BEVERLY HILLS, November 11, (THEWILL) – As the five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency continues unabated in the North Eastern part of the country, Christian leaders in the area Tuesday called on politicians in the country to stop all activities in the region and devote their energy to ending the insurgency.
Lamenting the attitude of the political class to the insurgency that is daily claiming innocent lives, the Christian leaders made the call at their meeting at Bishop Patrick Shehaam Memorial Pastoral Centre in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
They noted, in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting, that the suspension of political activities is necessary to allow politicians and other stakeholders face the reality of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast .
In the communique signed by Most Rev. Stephen Dami Mamza (Catholic Bishop of Yola); Most Rev. Nemuel Babba ( LCCN Archbishop ); Rev, Samuel Dalli Danti (EYN President) and Bishop Amos Yakubu ( LCCN Alheri Bishop Yola),the leaders lamented that while politicians were busy with political activities, the Boko Haram gunmen were busy killing innocent persons and destroying properties.
The Christian leaders, in the communiqué read to journalists by Most Rev. Stephen Dami Mamza, also urged the military to change its tactics of combating the terrorists, maintaining that the approach currently being used by the military appears not to be working.
Expressing great concern over the systematic extermination of Christians, burning down of churches and the occupation of six Local Government Areas of Adamawa State by Boko Haram insurgents, they displayed their opposition to the thinking in some quarters that Boko Haram insurgents are mere bunch of miscreants whose intention was to settle some scores with government.
The clerics maintained that Boko Haram insurgents were really out to exterminate Christians living in the affected areas of Madagali, Michika, Mubi South, Mubi North, and parts of Hong and Maiha Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.
“The reports reaching the leadership from Christian escapees from troubled areas have revealed that Christian parents and brothers were slaughtered in the presence of their wards and wives because they professed the Christian faith while all the existing churches in the captured territories were completely destroyed by the Islamist insurgents,” the communiqué said.
The clerics also lamented that the insurgency has assumed an unimaginable dimension with many internally displaced persons cut off completely from their ancestral homes as many IDPs are now taking refuge in neighbouring Cameroon and the surrounding mountains.
“We agreed that there were scores of non-Christians killed by the insurgents but it is not enough to convince the Christian community that the insurgency is not being targeted at Christians alone since it was no longer a hidden fact that all non-Christians who decided to stay back in the wake of the insurgency were all enjoying life and going about their lawful businesses without hindrance in the captured territories,” the Christian leaders said.
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