Our hearts bleed because of unabating bloodshed in Nigeria-Bishops
Bishops in Nigeria say their hearts bleed following the unabating bloodshed in the country.
They condemned the bloodshed of innocent citizens by fundamentalists without any recourse to justice for victims.
Both the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Bishops from Northern Nigeria who met at different fora in Abuja, Tuesday, condemned the continued killings in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, declared that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed the citizenry, following the increasing insecurity in the country, high rate of corruption and dwindling economy.
CBCN President, Archbishop Augustine Obiora, said the cleric insisted that Buhari had disappointed everyone who believed that he would deliver on his promises.
He told politicians not to trivialize the killings and demanded that incessant attacks and loss of lives stop immediately.
CBCN said their hearts “are bleeding, and are more troubled when we hear of the massacre presently going on in Southern Kaduna. We want all the people suffering the incessant attacks in Southern Kaduna to know that all Catholics in Nigeria are praying for them.”
On their part, the Pentecostal Bishops from Northern Nigeria lamented that the killings in Southern Kaduna had taken the dimension of massacre.
“The situation has assumed a dangerous dimension of ethnic cleansing . The audacity of the attackers and the in actions of the relevant security formations to bring the perpetrators to justice is suggestive of a wicked collaboration, double standards, and sabotage giving impression of sinister scripts acted out to overrun the people and forcefully annex their ancestral heritage in all ramifications”.
They suggested that decisive action be taken to protect the defenseless citizens of the country.
The Bishops urged the federal government to punish perpetrators , adding that massacres do not help to further the agenda of any religious ideology or the ambition of any politician, insisting that there will never be sustained development if violence continued.
CBCN reminded Nigerians that the Buhari government came to power with a promise to eradicate corruption, secure lives and property, and rapidly grow the economy.
They listed others as the creation of jobs, an enabling environment that boosts the private sector, a significant increase in the supply of electricity, affordable and quality health care, and the revamping of the education sector.
