should have known that there is a limit to how they could issue orders to Christians using the name of CAN.

He said, “I do not know what to say about the present leadership of CAN because our (Catholic) church is not fully involved now in CAN. We were not even party to the election that brought in the new leadership of CAN. So, the only position that I can take now is to sit down and watch.

“I cannot tell all my members to come to church next Sunday in black dresses. We don’t get instructions from CAN; every church has its own rules.”

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Owerri Catholic archdiocese in Imo State, Anthony Obinna, has alleged that the continued killings in Southern Kaduna were to intimidate Christians and wipe out Christianity from the country.

Speaking at a thanksgiving service in Okwu community recently, Obinna urged the Federal Government not to allow the crisis to degenerate into a full scale national crisis, which he said could lead to a collapse of the country.

He also advised Christians to be vigilant and pray for their counterparts in the crisis-ridden Southern Kaduna, while calling on former governors of Imo and Abia States, Ikedi Ohakim and Oji Uzor Kalu respectively, who were present at the service and other Igbo leaders to work closely for the growth and development of the South East zone.

Copyright PUNCH.

A house divided. What do Roman Catholics an Muslims have in common? They both mistakenly think they have a divine right to be in charge. - GJW

We’ve paid some Fulani to stop killings in Southern Kaduna – El-Rufai

© 2017 Vanguard Media Limited, Nigeria By Taboola December 3, 2016
'Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has said his government has traced some violent, aggrieved Fulani to their countries and paid them to stop the killings of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of their communities saying that the renewed violence is carried out by bandits.
El-Rufai made this known while fielding questions from some select Journalists in his office in Kaduna.
Mallam El- Rufai
He said: “For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle.
“So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.'

My friend says, 'The Governor albeit his forked tongue spokespeople have since issued lying rejoinders refuting the above...'Wanting compensation for cattle lost not people killed rings true. Fulani are known to stop their migration for a cow to calve but not for a child to be born. This seems to me a very one-sided report. Where is the report of Fulani cattle destroying Christian's crops?' Fulani governor takes action. Enough said.