“WE are sad. We are angry. We feel totally exposed and most vulnerable,” the Bishops said after receiving the shock, grisly and sorrowful news of the murder of two catholic priests along with 15 parishioners in the early hour of the morning of Tuesday, April 24.
Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, both Catholic clerics, along with their parishioners were brutally murdered by Fulani herdsmen who waylaid in the course of the celebration of the Holy Mass early in the morning. According to the bishops, “their murder was carefully planned.”
The Bishops said they discovered that on January 3, Fr. Gor tweeted: “We are living in fear, the Fulanis are still around here in Mbalom (where they were killed). They refuse to go, they still go grazing around. No weapons to defend ourselves”.
“Their cries were ignored by the people they pay to protect them. They were told to protect and guide themselves,” the bishops said in a statement which was made available to Realnews, asking, “But with what are they going to defend themselves with.”
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“By defending themselves is just asking them to take the laws into our own hands. How can they federal Government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to cries and wails of helpless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in their sacred places of worship?” the Bishops said.
They noted that “For the past two years now, the Catholic Bishops Conference, along with many other well-meaning Nigerians have consistently asked the President to rethink the configuration of his security apparatus and strategy.”
According to the Bishops, on February 8, they paid the president a courtesy call and raised alarm over the security of the nation and the spate of violence perpetrated with impunity by people who have neither respect for human life nor regard for the laws of our country. The bishops urged the president to take the most drastic steps to stem the tide of these horrific killings in our country.
“Since the President who appointed the Heads of Nation’s Security Agencies has refused to call them to order, we are left with no choice but to conclude that they are acting a script that he approves of.
“If the President cannot keep our country safe, then he automatically looses the trust of the citizens and he should no longer preside over the killing fields and massive graveyard our country has become.
“Whether this failure is due to inability to perform or lack of political will, it’s time for him to choose the part of honour and consider stepping aside to save the Nation from total collapse,” the bishops said.
They called on all Nigerians to hold their heads high and stand up for their fundamental rights to life security.
