The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused the Council of Imams and Ulama of Kaduna State of hypocrisy over their stance on the protracted crisis in Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State, Daily Trust reports.
Speaking at a press conference, the Islamic clerics called for the arrest of CAN president Dr. Samson Ayokunle, Senator Danjuma Laah Representing Southern Kaduna, the President of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) Dr. Solomom Musa, Rev. Zechariah Gado, Hon. Sunday Marshal, Dr. Danfulani, and CAN National General Secretary Dr. Musa Asake, for allegedly stoking the ongoing killings in Southern Kaduna.
CAN National General Secretary Dr. Musa Asake, said yesterday in Abuja in a statement that the clerics’ comment is a surprising, shameless and an unveiled criminal support for evil.
“While, the killings of children, women, aged and the most defenseless of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of entire communities was at its peak, no one knew that a group called Council of Imams and Ulama existed in Kaduna state.
“When Church leaders under the banner of CAN kept praying for Southern Kaduna and other affected areas in the country, visiting traumatized communities and softly calling on government to do the needy, this Council of Imams was silent and invisible. If indeed, this Council of Muslim clerics claim to preach peace, tolerance and respect for human lives, we would expect them to have come out to call the rampaging Muslims herdsmen to order; condole with the victims and join in the process of looking for a lasting solution, but mum was their response,” Asake said.
He recalled that on the 16th of August, 2016, a chieftain of Kaduna State Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association MACBAN), Dr. Haruna Usman, in a well-publicized reaction to the killings, said that the sacking of Ninte, and other villages, in Jema’a Local Government, was in response to the killing of a Fulani Ardo in Ninte.
He added that in another Press Conference in Kaduna on the 7th of November, 2016 Jema’a Foundation, Miyetti Allah and Mobgal Fulbe Development Association confirmed that Fulani and Hausa Muslims have been behind the ethnic cleansing and destruction of villages and houses of worship in Southern Kaduna, alleging they were being marginalized in Southern Kaduna.
“Those who addressed the press were Abdullahi Hassan Mohammed, Ahmad M. Yandeh and Abdulhamid Musa. Again, on the 31st of December, 2016, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Assistant National Secretary of Miyetti Allah also echoed the same position that the Fulani were carrying out reprisal killings,” he said.
He said the most troublesome revelation was that of Governor Nasir el-Rufai who said he knows the killers of Southern Kaduna Christians and has traced some of them to some African Counties and paid them sums of money to stop the killings.
He said: “With their position now, it is obvious that these Imams are part of the evil network desperately trying to decimate the Christian population of Southern Kaduna and the taking over of their lands by Islamists herdsmen terrorists. These are the Muslim clerics that encourage and inspire the jihad carried out by their foot soldiers.
“These Imams are very sad that we have refused to keep silent as we are speaking up to government and telling the world the devilish plot against the Christian community in Southern Kaduna and other affected areas.”
He said CAN leaders will never urge Christian to kill other human beings, but cannot also tell a Christian to unjustly submit himself to murderers, his family wiped, his community taken over with crude violence so that a new community of herdsmen terrorists be established as it is happening now in Southern Kaduna.
“CAN therefore, has no apology over what comment it has made on the religious cleansing in Southern Kaduna and other places in the country,” Asake said.
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