Church protests herdsmen’s killings in Ibadan

The Word Communication Ministry in Ibadan yesterday joined other churches in the country to protest spate of killings by suspected herdsmen.

Members of the church, following a directive from Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), after the Sunday service, were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions to protest herdsmen’s killings in Nigeria and government’s insensitivity to killings of Christians, among others.

The church’s Senior Pastor, Sunday Popoola called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the spate of killings by herdsmen in the country and urged him to eschew tribalism, ethnic cleansing and nepotism.
“We are sad and worried because too many lives are, unnecessarily, being wasted. There’s no way ordinary herdsmen will have access to AK47. And again, what has herdsmen have to do with churches. They went to church, killed worshippers and priests. Is that herdsmen and farmers’ issue?

“We believe this is ethnic cleansing and that the security agencies have been compromised, a reason they are looking away and probably aiding these killers.

“We are calling on the president, the commander-in-chief to rise to his assignment for which we voted him. We mobilised to vote for him because we thought he would make a difference, brought change in this country but things are going from bad to worse while the blood-letting is getting too much,” he said.
The former Oyo State CAN chairman also accused the Christians of not participating in politics.
Quoting the Bible, he said: “When the righteous are in power, people rejoice but when the wicked rules, people mourn.”
He called on people who fear and love God to go into politics so that people can rejoice.

“When people in the name of religion commit rape, murder and so on, my question is, which god are they serving? True Christians are taught to love even their enemies,” he said.
Popoola urged Christians and Nigerians in general, to get their permanent voter’s cards, in readiness for 2019 elections.