Sequel to the ongoing crisis in Southern Kaduna and the recent purported attempt by security agencies to arrest the founder of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide in Ado Ekiti, Apostle Johnson Suleman, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Friday urged acting President, Yemi Osinbajo to rise to the defence of Christians in Nigeria.
A statement by Bayo Oladeji, Special Assistant on Media to the CAN President, Rev Dr Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, and obtained by TheNewsGuru.com said while Christians are yet to recover from the genocide in Southern Kaduna by the murderous Fulani herdsmen and its attendant consequences, the Jigawa state government had began the pulling down of churches with impunity.
The statement reads in part: “According to what we heard, they insisted on remaining in the hotel until Apostle Johnson Suleman surrendered himself for arrest. But for the timely intervention of the management of the hotel and other well-meaning Nigerians around, the invasion could have resulted into bloodshed as the Minister of God was there with some MOPOL men and officers.
“Apostle Suleman has become a refugee in Ekiti state as security operatives are said to be searching every nook and cranny of the state with a view to arresting him.
“If there is an urgent need to interrogate Apostle Suleman on any issue, it would only have been proper to extend a formal or informal invitation to him from the DSS rather than Gestapo approach used in the attempt to arrest him.
“It should be noted that under Nigerian Laws, he is presumed innocent until a court of law proves otherwise. Or have they extended the proposed obnoxious law that forbids religious preaching without the permission of the state governor down south too?
“Treating Ministers of God and our members as common criminals is unacceptable to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Enough is enough.
“Despite all the promises made by Governor Nasir el-Rufai, none of those who were responsible for the killings of our members in the Southern Kaduna has been brought to book.
“Instead the Police have been releasing those who were arrested for the killing of our members in Kano and Kubwa (Abuja) while our leaders are being subjected to untold hardship for just no cause.
“It is high time the overzealous security agencies knew that Nigeria remains a secular state and any attempt to turn the country into a refugee camp for Christians will not be acceptable and will be resisted with every lawful means.
“We call on the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to intervene in all the clampdown on the Church in Nigeria after all, he is in the office primarily to represent the interest of the Christians and his studied silence is no longer golden.
“The last time we checked, Sections 38 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) it states clearly that every Nigerian is “entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
