4th December, 2012
Last Sunday, the Christian community in Chibok, Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, watched helplessly as members of the Islamic fundamentalist group Boko Haram, chanting Allahu-Akbar, stormed the community and slit the throat of 10 Christians living there.
Not that the Islamists lacked the weapons to quickly dispatched their targets to the great beyond, they deliberately chose the knife to slaughter their victims to demonstrate the murderous barbarism in them. They visited on their victims a slow, agonising death, the type meted to animals in captivity.
They were said to have arrived the community with guns and explosives and started moving from one home to another, slaughtering helpless residents. At the end of their bloody raid, 10 innocent and helpless residents of the community were killed in a gruesome manner.
As if this was not enough, the blood thirsty hoodlums went on the rampage again yesterday at Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and Kano, and engaged security forces in a battle. Several people, including Muslims, were reportedly wounded during the attack.
We are concerned about these incessant attacks and killings of Christians and Muslims in Maiduguri and other parts of the north by these hoodlums. We believe Nigerians should rise up to defend themselves now.
It is clear to all that the government lacks the means to stop these attacks. Despite several arrests and killings of top commanders and members of the dreaded sect, the group continues to unleash mayhem on Nigerians in the North and Abuja.
Nigerians should not offer themselves as cheap targets of these evil killers, they should protect themselves by fighting back if attacked. It is when they do this that members of the sect will think twice before launching an attack against them. If the members of Boko Haram knew that those they were going to attack will fight back, they will think twice before launching an attack.