'Our People Feed On Insects And Grass' - Catholic Church Laments

oge okonkwo

October 27, 2014 12:24 PM

Over 14 parishes have been destroyed in the North-east geo-political zone, with about 20 priests displaced while some parishioners are still searching for their loved ones in both Maiduguri and Yola dioceses

Catholic churches in the northern part of the country are currently soliciting for help, stating that over 90,000 of its members have been displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks.

In a statement made by the church's Director of Information, Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, Borno State, Gideon Obasogie, over 14 parishes have been destroyed in the North-east geo-political zone, with about 20 priests displaced while some parishioners are still searching for their loved ones in both Maiduguri and Yola dioceses.

According to ThisDay, Rev. Fr. Obasogie said: “A good number of those trapped around the Camerounian borders are gradually finding their way into Maiduguri. Counting their ordeals, some will tell you how they fed on grasses and insects. A group from Pulka community alone buried over 80 children who took ill in the bush and died.“As a church, we are really going through a severe moment of persecution. Our ecclesiastical circumscription has faced a sharp disintegration. For now, situation is still as before, no improvement whatsoever since our people are still displaced and have no much hope of getting home.”

He said the church, which spent over N3 million on all internally displaced persons (IDPs) at different locations in Maiduguri, took to this because “the church must bear witness to the gospel both in word and deed.”

Obasogie said the visit to the IDPs was “a practical show of that authentic witnessing. They had over 200 sacks of maize, rice, cooking oil, blankets, mosquito nets, rubber buckets, mats, cartons of Maggi, beans, sugar among others.”

The church, he said: “Encourages the people to accept all that is happening to them in humility and to see the hand of God at work even as they are alive today,” calling on them “not to lose faith, but to use this moment of trial and persecution as a golden opportunity to express abundantly the faith they profess.”

The church insisted that there are two things the terrorists can never snatch from them: their faith and their soul. “These they must never give up even at the point of death.”

oge okonkwo