The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has observed with dismay that the level of banditry, kidnapping, violence, insecurity, and killings in the country has reached an intolerable level, urging divine intervention and immediate government action.
Speaking on Sunday at the conclusion of the PFN’s three-day national fasting and prayer programme, its National President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said, “Several Chibok girls are still languishing in captivity, years after being massively kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists.
“Leah Sharibu is still held captive by religious kidnappers because she refuses to abandon her Christian religion. The Nigerian state did nothing. Deborah Samuel, a student, was burnt to death at Sokoto by a bloodthirsty crowd solely for invoking the name of Jesus, and her killers went unpunished.”
Oke, who was represented by Bishop Musa Dasikwo, the Kaduna State Chairman of the PFN, said, “Since then, Taraba, Plateau, Benue, and Southern Kaduna have become daily killing fields. Edo, Kogi, and Ondo states have not been spared.
“As of today, several communities in Kwara State have been sacked by rampaging bandits, wielding sophisticated guns and other dangerous weapons.”
He lamented that innocent people were kidnapped, raped, and killed in large numbers in Borno, Niger, Sokoto, Kaduna, and other states of the federation, emphasising that Oyo State had become the latest killing field, culminating in the abduction of several teachers and students, one of whom, Mr Michael Oyedokun, was reportedly beheaded and another shot dead.
The PFN National President expressed sorrow over what he termed as the “apparent lack of a firm political will by the country’s government to crush these horrible evils in Nigeria,” adding that allowing them to expand unchecked amounts to hollow promises that have done no good.
“Nigerians are sick and tired of this depravity, as well as the apparent misplaced concentration on winning elections at whatever cost rather than employing the full force of our law and federal might to smash Nigerian killers. Rather than doing so, our governments are rehabilitating our alleged repentant Boko Haram terrorists, even enlisting them into our security network,” he complained.
According to him, “What is going on in Nigeria does more than kill people. It shatters unity, scares away investors, drives our brightest minds outside, breaks the relationship between citizens and the state, and unleashes a wave of fear and terror, leaving Nigerians feeling unsafe.”
He urged the Federal Government to exercise its constitutional and moral obligation of protecting all citizens, regardless of tribe or religion, so that the country can genuinely become one in which no one is oppressed.