HOLD ORITSAJEFOR RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY FURTHER VIOLENCE

If I was not born a Christian, l would have instantly considered differently the unfortunate statement credited to the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Oritsejafor, concerning his call for the arrest and prosecution of the CPC presidential candidate, Muhammad Buhari; for the violence perpetrated by hoodlums who were disappointed at the April 16 Presidential election result as released by INEC? It did not occur to Pastor Oritsejafor that such unguarded utterance could set the nation aflame, on religious divide.

Anyone who gives religious coloration to the violence that took place in some northern states should have his or her brain re-examined. A spontaneous reaction that even torched the palaces of custodians of Islamic tenets (in Nigeria) and other of Muslims, including the Vice President Sambo’s; a reaction that torched some INEC offices, yet persons like Oritsejafor has passed the incident in religious coloration. Why didn’t the rioters torch the house of the Kaduna Governor, a Christian? Was it not until the security agents started firing and killing protesters that some hoodlums went into burning of churches and mosques inclusive? The CAN President must apologize to Nigerians for uttering inciting statements capable of destabilizing Nigeria and our democracy. That he is a south-southerner (as me) on the side of our brother Jonathan’s win should not make Oritsejafor lose decorum.

I hereby appeal to all reasonable Christians and Muslims to ignore the utterance of Pastor Orisejafor as doing otherwise would create unnecessary frictions between their divides. Where were the likes of Oritsejafor and one Bishop Damina of a church in Uyo when INEC deprived Christians their Easter holidays by fixing the governorship and houses of assembly elections on Easter Tuesday; this denied Christians that travelled to their native towns (different from where they live) the opportunity of voting for their candidates? So CAN, under Oritsejafor, could not see reason to ask the INEC to shift the election to 28th April just as they did for Bauchi and Kaduna? What has been the reasonable contribution of the CAN under Oritsejafor in the religious crisis that continues unabated in Plateau and Bauchi States? All the members of the CAN executive should bury their heads in shame.

Chief Barnabas Osuanlele, Ikpoba Slope, Benin City, Edo State.