Rioters Burn 84 Churches

President, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has formally released the report on the damage to properties during the last post election violence in the Northern Nigeria, saying that 84 churches were burnt by Muslim extremists during the mayhem.

Oritsejafor, at a news conference on the state of the nation on Monday at the Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos, South West Nigeria said CAN was calling on the government to rebuild the churches burnt by the extremists or compensate the churches in monetary terms.

The CAN president said he would not want to release the list of the number of Christians killed during the mayhem, saying that CAN had already submitted such to the probe panel set up to investigate the killings.

“We condemn in the strongest term the unprovoked post election violence in some parts of the north where hundreds of innocent Nigerians were dispatched to their early graves.

“There is only one way the Nigerian nation can arrest incessant ethno-religious crises in the north and that is by an urgent amendment to our statutes that will make host governments of such violence accountable for the mayhem,” he said.

According to the CAN president, “as a nation, we cannot continue with the culture of impunity. Without prejudice to the panel, I will suggest that governors of states where such violence occur in the future must be held accountable for the colossal loss of lives and properties and business premises.

“The National Assembly should enact a constitutional provision making it mandatory for the Federal Government to assess the extent of damage and deduct monetary compensation from the statutory allocations of such governments.

“Such deductions from the states and the host local governments’ monthly allocations should be given to the affected persons and churches directly.”

He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately summon all the 36 state governors and the leadership of all security agencies in the country to a crucial meeting where the governors should make commitment to maintain peace and guarantee security of lives and properties.

“The governors should make public declarations to ensure the safety of lives in their states. I consider this very crucial because the socio-political progress of this country depends largely on how we all, without pretence, can stand in brotherhood despite all our religious, ethnic, tribe, political, economic, social and all other various differences,” he stated.

Oritsejafor also called on the Federal Government to allow members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC to serve in their respective geo-political zones at the completion of their tertiary education.

He warned that unless the government could guarantee adequate security for the corps members, the scheme might fail to serve the purpose of its establishment, adding that “a close observation of happenings in the country will reveal to any discerning person that Nigeria as it is presently constituted is more divided now than it was in 1970.

“We are tired. Our people are tired of these killings of innocent lives in the northern part of the country. We cannot continue like this in the pretence for unity.”

He further called on the National Assembly to enact a clause in the NYSC law to make it mandatory for governors to guarantee the safety of corps members and that in the event of violence that took the life of any corps member, the state government should be made to pay huge monetary compensation to the bereaved family.

“The Federal Government must demonstrate the political will to deal with security issues with dispatch. All persons found to have breached any part of our laws should be prosecuted and if found guilty, sentenced to jail without any form of plea bargain. That is the only way there will be a sufficient deterrent,” he added.

Speaking on corruption, the CAN president decried the inefficiency of the anti-graft agencies, which included the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.

According to him, despite the establishment of the agencies, corruption had continued to be on the rise with Nigeria still listed among the most corrupt nations of the world by Transparency International.

He also urged the Federal Government to take decisive steps to address the power sector which had since gone comatose, adding that Nigerians are still awaiting the promises made by the government to boost power supply.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga