US erred in delisting Nigeria from religious freedom blacklist, CAN kicks, replied

*Time truth is told to this CAN, Muslim Ummah source reacts

*Reveals many fabrications CAN used to arrive at government killing of Christians in Nigeria

By KEMI KASUMU

“The questions many, including fellow Christian faithful, have asked but which CAN has been unable to answer are: One, how many Muslims outside the circle of criminal group called Boko Haram have come publicly to justify violence either by Qur’an or by self design of leaders? Where has it happened in history that a President that got popular votes of his people would use the military power of state to kill the same people?”

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has faulted the United States in delisting Nigeria from its religious freedom blacklist.

CAN’s President, Rev Samson Ayokunle in a statement titled, ‘CPC List: We Are At a Loss On the Data the US Government Used for the Delisting of Nigeria – CAN,’ said the US supposed to have contacted it before taking such decision.

He said these “are the people who said their agenda was to wipe away Christianity from Nigeria and to plant Islam as the only religion from the North down to the Atlantic Ocean in the South. That agenda with the killing of Christians has not stopped till today and Nigerians are living witnesses

“The bandits have joined other militant Islamic groups to be ferociously attacking churches, killing worshippers and kidnapping for ransom. The herdsmen are equally doing their havoc. We have lost many people and places of worship to their assault, especially in the Northcentral part of the country and the Northeast.

“Though the madness has grown now and those who are not Christians are being attacked, killed and kidnapped, this is because these criminal acts have become a lucrative business and it is whoever you can kidnap for money! If the government had responded appropriately when this criminal madness began and subdued these evil groups immediately, we wouldn’t be where we are now!”

He decried that till today, the government is still funding the membership of Nigeria in all the International Islamic organisations like OIC and its allies without being part of any international Christian organization.

Ayokunle urged the US government to help CAN by allowing it to know what had changed between the time Nigeria was put in the list of ‘countries of particular concern’ and now.

A source, reacting to what he described as the latest surprise by Pastor Ayokunle, said:

“The questions many, including fellow Christian faithful, have asked but which CAN has been unable to answer are: One, how many Muslims outside the circle of criminal group called Boko Haram have come publicly to justify violence either by Qur’an or by self design of leaders? Where has it happened in history that a President that got popular votes of his people would use the military power of state to kill the same people?

“Don’t forget this same CAN through its level leaderships has publicly defended and protected ‘Christian’ terrorism like the young pastor that was caught with bombs wanting to bomb Winners Chapel in Kaduna on a Sunday and its kick against a Yola court’s sentence of five Christian youths, who killed a Fulani man, unjustifiably, and threw his body inside mud. In defending them, CAN clearly stated ‘these are Christian youths’ that should not die; meaning what?

“Also, in the killing of Major General Alkali Idris, which was described as an act of terrorism and barbaric, it was also CAN that was found especially defending protesting Christian women, who blocked the Army from searching a certain pond in Jos, which was suspected to be pond of horror where those killed for religious reasons on the Plateau were thrown. Recall that when the Army stood its ground and carried out the search of the pond, not only General Idris’ body was found, his car and many other leads were recovered. CAN provided shield for those killers before they were arrested.

“But the intervention of Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, and timely efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari and Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, a massacre that was clearly based on religious intolerance, in Jos recently, was huge enough to cause reprisal. It was CAN that was found behind all of these.

“In all the Boko Haram killings from 2009 till date, notable victims, who have been killed, have been Muslims. Of course, St. Fimberrs Church in Jos and a church in Maraba, Niger State/Abuja border were attacked by Boko Haram. All Muslims, leaders and followers, came out to condemn them and called on government to use maximum force to neutralise the criminal elements as, according to them, there is no connection between Islam and violence let alone terrorism. But CAN defended killing, by burning to ashes, of over 1,000 Muslim worshipers at praying ground in Jos on a Sallah day.

“When, during a Ramadan year, Boko Haram attacked UN House in Abuja, body counts later showed that majority of victims, who died by that terrorist attack, were fasting Muslims. There were also Christians. But CAN went and profiled the incident and brought out 19 people it identified a Christians and declared that attack was targeted at christians, creating the impression that only Christians were victims, who were killed.

“What is more saddening is that, the extent of education, up to Ph.D of CAN leaders such as Samson Ayokunle, does not tell them how their baseless claims are no more than igniting hate, provocations and, therefore, causing insecurity in the land. CAN in Nigeria are so confident that they have monopoly of hypocrisy and hide and seek. Following COVID-19 lockdown, they declared that the lockdown in Nigeria was war by Muslim President in power against the Church to persecute Christians. This Samson Ayokunle led CAN wrote to America under Donald Trump. Trump believed their falsehoods and asked President Buhari: ‘Why are you killing Christians in Nigeria?’

“That has been the huge joke by which CAN has misrepresented happenings in Nigeria. Recall how CAN Chairman in Ola Oluwa Local Government Area of Osun State sent three youth members of his own church, Baptist, to dress like Muslim sheikhs, and launch attack on his own church Sunday service at its peak. It took the  intervention of community youths, who arrested and tortured them to the point that they confessed that they were actually sent by their pastor (he has a name) who is Chairman of CAN in the local government area. The record is there and witnesses are still alive.  Their plan was to attack the church and claim Boko Haram attack to endanger the Osun Muslims and prove their lies that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was going to import Boko Haram terrorists into the state, just because the state government allowed Muslim rights like he did to members of other religions.

“If former President Donald Trump could believe the stories told to him by Nigeria’s Ayokunle led CAN that COVID-19 lockdown, which was problem suffered by over 170 countries of the world closing down mosques including Holy Ka’abah and the Vatican, was singular mission to persecute the Church and kill Christians in Nigeria, what else can be called deliberate fabrication and falsehood founded on hypocrisy?” He asked.

The Muslim Ummah source, who sought not to be mentioned, concluded with what CAN publicly did in the build up to 2019 general elections in Nigeria.

“CAN staged many protests and publicly campaigned that no Christian should vote for any Muslim at the elections. This was done that even CAN was found always queuing behind everything that was out to collapse the sitting government at the time and yet, the same Buhari government it accuses of persecuting and killing Christians did not consider arresting and prosecuting its leaders. CAN stood behind #EndSARS elements that killed over 37 security officers, burned over 400 BRT buses and destroyed many public infrastructures including an Igbosere court in Lagos. CAN did more.

“Now that there is a more sensible man in power in US, who does not believe in buying cheap or costly lies from CAN of Nigeria, there is an ongoing effort to right the wrong of Trump but CAN is saying no. America erred. Noted,” he said.