I extend my sincere condolences to the Govt and people of Benue State, the Mbalom community, and especially the Bishop, priests and members of the St Ignatius’ Catholic Church, whose premises was the unfortunate venue of the heinous killings of worshippers and two priests by gunmen.This latest assault on innocent persons is particularly despicable. Violating a place of worship, killing priests and worshippers is not only vile, evil and satanic, it is clearly calculated to stoke up religious conflict and plunge our communities into endless bloodletting.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement
The killing of two Catholic priests and over 15 parishioners in Benue State by the so-called herdsmen is a sober reminder of the failure of the President Buhari’s administration to govern a united Nigeria. Buhari calls these murderous acts “vile” and “satanic.” What’s actually vile and satanic is President Buhari’s failure to deal with this menace plaguing our nation.
These devilish and barbarous acts further a right-wing Islamist Northern agenda that Buhari and his evil cohorts have for a long time planned for Nigeria. Not too long ago, when a group of restless and marginalized young men and women in the south-eastern part of Nigeria went on the streets protesting their marginalization, Buhari’s civilian dictatorship unleashed the full apparatus of the state military/security agencies on them. People who were exercising their universal freedom to assembly and speak were dehumanized, arrested, tortured, and killed. Yet, each passing day, Nigerians are killed or sacked from their homes by Islamist terrorists, bought and paid for by Northern oligarchs, and the government seems helpless in the face of this mass violence perpetrated on the citizenry.
We should stop calling these bloodthirsty killers “herdsmen.” We should call them by their true name, “Islamist terrorists.” It’s obvious that Buhari’s government is incapable of protecting the Nigerian people. The people must take their destiny into their own hands.
