NATIONAL President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritse-jafor has appealed to Nigerians to support the current emergency rule in three North Eastern states, arguing that no progressive nation would fold its hands and allow few fundamental insurgents to overrun its democratic structures with impunity.
Speaking in Warri, Delta State, the founder of Word of Life Bible Church stated that Nigerians should sup-port the programme because Jamaa’atu Ahlus-sunnah lid-da’wati wal jihad pop-ularly known as Boko Haram is a pseudo-Islamic terrorist group which had actually re-moved the Nigerian flag from several local gov-ernments of Borno State and hoisted theirs.
He further argued that what that suggested is that the Borno State governor had lost grip of the state political mach-inery, noting that the current military operat-ion aimed at crushing the Boko Haram insurg-ency in the north-east region of Nigeria was the best alternative to restore peace to that region.
“What President Good-luck Jonathan has done was a good thing. Declaring a state of emergency is a good thing and from the reports in the Media it is working,” he stated, adding that Boko Haram is first and foremost, a religious issue.
“As at last week before the declaration of a state of emergency in Adama-wa, Borno and Yobe states the Islamic group had actually taken over most of Borno State. They had removed the Nigerian flag from public buildings in Borno and hoisted their own in its stead.
“I appeal to Nigerians of good conscience to support the President. There is no government that will fold its arms and allow some insurgents to take over all democratic structures without baring its fangs. I believe that the state of insecurity can no longer be tolerated,” he prayed.
According to the cha-rismatic cleric, “the current action of the Federal Government is what we have been clamouring for in the last couple of years, because the purpose of governan-ce is to defend its inno-cent citizens and proper-ty. Christians and their places of worship were just being wiped out and certain citizens want the nation to believe that the carnage was a result of poverty in the region.
“And we have asked; why target Christians? Did the Church create the poverty? Are the Christians in that region not part of the endemic hunger in the region? But when we talk like this they say we are heating up the polity.
“The real people who are heating the polity are walking the streets free. When I called for the arrest of Gen. Muha-mmadu Buhari for his provocative statements in 2011, people said I was heating up the polity. And when Alhaji Asare Dokubo repeated the same Buhari’s senti-ments all those who accused me of heating up the polity are now calling for his (Asare) head,” he stated.
According to the CAN president, nobody can bury the truth, “as you are spoiling things for other people get ready because you will reap what you sow—if not in your generation, some how your next generation will pay for your actions or inactions. As you are stealing from others, get ready you will some day reap what you have sewn.”
He maintained that the entire world is seeking for honest people, stress-ing that contrary to popular belief, honesty does not make you poor, but rather through it God has a way of rewarding you.
“Even people who are corrupt and have stolen treasures that belonged to the whole nation are still looking for honest people to run their businesses. That is the irony of life,” he added.
In another development, Bishops in the Niger Delta region have supported the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, but former national chairman of the Traditional Rulers for Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON, HRM, Charles Ayemi-Botu, said it should be extended to six other troublesome Northern states.
The bishops, at a meeting in Warri, Delta State, where the chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, South-South region, Archbishop God-Do-Well Awomakpa, was unanimously adopted as chairman of Niger Delta Bishops’ Forum, noted that it was time religious leaders came together to restore sanity to the Christian religion, adding that the increasing cases of indiscipline, immorality and indecent dressing in churches must be stopped in order not to provoke the anger of God.
Furthermore, HRM Ayemi-Botu, Pere of Siembiri Kingdom, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, spoke in his Okpokunu palace, when he played host to Ijaw Professionals in Diaspora, who came with medical assistance and other materials for his people, commended the President for declaring state of emergency in the three states, adding: “He seems to be fidgeting; it should be extended to Kano, Zamfara, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau states.
“The people want to Islamise the country, they are saying they abhor western education, you can see that they have no cogent reason for the killings, they are masquerading and doing all these things because their sponsors do not want Jonathan. Therefore, the state of emergency declared should be extended to the other states. Stepping it down the way it was done is not a full- force declaration.
“If the governor of a state supports Boko Haram, leaving him in his position will not work. Jonathan should have included these states. It has been predicted that in 2015, Nigeria will break into many parts. If he does not want these doomsday prophecies to come to pass, as the Commander-in-Chief, he should damn them and declare a full state of emergency in these states.”